My name is Linda. I am a second-generation keeper of the flowers.
My mom, Lydia, liked to re-wallpaper our house every two years. Before putting the new paper up, she’d hand over some markers, my dad would pull out a stepstool, and I’d draw all over the walls. Big trees, leaves, landscapes of my own creation. Sometimes mom would join me, scrawling away in the morning light. No wonder large art installations are still my artistic home. Only now, I paint with flowers.
You’re probably here because you love beauty and meaning. You have specific taste, you value relationships, and want to surround yourself with things that remind you of people and places you love. We are kindred spirits! If you were to visit my studio, I’d share a story about every object that caught your attention, and that would remind you of your own stories - your wedding gown, the petals you saved as a child, the way the sun hit your grandmother’s garden in the evening.
My mother taught me everything she knew from her 30-year career growing and pressing flowers. When she passed in 2011, she left me the studio with a blessing to make it mine. You can still see imprints of flowers she pressed years ago on papers still in studio use. My father was a millwright and woodworker, the kind of man who could walk into a coffee shop and leave with two new friends. He made the flower presses for my mother by hand. The pressing papers came from his paper mill 40 years ago. I’ve scoured the globe, and have never been able to find better paper for flower work than these heavy vintage sheets.
I want you to know that from the moment your flowers arrive, they’re held in a space imbued with meaning and intention. From the antique glass vases they take their last big drink in before being pressed, to the handmade presses, to the museum-quality materials that hold them afterward, nothing is accidental. When I arrive in the studio and hang up my keys, I set an intention for the day and go where your flowers lead.
Because I studied art, painting, botanical illustration and bookbinding, I have a large artistic vocabulary to solve any problem that comes up. Whatever the challenge, artists have faced it before, and I’ve studied their solutions enough to devise my own. I’ve had clients wanting to cover a wall, to preserve family fishing tackle with their flowers, to include antlers. I can work with your imagination. Whether we’re creating a collage from your wedding bouquet or creating a floor-to-ceiling gallery for a special property, you can know that it will be done beautifully, securely, and with the intent that the beauty outlast either of us and be handed to others for safekeeping.
your experience
Why work with Flora-Ly?
You’ll love what I create if you love flowers, honor being sentimental, appreciate the exceptionally crafted and completely want something unique and creative just for you. My clients over the years have truly had a hand in shaping and crafting this sweet flower pressing adventure. I may work alone but I feel the hundreds I've created for with me.
The studio strives to be as low waste and low impact on the environment as possible. I do not accept flowers in foam or plastic handles. If your floral designer uses these we will discuss ways for your flowers to come to the studio with them. I recycle and re-use clean packing materials. If you receive bubble wrap, know that it is being re-used and I will urge you to do the same.
Flora-Ly is a member of WEVA, Wedding & Event Vendor Alliance. Love looks lots of different ways. I vow to provide a safe environment for all people regardless of race, religion, identity, sexual orientation, age or ability in order to create a more welcoming experience for ALL people to celebrate the beautiful spectrum of love.
"Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink the wild air."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson -
