A Summer Retrospective, With Thanks!

There is certainly a wintry chill in the air now as fall turns into winter here in Columbus, OH and as we near the end of 2010, V. Verdesign would like to personally thank all of the amazing couples who I was honored to design for this year. 2010 exceeded my expectations, and I look forward to new challenges ahead. I would also like to thank Sunny Meadow Farms (http://www.oursunnymeadows.com/) and Tracy Disabato-Aust for partnering with VVerdesign this year. Moving forward, I hope to expand my access to locally-sourced blooms and foliage and of course keep a focus on my passion for Fair Trade and increasing awareness of Fair Trade here in the Columbus area and beyond. Meanwhile I will continue to dream and plan for my cutting garden of perennials and shrubs that will provide unique flowers and foliage for my future designs. I am full of optimism looking forward to the 2011 wedding seasons. In this December blog I chose to look back at some highlights from a very busy summer, with some shots from the Terry-Perez wedding at a very lovely venue, the Indianapolis Yacht Club at Geist Lake in Fishers, IN.

Fall Wedding

Bright orange dahlias and burnt orange dahlias, burnt orange callas, seeded eucalyptus, mini green hydrangea, and orange kangaroo paw, all combine well to make a lovely mixed orange and green bouquet.

Jay and Carmel chose a fabulous September day to get married in Gahanna with the reception following at the Hyatt Regancy in downtown Columbus. They also chose a really great color palette for their flowers!

September Floral Design Workshop Update

It is so rewarding to put together an arrangement of foliage and flowers that all come from the garden. I had 7 people in my workshop and it was amazing to see 8 beautiful arrangements completely comprised of foliage and flowers that were cut straight from the OSU Learning gardens. I think the participants all had fun and learned something, I know I did!

My list of potential perennials, shrubs, and annuals that I hope to one day incorporate into a large scale cutting garden keeps getting longer and longer! Not only is the material local and fresh, but it is more unique than anything you can find in a flower shop or in the wholesale cut flower market. The possibilities are endless.

September Floral Design Workshop

Sunday, September 12th from 2pm-4pm at the OSU Chadwick Arboretum and Learning Gardens, I will be teaching a floral design workshop. Please consider coming!

For more information go to chadwickarboretum.osu.edu/events

Hope to see you in the gardens!

August Wedding

Wow, another fun, colorful wedding! Local zinnias, cosmos, and gomphrena combined with yummy fragrant garden roses was a treat to the eye. I'm not sure these so called roses aren't peonies! The complexity of some of the multi-layered zinnias are incredible! It blows my mind how many varieties of zinnias exist! The cute little button zinnias are my favorites.

Dahlias Growing in my Garden!

Check out these beauties! I am dying to use Dahlia 'Winsome' in someone's bridal bouquet!

I am growing rare heirloom dahlias for cuts and wanted to share my favorite variety, Winsome. The pinkish-orange tipped petals change toward the center of the bloom to a yellow-orange. Just GORGEOUS both in the garden and as cuts!

First June Wedding

One wedding complete and four more for the month of June! This wedding was particularly fun because the bride wanted each of her bridemaid's to have a totally different bouquet to reflect the personality of each girl. It was really great! Also, the bride LOVES flowers and wasn't able to have an outdoor wedding. Therefore she wanted to bring the outdoors in and have many different flowers. How fun!