The flowers

She grows them. I design with them. It starts, for both of us, in the soil.

A collaboration with Tekla Farms on Orcas Island—field-grown organic blooms out of Laura Torma’s rows, arranged the way a Dutch still life is built. Order deliveries through the farm, or take a seasonal class in the farm’s design studio.

Design & teaching Tekla Farms, Orcas Island

Whitney Page leaning over a table of cut foliage and a glass bowl during a floral class, a student watching from behind — Above The design studio at Tekla Farms. Everything on this table was standing in the field an hour earlier—which is the whole argument for working this way.

Black and white portrait of Whitney Page in a wool coat against a clapboard wall — Portrait Whitney Page, on her way out to the field.

The grower: Laura Torma, Tekla Farms
The designer: Whitney Page
Where: Tekla Farms, Orcas Island
Grown: Field-grown and organic — no pesticides, nothing flown in
Season: Late spring to the first frost
Deliveries: Order on Orcas through Tekla’s website
Classes: Seasonal, in the farm’s design studio — vase included

The partnership started in the dirt, long before it ever got to a vase.

Laura and I did not meet over flowers. We met over soil. She was talking about cover crops and compost and what a field owes you back after a hard season; I was talking about lime and hemp and wool and where a material goes when a house is done with it. It turned out to be the same conversation held at two different scales. Tekla Farms is the place where those two halves finally met, and the collaboration grew straight out of it.

The division of labor is simple and it has never once needed renegotiating. Laura grows the flowers. I design with them. She plans the rows a year out, feeds the ground rather than the plant, keeps pesticides off the field entirely, and raises blooms that were bred for scent and character instead of for surviving a shipping container. I turn up in the week the field is generous and cut accordingly.

You cannot design a season. You can only turn up in the week the field is generous, and cut accordingly.

Whitney Page

What that gives me as a designer is material nobody can buy wholesale. Stems with a bend in them. Dahlias too blown open to survive a truck. Seed heads, grasses, branches, a poppy that will be finished by Thursday and is worth the whole arrangement on Tuesday. The arrangements are built the way a Dutch still life is built—deep color, honest asymmetry, a structure of foliage set first so the flowers have something to lean on—and they are only possible because the field is a hundred yards from the bench.

Soil first, always

Both of us came to this through agriculture rather than through floristry, and it shows in the order we do things. Healthy soil grows a stronger stem; a stronger stem holds a week in the vase; a flower that holds a week does not need a chemical dip or a block of floral foam to prop it up. Nothing about this is a look. It is just what happens when the ground is treated as the asset it is.

Continued: the seasonal classes

I Why local flowers

Most flowers sold in this country have been on a plane, in a cooler and in a chemical bath before they reach a table. There is another way to do it, and on this island it is growing a few miles up the road.

They were standing an hour ago

An imported stem is often a fortnight old before you see it. A stem cut here in the cool of the morning and conditioned properly holds for a week and opens in front of you—so you get the blown, generous stage of a flower instead of the shipping stage.

You know what is on them

No pesticides on the field, no preservative dip, no floral foam. That matters for the people arranging them, for the table they sit on, and for the ground and the water they came out of.

III

They tell you where you are

Local flowers give you a season instead of a catalogue—tulips in April, dahlias in September, seed heads and grasses at the end. A bouquet stops being decoration and becomes a record of one particular week on this island.

II Flowers for your own table

If you want the flowers rather than the lesson, the farm handles that directly. Deliveries run around Orcas Island through the growing season, and you order them straight from Tekla’s website.

A Dutch still-life style arrangement of cream and peach dahlias, zinnias and daisies in a dark handmade pottery urn on a wood table — The arrangement Late-season dahlias, zinnias, chamomile and spent seed heads in a handmade urn—asymmetrical, a little overgrown, and entirely a record of one particular week on this island.

A bouquet, a standing arrangement, buckets of mixed stems for an event, or something built for a particular table—the farm grows it and I design the larger work. It travels five miles instead of five thousand, and it is in water within the hour.

Order Flowers from Tekla Farms

III The classes, in the farm’s design studio

Seasonal by nature—they run when the field runs, late spring to the first frost, on dates set by what is blooming rather than by a calendar. We work in the design studio at Tekla Farms with field-grown organic blooms cut that morning. Every class comes with a vase to build in and take home, covers the principles of floral design properly, and stays small enough that everyone gets real one-on-one instruction at the bench.

In the field

We walk Laura’s rows with buckets and cut what is at its moment—dahlias, zinnias, cosmos, whatever the week is giving. You learn where on the stem to cut, what travels, and what to leave standing.

At the bench

Conditioning: clean water, stripped stems, a second cut and a proper rest. Unglamorous, quick to learn, and the difference between an arrangement that holds a week and one that sulks by Thursday.

III

In the vase

The principles, applied: structure first, then color, then scale, then the one stem that breaks the shape. You build your own in the vase that comes with the class, and I am over your shoulder for it.

IV Questions from the studio

Do I need any experience?

None. Most people arrive certain they are not the sort of person who can do this, and leave holding proof otherwise. If you have arranged flowers for years, the field work and the conditioning will still give you something new.

Is the vase included?

Yes. A vase comes with the class and goes home with you, arrangement and all. Bring clippers if you have a pair you like and boots that can handle a wet row—buckets, water and flowers are here.

Whose flowers am I working with?

Laura’s. Everything comes out of the field at Tekla Farms—organically grown, no pesticides, cut that morning. Nothing is flown in, which is also why no two classes build the same thing.

When do classes run?

Only while the field is in: late spring through the first frost, on dates set by what is blooming. Send me the month that suits you and I’ll tell you what the farm is likely to be doing.

How small are they?

Small on purpose—the point is that I can stand at your shoulder rather than at the front of a room. Private groups are welcome too: birthdays, bridal parties, a visiting family, a team that would rather be outside.

What if I want flowers, not a class?

Order them from the farm. Deliveries run on Orcas through the growing season and go through Tekla’s website. For a wedding, an occasion or a table that wants designing, write to me directly.

Wild red columbine flowering at the base of an old lime-mortared stone wall

On the partnership

Good flowers are a soil story first. Laura writes that part. Everything I do afterwards is editing.

Whitney Page

Inquiries

Come cut with me.

Classes are set by the season, not the calendar. Tell me the month that works—or the group, the date or the occasion—and I’ll let you know what the field will be doing. For deliveries on Orcas, order straight from Tekla Farms.

Ask About a Class