Town & Country magazine, Spring issue, artfully uses florals to highlight the spring fashion lines of noted designers such as Christian Dior, Carolina Herrera, Oscar de la Renta, Ralph Lauren, Chanel, Moschino, Dolce & Gabbana, and Donna Karan.

Seen at left is Donna Karan New York gown ($6,800); Sophie McElligott headband (price on request); Tom Binns necklace ($1,315); Erickson Beamon earrings ($54); Chanel rings (prices on request); Kim Lone umbrella (price on request).

Father’s Day is a celebration honoring fathers and celebrating fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society. Many countries celebrate it on the third Sunday of June, but it is also celebrated widely on other days. Father’s Day was created to complement Mother’s Day, a celebration that honors mothers and motherhood.

On July 5, 1908, a West Virginia church sponsored the nation’s first event explicitly in honor of fathers, a Sunday sermon in memory of the 362 men who had perished in the previous December’s explosions at the Fairmont Coal Company mines in Monongah. The next year, a Spokane, Washington woman named Sonora Smart Dodd, one of six children raised by a widower, tried to establish an official equivalent to Mother’s Day for male parents. She was successful: Washington State celebrated the nation’s first statewide Father’s Day on July 19, 1910.

In 1916, President Wilson honored the day by using telegraph signals to unfurl a flag in Spokane when he pressed a button in Washington, D.C. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge urged state governments to observe Father’s Day. However, many men continued to disdain the day. As one historian writes, they “scoffed at the holiday’s sentimental attempts to domesticate manliness with flowers and gift-giving, or they derided the proliferation of such holidays as a commercial gimmick to sell more products–often paid for by the father himself.”

During the 1920s and 1930s, a movement arose to scrap Mother’s Day and Father’s Day altogether in favor of a single holiday, Parents’ Day. Every year on Mother’s Day, pro-Parents’ Day groups rallied in New York City’s Central Park–a public reminder, said Parents’ Day activist and radio performer Robert Spere, “that both parents should be loved and respected together.” Paradoxically, however, the Depression derailed this effort to combine and de-commercialize the holidays. Struggling retailers and advertisers redoubled their efforts to make Father’s Day a “second Christmas” for men, promoting goods such as neckties, hats, socks, pipes and tobacco, golf clubs and other sporting goods, and greeting cards. When World War II began, advertisers began to argue that celebrating Father’s Day was a way to honor American troops and support the war effort. By the end of the war, Father’s Day may not have been a federal holiday, but it was a national institution.

In 1972, in the middle of a hard-fought presidential re-election campaign, Richard Nixon signed a proclamation making Father’s Day a federal holiday at last. Today, economists estimate that Americans spend more than $1 billion each year on Father’s Day gifts.

For information on Succulent Wall shown above, please go to www.floragrubb.com

Member Bay Hill Florist in Orlando, FL  posted a link  to www.bridebird.com.  Currently featured is this unique and beautiful bridal bouquet of succulents, orchids, leucadendrons, dahlias and seeded eucalyptus.

Arjan Flowers & Herbs, our bbrooks member in Piedmont, CA  created romantic, rustic florals for Maria & Shauna’s wedding at Vine Hill House in Sebastopol, CA.

The couple was ecstatic that Mina of Arjan interpreted their vision by incorporating elements that were native to the area, such as berries, apples, and grasses, with gorgeous garden roses and field flowers.

To see more, visit stylemepretty.com.

Matthew Robbins Design unofficially began as “Artfool,” in 1995 when Matthew Robbins and Jack Myers were exhibiting artwork together in San Francisco and needed a showcase website for their collective talents. Partners for 18 years, they began collaborating on events with Matthew covering the event and floral design while Jack handled the various graphic needs of the clients.  Artfool, in New York City,  is a long-time bbrooks member floral studio.

Matthew shares his secrets for creating pretty pastel bridal flowers in the Spring 2013 issue of Flower Magazine.

Thank you to bbrooks member Rose Red & Lavender in Brooklyn, NY!!!

No worries!  We will not forget Mamma!

Long-time bbrooks member Robertson’s Flowers, in Wyndmoor, PA,  has a gift item which gives back to the community, as well.

Through their “Generosity Blossoms Program”, 20% of all sales of this exclusive arrangement are donated to Philabundance in support of their fight to eliminate hunger in the Delaware Valley. Comprised of vibrant whites and classy creams with complementing herbs and fruits is not only stunning but also beneficial to those in need.

Here at bbrooks fine flowers, we also believe in giving back.   And, that is why we have partnered with sites like buy2give, buy2change, socialvest, and shoppinggivesback.  These sites  donate a portion of the  customer’s purchase to a  charity which the customer can choose.

This year, Mother will love you even more for thinking of others too!

bbrooks member Cebolla Fine Flowers in Dallas, TX  offered gorgeous plant baskets for Valentine’s Day!

Featured at left are pink cyclamen and pink azalea plants accompanied by mixed green plants in a rustically elegant twig container.

A wonderful idea for Mother’s Day too!

Administrative Professionals’ Day was originally organized in 1952 as “National Secretaries Day” by the National Secretaries Association (also known as the International Association of Administrative Professionals). It was established as an effort to recognize secretaries for their contributions in the workplace.

It is an unofficial secular holiday observed on the last Wednesday of April. It is celebrated as part of a larger Administrative Professionals Week, which takes place during the last full week of April. In 1998, the name of the holiday was changed from Secretaries’ Day to Administrative Professionals’ day to better represent the full range of clerical positions.

Over the years, Administrative Professionals Week has become one of the largest workplace observances. The event is celebrated worldwide, bringing together millions of people for community events, social gatherings, and individual corporate activities recognizing support staff with gifts of appreciation. In the United States, the day is often celebrated by giving one’s assistant such gifts as flowers, candy, trinkets, lunch at a restaurant, or time off.

Arrangement above is Snowball Viburnum with Forsythia branches  by bbrooks member Flowers Claire Marie in San Francisco.

When Caroline Scheufele moved into an 18th-century villa in the rustic village of Prangins in Switzerland, she was immediately seduced by Lake Geneva, the body of water that is literally at the foot of her garden. “Living next to the lake is a magical experience — the sky lights up the garden and we never see the same shades of green in the trees,” says Scheufele, co-president and artistic director of Chopard, the 153-year-old Swiss firm owned by her family and renowned for its diamond-encrusted watches and luxury jewels dripping with precious and semi-precious stones.

While Scheufele doesn’t design her collections al fresco, she has found much inspiration within the 1,200 oak trees she planted to border her land. To celebrate Chopard’s 150th anniversary, she created a glittering menagerie of jewelry.  The collection includes dazzling flowers, of course!

To read more, see Veranda magazine, March-April 2013 issue.