CCSF wins AIFD prize in Miami

CCSF student designers with Jenny Tabarracci AIFD (center)

City College of San Francisco won first place at the AIFD Symposium in Miami. I know that everyone worked really hard in Jenny Tabarracci's design for competitions class, and it looks like she coached them really well. An exceptional group.

Kitayama Open House & Competition

This weekend I enjoyed participating in the Kitayama Brothers open house, and the Kitayama Cup floral design competition. I'd never competed in this sort of thing before, but it was a great experience. As completions go, this one was relaxed and supportive. I didn't really worry so much about making a great arrangement, as I was mostly just enjoying the experience. There were some real floral artists there, and everyone was really nice. Congrats to all the winners.

The open house itself was a great event. There was food, wine, gorgeous flowers, a "plant science" table (honestly, my favorite thing), the AIFD, organic veggies and herbs, and various gifts, all in support of the Friends of the Santa Cruz State Parks.  After the event and competition, there was a "100-Mile Dinner," all created with local foods.

 

if you can't see the slideshow above, click here to see it on Flickr.

Constance Spry in Flower Mag

Catching up on some reading, I came across an article about the amazing British florist Constance Spry in Flower Magazine. This issue happens to be the 5th anniversary issue, so it has lots of good things in it. Fortunately, the Spry article is available on-line. She was known for breaking British floral design out of the Victorian mold, and she created floral designs for many prestigious occasions, including the wedding of Wallis Simpson and the Duke of Windsor, and the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. Her life was quite a journey... a fascinating story. See the article and more photos at Flower Magazine.

New Flyer for the Monterey Bay Greenhouse Growers tour, which features tours of 6 different greenhouses. Kitayama Brothers open house includes a design competition for pros & students, a farmer's market, tours and wine tasting. See the KB site for maps and more information.

AIFD AIR in CCSF Currents

The City College of San Francisco newsletter, Currents, did a nice write up on the AIFD Artist in Residence event. Thanks to everyone! It was a fun and interesting event.

Kitayama Open House and Competition

On June 16th, the 3rd annual Monterey Bay Greenhouse Growers Open House will be held in Watsonville. Kitayama Brothers open house will feature greenhouse tours, a farmer's market, information about Santa Cruz State Parks (the open house is a benefit for them), wine tasting, and the Kitayama Cup floral design competition.

This year's competition includes a "young professionals" category, with cash prizes and all kinds of fun. It's the weekend of my birthday, so I'm looking forward to celebrating in sunny Watsonville with lots of interesting people.

Info about the event (includes contest guidelines) | Jenny Tabarracci's blog

Breathing Flower at SF Civic Center

Choi Jeong Hwa's Breathing Flower at the Civic Center
Plaza across from the Asian Art Museum. Photo by Kim Munson.

Was headed to the SF Public Library yesterday, and was blown away by Choi Jeong Hwa's 24 foot sculpture Breathing Flower, which is on display in the Civic Center Plaza across from the Asian Art Museum as part of the Phantoms of Asia exhibition. Read more about it at SFGate.

AIFD AIR Event at CCSF

 

If you can't see this slideshow, click here to see it on Flickr 

The photos in the slideshow above are from the American Institute of Floral Designers Artist in Residence Program demo April 12th at CCSF. The featured designers were Hiromi Nomura AIFD, Kaori Imaizumi AIFD, Katherine Zhang AIFD, Susan Ishkanian AIFD, Yoko I. Klingbiel AIFD and Emil Yanos AIFD. Floral materials were donated by Kitayama Brothers.

All the designers were given the same urn and general selection of materials. It was really interesting to see how differently the designers put these together. All the designers did a second, more personal arrangement. Most of them have participated in floral design competitions, and in Bouquets to Art, so it was interesting to hear them talk about inspiration, tips and tricks, and how they got started.  Thanks to Jenny Tabarracci, the CCSF floral department and the SAIFD Menzie Chapter for organizing this great event.

Bouquets to Art 2010

Floral design by Pico Design,Pico Soriano with Ignacio Lopez,
based on Berkeley No. 3 (1954) by Richard Diebekorn or, as I like to
think of it, Still Life with Law Professor (Mark H. Greenberg).

The annual Bouquets to Art exhibition was at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park this past week. It was amazing as always with over 150 floral designers participating (see a full list here).

There were a few things that really stood out to me, in terms of design. People seemed to move away from monotone designs and there was an explosion of color in high contrast compositions. Designers embraced painted leaves and flowers, dyed flowers, recycled materials, colored wire, and all kinds of props and bling. I saw several designs that used Gypsophila (Baby's Breath) in innovative ways, a filler flower that is often shunned (seen as the "dozen roses and baby's breath" bouquet that was popular a couple of generations ago). There were several arrangements that used glass tubes extensively as a design element, and some that were done in terrarium styles. Flowers were grouped by texture and color, and there were also many designs composed of several arrangements working together. People made great use of succulents, and found some that looked pretty exotic.

Floral design by Waterlily Pond Floral Design based on Ultramarine
Stemmed Form with Orange from the Persian series,
by Dale Chihuly. The blue "shell" is made of painted palm leaves.

I wish I could remember the location of all of the designs in the photos shown in the slideshow embedded below. This is actually only a portion of the many outstanding designs in the exhibition. If you can't see the slideshow below, click here to see it on Flickr.

 

Russian Scientists Revive 32,000 Year Old Flower

Narrow-Leafed Campion.
Photo by Svetlana Yashina

Russian scientists Svetlana Yashina and David Gilichinsky of the Russian Academy of Sciences research center at Pushchino (near Moscow) have grown flowering plants called narrow-leafed campions from 32,000 year-old seeds found in the Siberian permafrost.  The seeds were found in ancient squirrel burrows containing more than 600,000 seeds and fruits, which were buried under 125 feet of sediment and frozen permanently at minus 7 degrees Celsius. The scientists were able to grow living plants from the seeds after placing the nucleus of the seeds in a nutrient bath.  The flowers most closely resemble the contemporary narrow-leafed campion (Silene Stenophylla).  I thought this was amazing! Here is more from the New York Times.

Save Money on Valentine's Day

screen shot from Yahoo Personal Finance video.

A new video from Yahoo Personal Finance tells viewers that one of the best ways to save money on Valentine's Day gifts is to buy good quality, fresh flowers from a local,  professional florist instead of an on-line service (or buying them from a road-side vendor, duh...).

Last time I went to the Kitayama Brothers Watsonville greenhouse, Robert gave me an armful of freshly harvested lilies and hot pink Gerbera daisies, and they lasted for almost a month (using cut flower food).

Modern Luxury Wedding Fair

invitation from Modern Luxury

I don't usually post about commercial events & products, but I have found these Modern Luxury wedding fairs to be very interesting. Also of value is the free subscription to the on-line version of San Francisco Brides magazine, which saves it from being lost forever in the huge stack of magazines and stuff to read at the end of my dining room table :-) Students, check this out (and let me know if you are going 2/21).

New Posts on KB Blog

I have been contributing to the Kitayama Brothers Floral News blog. There are new posts up about this year's floral trends, and a great video by Robert Kitayama about their bountiful Valentine's Day crop this year. The blog can be found at http://kitayamabrothers.blogspot.com/

CCSF Floral Class - Web Lecture

This might seem like an odd topic for a floral blog, but it's important. I love floral design, and have been through most of the program at City College of San Francisco. Along with that I have worked in the arts my entire life, and have frequently worked as a graphic designer or creative director for dot.coms and software companies.

Many people don't quite understand the huge paradigm shift that has happened on the web, with HTML 5, CSS 3 and the general user expectation to participate in a conversation/relationship instead of looking at a static informational website. People become confused and overwhelmed by all the choices that are available. Web site, blog, Google +, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter - how do all of these work together? Floral designers need to harness this power and communicate about their designs and what they do.

Below is a short presentation I did for the work study class at the CCSF. Please contact me by e-mail at kim_munson@yahoo.com if you have any questions.

CCSF Web Lecture

View more presentations from Kim Munson.

Kitayama Brothers Tour

If you can't see the slideshow above, click here to see it on flickr.

Last week, I had a business meeting at the KB (Kitayama Brothers) Farms in Watsonville, situated on the Monterey Bay near Sunset Beach. They have about 1 million square feet of greenhouse space, and I was amazed by how tall and beautiful the flowers were. When we were walking through the greenhouses, it seemed like they went on for miles!  I also enjoyed hearing all the stories about how things really work, like the fact that the birds that get in the greenhouses prefer to only eat the shoots of purple flowers and what holidays/seasons the crops are grown for. It was fascinating, and worth the drive to see it in person.

If you click on the slideshow in full-screen mode, you will get the captions.