January whites (plus some vivid fuchsia accents)

This week, “local” means everything up and down the West Coast, from B.C. to Seattle, to California botanicals

Creamware urn with white ranunulus, hot pink anemones, garden hellebores and Hancock snowberry
Creamware urn with white ranunulus, hot pink anemones, garden hellebores and Hancock snowberry
Anemone detail
Beautiful anemone detail

The start of the New Year has been a slog for me, thanks to an unexpected bout of COVID (thankfully the Paxlovid prescription worked), so I feel a bit behind. As of Friday, testing negative, I set off for some errands. A stop at the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market was imperative. I was in need of floral therapy! Temperatures have dropped to the low 20s here in the Pacific Northwest, and the garden is shivering and folding into itself to stay warm. That’s all the more reason why I wanted to bring home some botanical medicine!

An overhead view of the arrangement
An overhead view of the arrangement shows off the big blooms
Winter white ranunculus detail
Winter white ranunculus detail

This week, anemones, ranunculus, hyacinth, tulips, and a few other early spring blooms — all from California growers — brought color to the market floor. I grabbed snow white ranunculus and fuchsia anemones, along with a bunch of single white-green garden hellebores, from British Columbia growers. The only truly local element came from Jello Mold Farm’s magenta pink ‘Hancock’ snowberry — it pairs perfectly with the anemones!

Hellebore detail
Hellebore detail. The hellebores are a little underwhelming to me, but they do provide green structure to the design.
Snowberry and Distylium
Snowberry and Distylium details

I did need some greenery, and clipped sprigs from Distylium ‘Coppertone’, a low-spreading evergreen shrub in the front garden, also called evergreen witchhazel. I really love the leaves’ olive-like form, and they have a nice blueish undertone.

Creamware vase detail
Creamware vase detail

My vessel is a vintage creamware vase with an urnlike shape and two graceful handles. It was a gift from my friend Nancy Finnerty, who bequeathed me her entire collection of cream pottery when she moved to a studio in Manhattan and no longer had space for the pieces. I love each and every one, and cherish them because of my friendship with Nancy. She has an artist’s eye and gathered the vases over the years. I used to love looking at them, clustered high and low, round and slender, a little compendium of American craftsmanship, that populated the fireplace mantel in Nancy’s former bunglow in Seattle. Happy to give them a new home and to often fill them with flowers!


Read More: See my post about the entire Nancy Finnerty pottery collection

Debra Prinzing

Debra Prinzing is a Seattle-based writer, speaker and leading advocate for American-grown flowers. Through her many Slow Flowers-branded projects, she has convened a national conversation that encourages consumers and professionals alike to make conscious choices about their floral purchases. Debra is the producer of SlowFlowers.com, the weekly "Slow Flowers Podcast" and the American Flowers Week (June 28-July 4) campaign. Debra is author of 11 books, including Slow Flowers (2013), The 50 Mile Bouquet (2012) and Slow Flowers Journal (2020). She is the co-founder of BLOOM Imprint, the boutique publishing arm of Slow Flowers.

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Slow Flowers Journal is brought to you by SlowFlowers.com. Slow Flowers is an award-winning online directory created to help consumers find florists, studio designers, wedding and event planners, supermarket flower departments and flower farmers that supply American grown flowers. Founded in 2014, the site has grown to 850 members across the U.S.

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