Genius At Work

It was his last class of the season, and Ron Morgan was on fire. Funny, witty: part stand-up comic, part creative genius.  He took piles of branches and buckets of flowers and made the most amazing things...

This low red Chinese buckety-thing didn't look promising when he started shoving brown branches in, but it became this gorgeous confection:

Orange dahlias, green aeonium, eucalyptus pods.  Perfect for a dining table, you can see - and converse - over it.  Do you know the rule for dinner party height flower arrangements? Put your elbow on the table, your arm pointing toward the ceiling. Fold your wrist down so your hand is parallel with the table.  No higher than your hand, please, unless you're British.  They think talking across the table is appalling, you're supposed to speak to the person beside you.  I know several things the Brits do that I find appalling, but in the interest of better international relations I won't list them here. 

Who'd think to put these colors and shapes together?  And yet they look fabulous, inevitable, even.  So comfortable together, so interesting.

It reminds me of a favorite quote about writing.  According to the novelist Elizabeth Bowen, a writer must move toward “...an end not to be foreseen (by the reader) but also towards an end which, having been reached, must be seen to have been from the start inevitable.” A bit wordy, but it sums up Ron's gift.  I mean, what else would you do with these flowers?   I'd probably massacre them (remind me to tell you the flower delivery story some time soon).

 Ron glued this shallow glass bowl and bronze candlestick together, and with tall ornithogalum and the huge leaves of hosta, some variegated geranium and a few zinnias, he made this mostly foliage arrangement.  I always think I don't have anything in my garden for a flower arrangement.  But I always have foliage (or as Liz says, foilage) and I'm heading for the garden as soon as we're done here.  With clippers in my hand and hope in my heart.

He started this with a few sprigs of philadelphus in a low bowl: 

Adding some dusty miller and some huge proteas that looked frightening until they were nestled into the arrangement.  Then they looked great.

Some clumps of fuzzy grass, a few lamb's ears, and some white orchids.  Who else would put those things together?

 Fun.  Inspiring.  Different from every side.

And Loot, his shop on College Avenue in Oakland was a feast for the eyes.  

 You have to walk through, then turn around and walk back thru the other way.  You'll see different things each time, and you'll see something that wants to come home with you.

I love these birds,

 This gilded Chinese wood carving,

This Thai headdress.  With those gorgeous maps of Paris in the background. If only I were a Thai princess...or could dance.   Or had one blank wall left for Paris.

Alas, no.  But I am a much better flower arranger thanks to Ron, and I see - and love - my garden in a completely new way.

A Vase With A Waist

It was for my friends Maryam and Karyn that I started picking flowers - a handful each week, shoved into a jam jar or a straight-sided jar that held spices.  A fist full of violets, 

A handful of daffodils.   Or three.

An armful of iris.

I'd always collected garden flowers for dinner parties, and I'm sure looking at the flowers lowered the expectations for the meal - surprise! dinner is delicious!  

But I have discovered I love having flowers by my bedside.  And on the breakfast table.  Fresh flowers, fragrant flowers.  My flowers.  Our flowers.

And so does Wally.

Sure, I go to Ron Morgan's classes, and to Bouquets To Art.  But mostly to marvel at something I'm not good at (yes there is something - finally - that I'm not good at.  Deal with it.)  

Some how, something must have sunk in - by osmosis? and I'm discovering I have quite strong opinions about flower arranging. And I am quite pleased with the result.

1.  From the garden please.  Gotta get something for those ridiculous water bills.  Use those prunings.

2.  Foliage is king.  You only need a few flowers (Ron) or maybe none (Shane Connolly).

3.  Airy Fairy is contemporary.  It's all the rage in London.  Shane is the master; I'm learning.  

4.  Fragrance please on the bedside table.  And no fragrance on the dining table.  (The moose doesn't care.  He's in the hall.)

5.  And!  (this is my best discovery)  Flowers look better in a vase with a waist.  At least mine do.

The next time I go to the flower market I'll be looking for vases with waists.  Leaving before dawn - call if you want to come along.  

Bouquets To Art

Shane Connolly is Irish, and the darling of the London flower world.  He's  Prince Charles' flower arranger, did the flowers for his wedding to Camilla.  

Ron Morgan is the toast of American garden clubs (and mothers and brides everywhere), jetting across the country lecturing and charming and getting daughters married off in style (sometimes for the second or third time).

Yesterday they were on stage together at Bouquets To Art, lecturing and arranging side by side. Very different styles, and besides being fabulous and inspiring they were hysterically funny.

They did maritime arrangements.  Shane arranged flesh colored tulips in a flesh colored shell.  Ron, hands on hips: "That's it?  That's your maritime, that dinky little thing?" 

Ron had an upside-down Corinthian capital and gold leafed barnacles to start with.  Shane: "I didn't know Liberace was in the Navy..."  

Ron:  "Oh yes.  He was decorated several times!"

Ron brought a fabulous twisted branch from a Camperdown Elm, a very slow growing tree, and said "I'm pretty sure this came from the Midnight Supply Company."  Think about it.  If you're missing a Camperdown Elm...

Ron's Grinling Gibbons arrangement:

And Shane's. 

So different, both spectacular.  

They did Chinoiserie, and English Country House Party, Ron facing the audience:

Shane wandering around his arrangement. 

Both keeping up a steady stream of advice and gentle insults.  

There was a lively discussion of the correct height of an arrangement for a dinner party.  Shane said "The English find it rude to talk across the table.  You're supposed to talk to the person on your right, then when the table turns, to the person to your left." That's advice for the gentlemen.  If everybody spoke to the person on their right, the dinner table would look like a conga line. 

So the English make arrangements for the dinner table that are quite tall.  And dense.  And Americans make arrangements you can talk over.  

Ron's Spring:

 Ron said "This is my interpretation of..." and groaned when he tried to move the arrangement.

"Childbirth, by the sound of it." Shane shot off.

Ron place a spray of trembling orchids in his Chinoiserie arrangement and said "Look at how they move!  Just like fish swimming thru the arrangement!"  Shane asked "Do you write Fairy tales in your spare time?" 

"Honey, I am a fairy tale!" Ron shot back.  

"So when did your self doubt start materializing?" Shane asked.

Ron cocked his head and said "About five minutes ago." 

Monocolor, the new English paradigm.  By Shane.  

Shane's style is loose, no oasis.  Ron's is controlled, every flower knows who's boss.  So different, both fabulous.  And inspiring.

There were many more stories - Ron:  "Years ago the Garden Club ladies had chosen a rose to be named for Eleanor Roosevelt, and when Mrs. Roosevelt saw the description of the rose: 'Not good in beds, great against the wall' she declined the honor."

Shane: "There was a man who had a plant named after him.  Some little grey wrinkly leaved thing.  When his wife saw it, she said "Oh honey, that's perfect!"

And of course there were the Bouquets To Art themselves  Winter:

(note the painting being interpreted just behind)

My friend Najat Nicola's painting:

 And her amazing arrangement.  I would have no idea where to start, she nailed it.  Even if it wasn't near the painting you would know to which painting it belonged.

There was some wild stuff:

and some wonderful.  A David Hockney video of spring and this:

A white wall in the hall made into a modern woodland.

Mark your calendar for next March, go to some lectures, and get your tickets early.  They sell out fast - I know why.  

The Old Curiosity Shop, or Fall Flowers at Loot

It's impossible to pass these windows without stopping - they pull you in.  Skinny young men with fierce looking dogs, old men bundled in overcoats - they all stop to look.  They peer at the antique chairs piled with ornaments, at the orange Christmas tree made of piled-up Hermes boxes.  At pale chests covered  with blue and white china. 

They wander in and turn around in amazement.  They move toward a gilded pine cone, an old hunting lamp.  A framed print of  a brightly colored bird, a painting of an old cottage in a richly gilded frame.

There are shells crusted in jewels, branches dangling bright ornaments.

And there is a ceiling festooned with whimsey.  I'm going to Loot.  

See you there.  

Flower Power

If you've never been to a Monday morning class at Loot in Lafayette, you're in for a treat. Ron Morgan, the star and owner, missed a career as a stand-up comic when he chose flowers. Lucky for us.

He has the funniest stories! and great delivery - and he puts together six or eight flower arrangements while telling stories that will make you pee your pants.

He has a fantastic shop full of treasures and inspirations, and while he is making these stunning arrangements...

...he's also showing you how to do it.  Even if you don't have any talent (that would be me) you will learn how to put together a credible flower arrangement. If I can (and I can - finally) anyone can.

Call Betsy at Loot, make a reservation, and go! Oh - and the best part? The arrangements are all for sale. Take a class, give a party. 

A Christmas Party, or Thank God for Ron Morgan

We had a Christmas Party. I had a blast planning the table, going to the San Francisco Flower Mart with Ann at dawn. Leslie of The Three Pinks is right, the magic that is the Flower Mart disappears when the sun comes up.

I think all those Monday mornings spend watching Ron Morgan work his magic are paying off. Ron always says "Just play and have fun!" and I did. I think it turned out well...but you can see for yourself.

The reindeer and silver leaves are from Ron Morgan's shop in Lafayette, Loot.

The hollow birch logs and the glass vases are from the Flower Mart. Beads and balls from Target.

And the inspiration is from Ron, from Cathy, from Ann. Thank you for making my life more beautiful...and more fun.