Yesterday, Pollen held its first ever workshop at Pollen’s studio, located in Chicago’s Ravenswood neighborhood.  Exclusive to Pollen clients (and a sidekick), students learned the basics of floral design, with an emphasis on working with farmers market flowers. After some instruction and demonstration (and mimosas and bloody marys), the students designed their own arrangements.  I […]

I just love fall weddings.  Mostly because of the fall wedding flowers available, of course!  I’m a big fan of berries and branches, and fall is a perfect season to include fruits, berries, and branches in floral arrangements.  This post, I’ll focus on non-flowers. Ornamental Peppers (Capsicum annuum) Ornamental peppers are more diverse than you […]

Well, just in the nick of time, I’m getting in a September flower availability post!  I love fall, and I especially love the berries that become available in fall.  Here are some of the locally grown flowers that I’ve been seeing and using this September: Zinnias Tuberose Eucalyptus Asters Snapdragons Gomphrena Asclepias Celosia Gladiolus Dahlias […]

In my last post I wrote about some of my favorite locally grown flowers available in Augus, like celosia and dahlias.  On a trip to the farmers market last week, I spotted not only dahlias and celosia, but also sunflowers, lisianthus, zinnias, snapdragons, lilies, amaranth, gomphrena, asters, and delphinium. Lisianthus (Eustoma grandiflora) I’m a big […]

I love using locally grown, seasonal flowers.  Not only are they more affordable than imported flowers, but they are better for the environment, too!  Since they don’t need to be transported thousands of miles to get to market, locally grown flowers have a much smaller carbon footprint than imported flowers. I’ve been looking and looking […]

Short profile of the allium plant, available locally in late spring and summer as a cut flower.