The Flower You'll Never See in a Florist Shop

My roomate picked a big bouquet of these one morning out on a walk.......Beautiful, like a lavender, purple dandelion kind of flower. Somewhere deep in my memory bank I knew the latin name for them was tragopogon. Don't ask me how I knew this. I just knew....but I didn't know much else about it. Just it's funny latin name.

The roomate said it was growing everywhere. Funny, I didn't remember seeing them everywhere. And I've lived here a while.

So I thought we'd just watch them for a while.

Well, lo and behold, shortly after lunchtime, they looked like this....all closed up. No wonder you never see them in a flower shop. They hardly last the morning. Except next day, they were wide open again.

Definitely intrigued, I went to my native plant guru, the women whom I believe has written the definitve book for Northwest native plants, the little woman pictured above, Rhoda Whittlesey who worked for Campfire Girls at Tryon Creek State Park near Portland. (completely aside, but I think Rhoda's wearing an Ethiopian cross necklace similiar to ones we've had in the store - I bet there's a story there.)

So here's what I learned.....common name salsify or oyster plant...."don't look for blooms after noon, for their tightly closed buds will be lost in the grasses in which they grow." Wow, that's an interesting strategy for a plant to camouflage itself by closing up it's flower. I wonder what it's hiding from?....plus, and this is exciting..."roots are eaten as parsnips", the name "says raw roots and oyster taste alike." Could it really be so?

Searching for the Blues

I needed something blue, something wildflower, something delicate for the bridal bouquet.....tweedia seemed just right.

Tweedia that's that periwinkle blue flower in the photo above.

But I 'd had bad experiences with tweedia in the past.....Wasn't sure. Didn't trust it.



So glad I gave it a second chance.

Yet Another Party at Passionflower

Happy Birthday to Lindsey!!!

Who has a love for all creatures great and small.

Who they say has the curious effect of lowering my blood pressure.
And who we wish all good things for.

Have a most excellent day birthday girl!!!

Finding the Perfect Wedding Gift

Special events deserve meaningful and beautiful gifts. We can help you find those.

See this little beauty? It's a little metal candlesnuffer shaped to look like a cap with a feather. It was one of my favorite things in my childhood home.....and it was a wedding gift to my parents from my mom's penniliess schoolteacher friend. And now it sits on my dining table putting an end to many a festive candlelit evening.


Which is all kind of a long roundabout way of saying that even the simplest of wedding gifts can create real, meaningful, lasting memories. And then there's always the issues of practicality. We like a wedding gift that's going to see a lifetime of use.


Like these fabulous, do the happy dance, look good almost everywhere candlesticks.

Cast iron, horn, and bone. They've got a great earthy, organic look that can work in all kinds of home environments. A single one is very zen and a grouping of 5 or so well, that's the extra happy dance.

And here's a hybrid octopus, sea urchin candlestick. So much better than a blender from Target, don't you think?

Now I'm guessing a whole lot of salads will be made over the years in one of these wooden bowls.

For me, the big wooden salad bowl is a classic. And we'll teach you how to take care of it so it will only get better with age.

Napkins and tablecloths also make fun, affordable wedding gifts - maybe not to last a lifetime (unless of course you want some fabulous french linens from Le Jacquard Francais, which we will be happy to special order for you) - but they're a great way to help a couple start off.

As is glassware - okay pretty much anything food or drink related makes a great wedding gift.

What can I say, food can be the great cement in the house of love.....

Now this may not be the gift for everyone - but this Laura Zindel platter would make some crow loving couple very happy. And it's food related :)


Maybe a more traditional couple would love a Sid Dickens monogram tile. (Unless it's in stock, plan on about 6 to 8 weeks for this to arrive.)

Another gift to last a lifetime and then some......under $30 and perfect for the gardening couple.

And then there's the not so practical gift.....okay the not even remotely practical gift but the one that will still bring untold pleasure over a lifetime - the soul resonating gift - otherwise know as art.....I like giving art - things that can be hung on the wall and looked at for the rest of your life.

Like this pair of butterflies - loaded with symbolism for a happy marriage.

Or this beautiful handcrafted piece of pottery by local artist Lynn

Peterson.

And here's John Derian's fabulous tray that says what's important.......

And last but not least, this John Derian postcard, which we think would look great as a tag on a beautifully wrapped wedding gift. Because, don't forget, wrapping the gift is almost as much fun as picking out the present.

Be Still My Beating Heart

Barb Campbell brought all these grasshopper people pins to the store. She told me they eat grasshoppers in Oaxaca and I had heard that other places too.

Here's a little troop of them.

This one is an old man grasshopper walking on the back of a centipede.

And these are the grasshopper people who live by the green trees. See how they all inhabit a different landscape? Come see Barb & Javier's most excellent show which is up through June 11th.

Life In Sepia Tones

Every now and then, at work, I let myself do anything I want.....no aim, no goal, no deadline - just whatever I feel like doing. It just needs to be somehow work related. So one day I thought, "I'll blow up some of my wedding flower photos into 81/2 x 11's ". Because I mostly only look at photos when they're tiny, like on a computer or camera screen. I thought I'd make a wedding album. Well, it was not to be so. The camera place said 3 days to get my big prints back...I was looking for a little more instant gratification...Time to reframe and salvage this little excursion. And that's when I discovered the sepia button.

I started with this wrist corsage and then kept trying out all my favorite flower photos in sepia.

I was really loving it - enough so

that I took out the ever faithful rubber stamps and started stamping words on the photos.

It was fun picking just one word out of all the words in the whole wide world to go with each picture. And I wanted to think about words that described our approach to flowers.

(I got the idea for putting corsages in a simple box from Nicollette Camille's fabulous site.)

I was on a roll and having fun.

I liked how washed out it all was.

Also the sepia gave made all these photos talk to each other. It gave them a unifying element.

Everyone I showed them to at work smiled and nodded. I'm their boss after all, they have to indulge me a little bit. And then they said, "All wrong for a wedding album. Brides want to see color. Color is everything. They're depressing"

Then I showed them to my go to guy for, well for someone who I trust to tell me what he really thinks. He's my old art school friend who lives way far away in Washington Heights Manhattan, NYC (near the Cloisters). Giotto, Bosh, Duchamp, or Warhol - he's got an opinion.

So he said one or two nice things. He's my friend after all. And then I believe the word he used to describe them was "flat footed". Flat footed, I'm pretty sure that wasn't a compliment.

Flat footed, hmm....He particularly disliked this used to be pink roseball. Looks like a dead cabbage was what he said.

Okay, so what, even if they are right? And they are......I'm still intrigued by these sepia photos and I want to sit with them a while more. Just not exactly sure where I'm going with them.

Barb Campbell & Javier Cervantes

We are welcoming back Barb Campbell for her second show at Passionflower.....& this time her husband Javier Cervantes will be joining us to show his work as well!! Barb & Javier have a strong working collaboration and I love watching their focus, concentration, and intensity when they set up our front window. Plus, it's always great to see artists work change and evolve. Barb did these beautiful platters with a very painterly feeling....Becky thinks it has a little Paul Klee vibe and I agree in that there really is a private/universal language in her work.....
Come see them do their magic this First Friday June 4th....They'll have their work up until the 11th so you have a week to check it out.
Plus, click here and here if you want to see more posts about previous Barb Campbell events at Passionflower......