Potatoes and Cabbage

This week, I had the privilege to attend a flower arranging program with Laura Dowling, the former White House Chief Floral Designer. Her program consisted of tips and tricks for making wreaths and arrangements, as well as an extended question & answer session while she created several bouquets.

It was interesting to hear some of the "behind the scenes" stories about decorating the White House, especially at Christmas. For example, this Bo form is made out of 40,000 pipe cleaners that were hand-braided by volunteers for weeks prior to assembly.

Front row: Real Bo. Back row: Faux Bo.

Fun side note: Did you know that the White House has Bo and Sunny "houndstooth" wrapping paper that you can download and print?

Laura also talked about one of the Christmas trees that was way too big to fit through the White House doors. It ended up needing to be trimmed on the bottom, tied as tight as possible, and basically shoved through the door like a battering ram.

It was especially interesting to hear her story of competing to become the Chief Floral Designer since her graduate education is the same as mine. Before making a career change about 15 years ago, she had previously worked in public policy which she studied in college. She also holds a masters degree in management which she said was a huge help during the White House interview process. It turns out that interviewers were initially more interested in her experience with budgeting and project management than her design philosophy.

At the end of the evening, the arrangements she had created were raffled off to attendees. One of the bouquets included both cabbage and potatoes and my guest for the event had leaned over to me and said, "if I put potatoes in my floral arrangements, my family would think that I was nuts!" Well, guess who ended winning that bouquet!

That's an edible arrangement if I've ever seen one!