About a year ago, I reached out to some of my flower friends who had appeared in Flower Magazine or on their Insta account inquiring about how they developed their connection to the magazine. I LOVE Flower Magazine – a whole magazine dedicated to flowers! What is not to love? These friends shared their advice and thoughts and I started to develop a plan in my mind as to how I could make this happen. Well, literally the next day out of the blue I received an email from one of their editors: ” Dear Eileen, How are you? Would you mind calling me to discuss a possible story in our magazine?” If you could only see my face when I read this email! Talk about believing and willing something to happen!
Fast forward to about six months later. I have a shooting script, Flower Magazine’s photographer from LA is in town, the editor has also flown in, flowers are harvested and processed, the perfect vessels are ready, pre-made arrangements are done, it’s a cool December day so my hair is not frizzing out (yay!), and there is not one weed or piece of mulch out of place in the gardens (well, I tried my best with my small crew!). We spent about two days shooting photos of myself, the flowers and gardens, and a How-To. What an incredible learning experience! I loved every minute of it. I was so fortunate to work with such amazing and kind professionals from the magazine, my wonderful assistant and local artist Arielle, and have the support of East End Market.
Now about six months later, our article is here in the July/August 2020 issue! Jump up and down with me! You’ll find a portrait of me and our dog Megan in the garden, how to create one of our signature bouquets with dahlias, and other design inspiration by FarmGal featuring beautiful locally grown foliage and succulents from Ferntrust and Holt Nurseries respectively.
You can sign up to receive a free digital copy of the July/August 2020 issue here. I would definitely recommend subscribing so that you can receive floral inspiration all year long.
I’d like to end this with a thank you to everyone who believed in me and and has supported my flower adventure: my husband and family, longtime assistants Bernadette, Stephanie, Arielle, Deja, Ed and Ricky, East End Market, and so many clients and students who have stuck with me from the beginning! I have missed you all during the pandemic and I hope we will see each other again soon!