Petal to the Metal

I just got a bundle of flowers from flower subscription company Petals for the People who has expanded its delivery service to include Creative Parties in Bethesda and ArtSpring in Silver Spring. It was a bit daunting--at least 25 stems of flowers you don't usually see in the grocery store, all waiting for me to use my keen eye for design and dexterous hands to arrange. Um, where to start? I had roses, kangaroo paw, cornflowers, orinoco mums, monte cassino, salal and an aspidistra leaf. I checked out the Petals for the People blog and watched Sarah von Pollaro arrange them on the demonstration video. A snip of a stem here, there, some water here, a decorative petal here and wa-la--three different arrangements: large, medium and small. I opted for one medium and one large and came up with two arrangements bursting with color and 'verve'. The medium is pictured above. How'd I do??

Flower Power

Need flowers? Log onto Petals for the People, an online flower subscription service that hit MoCo this summer. Owner Sarah von Pollaro of DC's Urban Petals creates unique flower arrangements for weddings and events, and is willing to share her expertise and fresh flowers with us, the people - those people struggling to make generic grocery store flowers (spray-painted carnations sound familiar?) look "new." Sarah says that many of her friends and clients ask her where to get fresh flowers. She didn't have a good answer until she decided to bring her own fresh petals to the people. She orders stems in bulk, delivers a big bundle to you weekly or biweekly to your home or a central pickup point, and provides a video and tips on her website so you too can be a flower arranger extraordinaire. (Click here and watch Sarah composing a fall arrangement on Channel 8.) The people spoke. The people got flowers.