Get the whole family involved in holiday cards this year! While posing for a family photo does have a certain caché, making your own ow botanical greeting cards with pressed flowers is a fun way to spend some time together this season, without the drama of matching sweaters. (You can always include a photo if you want!)

If you live in a place where things are still green, go on a walk with the whole crew and source materials from your own garden or local park (just make sure you’re allowed to take it). If you’re somewhere without much in the way of live vegetation, try picking up a few stems from your local florist, or snipping a few springs from your indoor herb garden. (We like using rosemary, as it not only looks appropriately icicle-like, it also smells amazing and seasonal.)

We used the Armhino Herb Press to create the materials for our cards and used traditional snowflake shapes as inspiration for our patterns.

Materials

• herb press
• flowers or leaves, ideally foraged from a park or garden
• card stock (we love using [easyazon_link identifier=”B00NFUSUVI” locale=”US” tag=”gardcoll03-20″]seed paper[/easyazon_link] as a biodegradable option!)
• glue

Directions

• Leave the flowers and leaves in the press for at least 24 hours.
• Using glue, decorate the cards or seed paper.
• Infuse with love and spread holiday cheer!

The post How To Make Holiday Cards with Pressed Flowers appeared first on Garden Collage Magazine.

Just in time for the holiday season, Phaidon has released a sumptuous and comprehensive survey that celebrates the beauty and appeal of flowers throughout art, history, and culture. Flower: Exploring the World in Bloom takes readers on a journey across continents and cultures to discover the endless ways artists and designers throughout history, from ancient Egypt to today, have depicted flowers and floral motifs.

Following in the footsteps of Phaidon’s international bestseller Plant: Exploring the Botanical World (2015), this captivating survey is a collection of more than 300 spectacular images of flowers depicted in art, history, science, and culture. Curated by an international panel of experts on the subject, including art historians, botanists, floral designers, and museum curators, the book opens with an introduction by Anna Pavord, author of the international bestseller The Tulip and renowned garden writer for The Independent.

The images in Flower span a wide variety of styles and media featuring both renowned and lesser-known works. These range from still-life paintings and photographs to botanical illustrations, herbaria, and sculptures as well as floral arrangements, film stills, and fashion and jewelry pieces. Entries span across the creative arts including drawn, painted, and photographed subjects as well as those sculpted from sugar, cut from paper, embroidered, or blown from glass.

The latest title in  Phaidon’s  Explorer series, Flower is organized as a visually stunning sequence with images, regardless of period, thoughtfully paired to allow interesting and revealing juxtapositions between them. Large-format reproductions are accompanied by a short and accessible text on the work. At the back of the book, a reference section features a glossary of select flowers and their meanings, written by florist and floral advocate Shane Connolly, alongside an illustrated timeline and selected biographies.

Whether depicted by the ancient Romans in stone mosaics, filmed in Technicolor, or digitally rendered with the latest cutting-edge technology, the beauty, symbolism, and presence of flowers in our everyday lives has been an enduring focus for artists globally and will continue to inspire for years to come. Flower is really the perfect book for all those interested in this beloved subject and how the grace and charm of blooms transcend garden walls to a vast scope of creative mediums.

The post Phaidon takes us on a journey to explore the World in Bloom appeared first on Garden Collage Magazine.

Handcrafted luxury brands like Elizabeth Suzann and Alabama Chanin are making modern clothing by hand again, while Instagram accounts like Thea Coleman and Two of Wands have made DIY #knitting cooler than ever.

Enter into this environment Jimmy Beans Wool, a one-stop shop for knitters who offer beautiful Shibui skeins made with recycled silk, fine merino wool, and cashmere.

Offered in a wide variety of freshly picked, earthy colors, the company’s offerings of tweedy lace-weight yarn are complex, tonal, and unique– perfect for color work, lace, and a variety of garment making applications. It’s also super soft, which is a key attribute when it comes to preparing for sweater weather and the Fall harvest.

The company’s Shibui Knits Bouquets (shown in the banner above and the image below) are the latest incarnation of this sumptuous tweed bundle, which adds a plush feel and rich depth of color to any fabric.

We also love the wholesomeness of purchasing fresh bundles of yarn from a trusted retailer– especially one who makes an effort to incorporate recycled materials. (As of this writing, 85% of textile waste goes straight to landfills when much of the fabric and material could be recycled.)

For beginner and experiences knitters, we recommend ordering your first Jimmy Beans Wool products in a variety of colors in order to experiment with the look and feel of the resultant fabrics. The colors are rich without being in-your-face, while the textures have a beautiful tactile appeal– the slight variation in individual skeins makes each product feel special. What more could you want?

To order your own set of yarn bouquets, visit Jimmy Beans Wool online.

* This post was sponsored by Jimmy Beans Wool. The opinions are completely based on the product experience of our editors. For more information, visit our Terms and Conditions.

The post We Love This Freshly Picked, Partially Recycled Yarn appeared first on Garden Collage Magazine.

Below, we highlight some of our favorite botanical artists of the moment, with examples of the beautiful cards they make.

Janelle Sing (For Bespoke Monograms)

Janelle Sing’s materia medica of letters makes us wistful about the bygone era when monograms were de rigueur. We love the delicate line weight that Sing articulates on her bespoke cards, which are ideal for weddings and events. Moreover, we also think they’re wothy of framing in their own right (perhaps as a letter on the wall in a child’s bedroom). Increasingly in this era of tech, people want cards that feel unique and handmade, and the artist’s gentle hand and her relaxed sense of composition impart this exact feeling of sentimentality. Lovely.

The Mint Gardener (For Haute Watercoloring)

Sarah Simon, aka The Mint Gardener, favors dark, moody tones in her romantically saturated watercolor cards, which are among our favorites in the genre. Her eye for detail and precise renderings of some of our favorite flowers. The regal poppy, the humble artichoke, make her perfect for art lovers and plant lovers alike. We adore the density and drape of her bouquets and the rich hues she uses to shade her foliage. Each plant is like a baroque version of the real thing.

Rifle Paper Co (For Affordability)

Rifle Paper Co. offers a variety of custom greeting cards, stationery, calendars, prints, wallpaper, and notepads. You name it. But their standard Botanical Stationary Set is a good staple for those looking for a reliable floral greeting card without too much pretense. They offer a seemingly infinite number of greeting cards for every occasion, and florals are a key motif. Pair any one of them with Rifle’s Egg Art Print and you’ve got the perfect matching gift.

Helen Kleores (For Hi-Res Australian Favorites)

Melbourne-based Botanical Designer Helen Kleores knows a thing or two about beautiful floral specimens that feel quintessentially Australian. Bright-orange banksia, bottle brush, red waratah, flowering gum, and ferns are just a few of the many plant subjects she photographs and transforms into chic, minimalist cards. Her White Nature collection includes flowers and flora of every season and color, always photographed on a smart, clean background. Great for greetings and decoration.

Vincent Jeannerot (For Old World Elegance)

Vincent Jeannerot is a famed peintre aquarelliste membre de la Société Française d’Illustration Botanique— one of the most prestigious botanical art societies in the world. Based in Lyon, France, his refined and realistic depictions of onions, peonies, ferns, and other garden staples reminisce of leather-bound textbooks and turn-of-the-century ethnobotanical drawings. Behold beautiful color grading and a keen eye for depth, texture, and light. As a true botanical artist, Jeannerot also teaches the craft of botanical illustration and painting at various workshops around the world.

Catherine Lewis (For Gorgeous Saturation and a Handmade Feel)

Catherine Lewis‘ “Houseplant Collection” and “Species Collection” cards prove that there’s always beauty in simplicity. We love her Monstera Heart ‘Love You’ and her house plant patterns. Her gentle depiction of light on every leaf in her designs makes each card feel special and handmade. The cards, in turn, make lovely gifts for housewarmings and heartfelt Thank You’s. Her intricate illustrations have been translated onto pillows, wrapping paper, iPhone cases, and the like. Get ’em while you can!

Hackney & Co (For The #PlantFolk in Your Life)

Katy Hackney’s penchant for simplicity and detail makes her hand-illustrated watercolors a joy to behold. Even more for those of us who love botanical illustrations and all of their styled minimalism. Hackney & Co‘s Orkney botanical cards are little recordings of the natural elements found around Hackney’s studio in the Orkney Isles, an archipelago off the northeastern coast of Scotland. Some specimens include Marsh Mallow (Althaea officinalis), White Nettle (Lamium album), Comfrey (Symphytum officinale), Eyebright (Euphrasia officinalis), and Wild Garlic (Allium ursinum). All of them are lovely keepsakes, especially for those who have traveled around Scotland.

On the back of each card in the botanical series, Hackney also includes detailed information about each plant, including where it grows, practical applications, and any folklore surrounding the plant. What’s not to love?

Sonia Cavallini (For Pretty Patterns)

Sonia Cavallini‘s patterns remind us of the whimsical wallpaper of our youth, or at least an imagined wallpaper from the 1950’s that wouldn’t feel out of place on a Prada scarf. We love the simple hues that the Lyon-based artist tends to favor, and the fact that her cards’ shiny surfaces bear the unmistakable stain of watercolor. Those looking for a more refined message will appreciate her “Je t’aime” postcards, while her “Girl Power!” cards are a nice way to say hello to someone in need of a pep talk.

Lou Baker Smith (For Wanderlust and Color Harmony)

Lou Baker Smith‘s images have an inimitable wistful quality that we can’t get enough of. The moments of what we’ll call “slow living” that she captures so eloquently in her scenery. A pot of geraniums, a vase of ranunculi, and a lemon on a cutting board remind us of the subtle moments in our own travels. Like smelling fresh produce at a local market, or treating oneself to a bouquet, ideally foraged from some sort of Edenic oasis in the Cyclades. We also love the delicate color palettes of Smith’s cards and the ways in which they are layered to create texture while maximizing emotional impact. So lovely!

The post The Best and Most Beautiful Botanical Stationary appeared first on Garden Collage Magazine.

This year’s event featured the expected suite of beautiful roses– adorning the entrance in lovely hanging vessels, festooned to the columns in the spillover cocktail room, and curated together in perfect orbs set atop each table setting. New York Botanical Garden’s first female president, Carrie Rebora Barratt (who came to the organization from the Metropolitan Museum of Art last March) gave the opening statements about horticulturalist and self-identified “plant geek” Marjorie Rosen, who has offered the garden immense leadership and inspiration in her 22 years of sterling service.

The evening’s guests included Ariana Rockefeller, who wore a lovely theme-appropriate rose patterned dress and rose colored heels while exploring the rose garden named after her grandmother.

Other notable guests included Jason Amis, Vera Aryeh, Carrie Rebora Barratt, John Bernstein, Edgar Bronfman Jr., Richard and Maureen Chilton, Barclay Collins, Diana Davenport, Todd Forrest, Charlotte Frieze, Bob Gossett, Jill Joyce, and many others.

Despite a rain shower earlier in the day, many of the guests were able to get out and enjoy the eponymous rose garden before dinner and dancing began– a garden with nearly 700 varieties of roses that continue to thrive in the only surviving New York City garden designed by eminent landscape architect Beatrix Farrand, who did so in 1916.

Renowned as one of the most beautiful rose gardens in America, the Rockefeller Rose Garden has become one of the most sustainable public gardens in the world– and with event’s like the Rose Garden, it continues to welcome support from the enthusiastic community who continue to ensure that it will prosper.

The post NYBG’s Annual Rose Garden Dinner is Once Again a Lovely Affair appeared first on Garden Collage Magazine.

In reality, summer is an ideal (if better) time to adorn your home with a fresh, handmade wreath. So why don’t people do this more often, you ask? Largely, the “winter” appeal of wreaths has to do with the availability of pine (the main ingredient in Christmas wreaths)– but who says a wreath has to be pine-based?

Jackson & Perkins’ Blue Garden Tapestry Wreath adds a beautiful pop of color and greenery to any home, and it’s the perfect summer wreath for those looking to fill their homes with greenery without committing to houseplants or anything else that needs to be watered.

The post Wreaths Aren’t Just for Winter Anymore appeared first on Garden Collage Magazine.

Opened in September of 2017, What The Flower (cheekily abbreviated as WTF) combines botany and beauty like never before. Founder Justine Jeannin was a hairdresser in some of Paris’ best salons and fashion studios for 15 years before she became concerned with the toxicity of the hair care products she was surrounding herself with on a daily basis.

When she made the decision to dramatically change her methods and adopt a more biophilic lifestyle, the concept of What The Flower was born.

The first step was to convert her hair care arsenal to include products that were more earth-friendly, working with Belgian color tinctures by Hairborist, who offer 100% plant- and vegetable-based hair color, shampoos, masks, and styling products. At the same time, she become deeply devoted to plants– collecting, them, caring for them, and surrounding herself by them when not in the salon.

In 2015, she launched the Instagram account @SweetyOxalis (and the blog sweetyoxalis.com) to share her passion for being a #PlantMom, writing about everything from gardening tips to home decor and offering hot tips on where plant lovers could find the best specimens in Paris.

What The Flower is now located at 35 rue du Chemin Vert, 75011 Paris.

To find more information about the salon and their new space, visit What The Flower’s website. 

The post At This Eco-Chic Salon in Paris, Botany and Beauty Collide appeared first on Garden Collage Magazine.

Choi’s Instagram (@soocake_ully), moreover, is a treasure trove for people who love flowers, food styling, and cake. What started as a hobby has now led the once novice baker to the height of Instagram fandom. “Six years ago, I happened to see a cake made of buttercream and it was so pretty and impressive,” she said. “I made it from then on.”

Before that, Choi says she had a “normal office job” that allowed her to experiment in the kitchen for fun.

Choi doesn’t sell her cakes, but she does offer occasional workshops on how to make them– including a forthcoming workshop in New York, from August 31 to September 3, 2018. (More info about registration can be found here.)

Despite how lifelike her designs look, she insists that she only uses buttercream– no fondant or props, let alone real flowers. (Even though using real flowers on cakes is also a trend.)

“Deep flowers,” Choi says, “are the hardest ones to make– one of [the most difficult] is the English Rose.” The shadowing effect that develops underneath petals that have a lot of depth is hard to recreate in edible form; there’s more room for error, she says, and the grooves have to be more precise. Still, Choi makes it work, and we have been consistently impressed by her designs and how they continue to evolve. Not only are her flowers beautiful and biologically accurate, but her designs could rival that of even the most seasoned florist. It’s often hard to believe they are made of sugar.

Check out some of our favorite cakes from her archive, below.

The post Beautiful Flower Cakes By Our Favorite South Korean Cake Maker appeared first on Garden Collage Magazine.

]]> https://gardencollage.com/inspire/florals/can-improve-floral-industry/ Tue, 26 Jun 2018 21:02:01 +0000 http://gardencollage.com/?p=295762 Though local, seasonal food has become a reliable mainstay, flowers are still a largely outsourced commodity, despite the similar challenges the two industries face, like being prone to spoil quickly and being subject to the utmost scrutiny from picky customers who won’t accept anything that looks less than perfect. But as consumer concerns expand beyond food, the floral industry is starting […]

The post What You Can Do To Improve The Floral Industry appeared first on Garden Collage Magazine.

]]> Though local, seasonal food has become a reliable mainstay, flowers are still a largely outsourced commodity, despite the similar challenges the two industries face, like being prone to spoil quickly and being subject to the utmost scrutiny from picky customers who won’t accept anything that looks less than perfect. But as consumer concerns expand beyond food, the floral industry is starting to shift as well– and Debra Prinzing is here to help that shift along.

Prinzing is the founder of Slow Flowers, a site that helps consumers find local florists, event planners, and flower farmers who use only American-grown flowers. In an attempt to draw attention to the Slow Flowers movement, Prinzing started American Flowers Week, which this year runs from June 28th and ends on July 4th and aims to promote visibility while engaging important stakeholders, from policymakers to retailers to consumers.

Below, we’ve put together all the essential info you need about the floral industry as it currently stands: its challenges, and how people are making (exciting!) changes.

Photo: Molly Beauchemin

What’s at Stake

Though flowers often get written off as a frivolous luxury, the industry is worth some $104 billion globally (that includes plants in gardens as well). More specifically, the total value of cut flower sales come out to $7.5 billion and 80% of flowers sold in the US are imported. Colombia accounts for 78% of the imported flowers, with Ecuador coming in second at 15%. In the United States, California dominates the American-grown market, making up 76% of the flowers grown– which isn’t surprising, considering all the stunning flowers farms you can visit there.

The Toll of Pesticides

At this point, the ill-effects of the floral industry’s byproducts all well documented. In 2000, the National Wildlife Federation released their investigation into the ramifications of widespread pesticide use, noting that “in Latin America, economic pressures and generally weaker environmental laws have created a powerful incentive to overuse pesticides.”

In America especially, consumers are unwilling to accept anything with a blemish, further exacerbating a need to use pesticides.

Photo: Andreana Bitsis

While it might be tempting to think conditions have changed in the past 17 years, a study published last year in 2016 noted “an average of about 10 active substances per bouquet” in Belgium, which as part of the European Union historically has more stringent regulations around toxic chemicals than the United States.

Unsurprisingly, roses were the worst offender the researchers ran across; among the compounds identified in the arrangements were those known to have “acute toxicity,” which “can generate a direct effect on the nervous system of florists.” Writers of the report added that “many pesticides applied on flowers are persistent, dislodgeable by contact with the hands, and are fat-soluble”– which doesn’t even begin to cover potential interactions between the chemicals, of which very little is known.

The dangers aren’t limited to those who handle flowers either. Earlier in 2017, UC San Diego Health released a report on the effects of pesticides on children in Ecuador, the indirect victims of pesticide exposure. Researchers disturbingly found that “pesticide spray seasons can produce short-term alterations in neurobehavioral performance in addition to the long-term alterations.”

Workers’ Rights

In addition to the environmental repercussions, workers are often subject to abysmal working conditions. Around Valentine’s Day in 2007, Democracy Now! investigated US owned flower farms in Colombia and Ecuador. As reported on the show, workers “earn poverty-level wages, work long hours, suffer significant health problems due to pesticides” and are “unable to organize” in their own defense.

One worker came forward to attest, “We have very low wages. We suffer occupational health illnesses. We are not allowed to organize unions. There is increasing use of subcontracting and short-term contracts. And we are subject to serious cases of discrimination.” Ahead of Valentine’s Day, employees were sometimes expect to work “20-hour days.”

Molly Beauchemin

The New Floral Philosophy

Fortunately, the tide is changing. The New York Times recently published a piece examining the changing face of bouquets. While earlier styles have favored roses and other blooms with little regard for time of year, the new trend in arrangements is the wild, over-flowing, seasonal look, which in turn encourages consumers to select according to what is actually available, rather than creating a demand for plants that cannot grow anywhere nearby.

Elsewhere, companies like Bloom That— known as “the Uber of flowers”– are making it easier than ever to get nearby flowers delivered, reducing the need for flowers to travel long distances, which in turn cuts down on the environmental cost of transportation. Other companies double down on social responsibility, like Flowers for Dreams that not only uses locally-sourced plants for their arrangements, but also donates a part of their proceeds to charity.

What You Can Do

While the state of affairs can seem discouraging, there are ways of helping. Slow Flowers has an entire resource for finding florists with US-grown blooms, whether you need them for a wedding or just an arrangement on your kitchen table. Generally speaking, buying in season is also an easy way to ensure you’re minimizing your footprint.

If you’re galvanized and want to contribute even more, check out the Slow Flowers Summit, happening in early in July (it’s being billed as a TED talk for flower lovers).

To learn more about Slow Flowers, visit their website. 

Ready to put those US-grown flowers to good use? Check out our guide to making chic, “two-ingredient” arrangements.

The post What You Can Do To Improve The Floral Industry appeared first on Garden Collage Magazine.

]]> https://gardencollage.com/inspire/art-design/vollebaks-jackets-are-changing-how-humans-experience-nature/ Wed, 20 Jun 2018 20:04:30 +0000 https://gardencollage.com/?p=311242 A solar-powered jacket. A hoodie made out of granite that’s designed to last 100 years. A ski jacket that glows in the dark. These are just some of the ideas put forth by London-based outdoor adventure outfitter Vollebak, who first became famous for making a pink hoodie that can help you relax. “We make the future of adventure […]

The post Vollebak’s Jackets Are Changing How Humans Experience Nature appeared first on Garden Collage Magazine.

]]> A solar-powered jacket. A hoodie made out of granite that’s designed to last 100 years. A ski jacket that glows in the dark. These are just some of the ideas put forth by London-based outdoor adventure outfitter Vollebak, who first became famous for making a pink hoodie that can help you relax.

“We make the future of adventure gear,” the brand rightly states on their website, which features pages and pages of science-backed information and videos about the engineering of their outdoor adventure gear, which was designed with extreme athletes, campers, and outdoor adventurers in mind.

Image via Vollebak

Outerwear is a big deal these days, and Vollebak has managed to create a series of products that are both aesthetically appealing and functional, even in the extreme.

In the video below, watch how the team’s solar powered jacket glows kryptonite green in the dark after charging in the sun all day. Once charged by the sun, the jacket can glow for up to 12 hours, making the transition from daytime to nighttime that much more seamless (it’s great for camping, as you might imagine).

“Even if you took away this jacket’s ability to store sunlight, you’d still be left with one of the most technologically advanced jackets ever made,” the brand explains on their website. “That’s because the light-responsive material is also insanely high performance. While the jacket is waterproofed to keep you dry from ocean spray or summer showers, it’s also soft and breathable enough for any sport, and so thin you can roll it up into your hand.”

When fully charged, Vollebak’s solar powered jacket will glow in the dark for up to 12 hours.

Image via Vollebak

Other jackets that caught our eye with their incredible performance capacity were the 100 Year Hoodie— “an insanely hardcore jacket that’s designed to outlive you”– and the world’s first all black night visibility gear.

The 100 Year Hoodie is made with Kevlar fiber– a durable and heat-resistant fabric that is often used in ballistic-rated body armor. In a video on their website, the Vollebak team drags it across a tarmac tailing from a motorbike, over rocks and through rivers without getting damaged. It’s like the [easyazon_link identifier=”B001OTPBPK” locale=”US” tag=”gardcoll03-20″]Nalgene Waterbottle[/easyazon_link] of clothing, in that it cannot break, even if you try.

Vollebak’s Night Visibility Jacket, meanwhile, is super reflective despite being jet black. There are 22 black dots embedded with 60,000 black glass spheres to reflect light back at any source from eight key points in the body– elbows, wrists, shoulders, head, hips. According to experimental psychologists, the human brain’s embedded “pattern recognition systems” require only eight dots of light to recognize a shape as a human form when left in complete darkness. “Our brains are so good at it,” Vollebak claims, “That in 0.25 seconds we can predict what [the person is] doing, where they’re going, and how fast.”

As of this writing, Vollebak only makes clothing for men, but we’re hoping they’ll soon expand to include a women’s collection. Solar-power jackets are a good idea, regardless of what gender they serve.

Read our related story on the Best Outerwear for Men.

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