As you can learn from her web site for the book, designonalime.com , Anne is a small businesswoman and mother of three who prepared this photo journal with photographer Kristie Coia.
If you like flower photos, this is a luscious book.
The party was fun. My husband was golfing (party pooper) so I wrapped myself in my sarong (vintage Thai circa 1975) and since my regular purse has a broken strap, stuffed all my "stuff" into a clear plastic purse with orange maribou around the top.
Well. Orange maribou was flying. A woman I met in the bathroom told me she had a mohair skirt once that shed on everybody she danced with. You could see my trail of orange feathers around the room.
Meanwhile, Anne and Kristie were signing books, which were selling like hotcakes.
The proud author...Anne Ryan
Kristie Coia who photographed the book had a beautiful lime green wrap with beads...perfect.
The room was decorated with floral arrangements including this one with our Supergreen roses.
Anne had also prepared a slide show showing behind the scene pictures from the making of the book.
Some of the many flowers they used...
Two of Anne's children (she now has a 7 week old baby too!) with the "flower tower" with Spicy roses...
The Metallina arrangement being transported...
Setting up the arch for the outdoor wedding...
Anne is very generous about giving credit to other people for helping with flowers and work on the project. She even gave us a special plug in the book for which I am extremely grateful!
Everyone had a good time. We were treated to a really tasty lime martini created by Jimmy Maks and delicious food in the back room.
Some of the Flower Market folks were there...including Richard and Patti Bierman of Frank Adams, and my friends below, from left, Agnes and Jack from Rosto Garden, Jeff from Greenleaf, Michelle from Webers and Billy from Greenleaf.
You need to get a copy of the book...see the web site noted above, and it will also be available at bookstores.
Right now at the front door entry I have this container which I bought ages ago from "Little Baja" on NE Burnside, a great/funky Mexican terra cotta & concrete place. (Otherwise known as the go-to place for chimineas!)
This gorgeous variegated leaf geranium was a can't pass up item from Marbott's Nursery on NE Columbia Boulevard. The Marbott's are old friends of the family and they have a beautiful place in an unlikely location, surrounded by industrial outfits and backed up by the railroad. When the kids were little we'd always watch the trains at Marbott's!
You might be wondering if I have any rose bushes in my yard. I have exactly two (2) dos deux, zwei, yes two. Except for the Father Hugo's rose which doesn't count because it only blooms in the early spring and is still in a pot. I have a climbing Joseph's Coat.
This rose mystified a neighbor who asked me once, "just what color is that rose exactly????"
That's what I love about it, it is yellow, orange, red and pink. I think that Joseph's Coat must be related to the China rose mutabilis, which is known for this color chameleon quality.
This frustrating bush is on the power pole at the edge of the front yard and is always half-dead from black spot, a fungus disease. This year I didn't get a chance to put any sulfur or domant spray on it before it leafed out, and the black spot is really BAD. I always fertilize it with a bag of chicken manure which helps it grow out of it, but the bottom half is leafless and bare.
My other rose is very old. And I don't know what it is. It smells divine and has very weak stems, but it's a tough rose. Our neighbor who lived next door since the 40s told us that it was there when SHE moved in! Our house was built in 1922 and I guess it's possible that the rose is that old. If you keep them pruned and occasionally fertilize them (good old chicken manure again) rose bushes will live practically forever in our climate.
That reminds me of a story from yesterday. A florist called and described a mystery rose which is red with white tips. Her customer did not know the name of it, but a gentleman friend had told her to find this rose and the meaning of it would be obvious from the name of the rose. I guess he was trying to be mysterious.
If anybody knows what this rose could be, let me know. I have seen a lot of roses but I don't recall a rose like that!!!!
During these super hot days nothing looks cooler than this book. Check out the book's web site at www.designonalime.com
Her beautiful photos by Kristie Coia include a lot of roses from Peterkort Roses. She shared the proof photos with me before publication and the designs are fantastic. One of my favorites is the "zebra" arrangement - you'll have to get the book to see it! Maybe I'll be able to preview a couple of photos in the blog.
Here's a brilliant bouquet with orchids and Leonidas roses:
The book was published by Feld Press. It's a 9.5 by 9.5 inch square book with 100 pages. The price is $27.50. Local stores will be stocking it, and you can also order through the website listed above.
Claudia Duncan of La Fleur created a beautiful piece called "Wedding Abundance" which made use of green textures. It was a torchiere suitable for wedding decor - some of the flowers were Supergreen roses from Peterkort Roses, as well as those wonderful shiny smooth fiddleheads.
"Verdant Meditation" by Cathy Pickles of Petalpicks was an incredible mandala constructed mainly of cymbidium orchid blossoms individually placed. The pattern overall and the inner pattern of the flowers had a hypnotic effect. Due to the season of the year these were imported orchids, but during the winter Peterkort Roses also grows similar varieties.
Shannon Covington-McAlerney of Fleur-De-Lis designed "The Long Now" which was my husband's favorite design. I think the geometric aspect with the softening of the flowers, appealed to him.
Lots of green in this show! Charles Shomaker of Flowers by Dorcas created this gorgeous, impressive arrangement of various green flowers called "Seeing Green." I loved it because it really made an impression and had HEIGHT!
Finally, the two "Pretty"s of the show, first, Pretty in Pink,
by Kathy Freeman-Hastings, who is an instructor at the Floral Design Institute and formerly of Old Town Florist, was charmingly humorous and retro. Kathy always dresses in keeping with her designs and so she was pink down to her socks.
Then there was the other "Pretty" - by Jordan Gladow of Blum.
Just a vase covered with moss, you think? No, this is "Pretty on the Inside", so inside there was a scene like inside a Faberge egg:
So that was a nice secret, intimate type of design.
And did I mention there was champagne??
So I sneaked up to the choir loft in my rubber shoes and wet sweatshirt (Jill had said that would be fine) - there was a big crowd in church for the lady whom I had never met.
The sermon was about kindness - and he spoke about treating a homeless man who had just been on a four-day drunk to a meal. He encouraged him to order a nice meal, not just the smallest and cheapest thing. The man was overwhelmed with his generosity and took his hand, saying, "You must be Irish!" That got a laugh because probably 90 percent of the congregation at this funeral was Irish.
The kindness message hit home because sometimes it is really hard to be kind, but it is the best thing. I find myself driving on the road, getting angry with bad and rude drivers. I am not very patient sometimes with the kids. We get impatient with Mom and Dad because they are having a hard time doing the things we think they should be able to do because they have always done them.
Sometimes it takes a conscious effort to be kind, to remember about our humanity...
We planted only half a bed, to see if it grew well and if our customers liked it. We got a positive response so we decided to plant more.
We started out with a half house ready for hydroponic growing. These are the pots, up on blocks, with metal gutters and white weed suppression coverings.
The small mini plants arrived from Holland in April and were planted right away.
By late April they were growing well.
In early May they were ready to be bent over for the first time. This begins creating a canopy of leaves to support the plant's food production.
In Mid June you can see the new growth as a foam of red leaves coming from the base of the plants.
Now in early July, the large stems of the saleable roses are growing strongly from the base of the plants.
This differs a great deal from the amount of time previously required for production of roses growing in the ground. In that case, stronger and older plants were needed, so they were field-grown for a couple of years.
With hydroponic growing we can start with tiny mini plants, no time in the field is required, and we are able to obtain new varieties more quickly.
The turnaround time in the introduction of new varieties has been more than reduced by half.
Eventually the entire range will be converted to hydroponics so more rose plants will hit the compost pile over the next few years. Some of them have been growing since we first built the greenhouses in Hillsboro, during the 1980s.
This picture shows the rose plants lying on the ground. The white pipes are the irrigation pipes we use for in-ground roses.
All the pipes will be removed, the ground will be smoothed off, and a new irrigation system will be installed for the lilies. Then every week lily crates will start to appear. Meanwhile in the other lily area the crates will disappear and we will plant new roses there.
Have a nice weekend!
The view from my car window: this creepy milk truck climbing the hill off Swan Island - that scary cow! It's a menacing retro cow, like in the book "Pattern Recognition" where the main character has a phobia of Bibendum, the Michelin logo.
(Blowup of the scary cow!!):
You may ask what this has to do with Peterkort Roses, the answer is, not much.
But I feel like talking about driving today!
Okay, okay, only one more thing and then I PROMISE to stop... I used to have a red Ford Windstar that my children (2 teenage boys) called the "B-Wagon." The B was not a nice word. We were going to get spinners and neon, maybe even hydraulics - but then we sold it and now I have the "Silver Bullet", a boring Dodge Caravan.
However, I think it would be really cool to glue rhinestones all over the outside. My husband and children don't like this idea. They call it my "Hello Kitty" van idea, and tell me that the resale value would plummet.
I can dream, can't I????