California, Creativity & Connection: Discovering Floral Trends in Santa Rosa
Written by The Flower Place
There are some trips that stay with you long after you unpack your suitcase, and my recent trip to California was definitely one of those.
I traveled to Northern California for the opportunity to present a floral design show at Sequoia Floral International in Santa Rosa as part of their 50th anniversary celebration. Any time I get the chance to travel, design, teach, and spend time with other people who love flowers as much as I do, I come home inspired. This trip was no exception.
California was beautiful, the weather was much cooler than what I left behind in Texas, and the people were incredibly welcoming. But what I loved most was the feeling of being surrounded by people who understand this industry and genuinely enjoy creating.
A Few Days in San Jose
Before heading to Santa Rosa, I spent part of the week in the San Jose area preparing for the show and working with the teams at Flora Haven and United Wholesale.
Those few days were such an important part of the experience.
When you travel to present a design program, there is always so much happening behind the scenes before anyone ever sees the finished flowers. There are flowers to source, materials to gather, designs to work through, mechanics to figure out, and usually a little bit of problem-solving along the way.
Minnie and the teams there were so supportive and made the entire process feel easy.
By the time I left California, Flora Haven, United Wholesale, and Sequoia Floral International really felt less like three separate businesses and more like one big happy floral family. There is something special about walking into a place far from home and immediately feeling welcomed by people who share the same passion for the floral industry.
Celebrating 50 Years at Sequoia Floral International
From San Jose, I headed north to Santa Rosa for Sequoia Floral International’s 50th anniversary celebration.
Fifty years in the floral industry is something worth celebrating.
When you stop and think about it, that represents generations of designers, countless weddings, birthdays, holidays, memorials, celebrations, and millions of flowers passing through the hands of people who use them to tell someone’s story.
I was honored to be invited to be part of their celebration and to present a design program for the florists and flower enthusiasts who joined us that day.
My program focused heavily on something I feel very strongly about: understanding design rather than simply copying it.
Of course, we talked about flowers and techniques, but we also spent time talking about the principles and elements that make a floral design successful—color, line, texture, movement, focal area, shape, size, scale, balance, and even the empty space within a design.
Those are the things that allow us to take the same bucket of flowers and create something completely different.
Introducing the American Floral Trends
I also had the opportunity to incorporate the American Floral Trends into the program.
I have had the privilege to work closely with J. Keith White and the American Floral Trends team, and I always enjoy seeing how a color story or trend can be interpreted through actual floral design.
A trend isn’t meant to tell every designer to create the exact same thing.
For me, it is more of a starting point.
It gives us a feeling, a color direction, a mood, and an opportunity to explore materials in a new way.
One of the trends I especially enjoyed working with for this program was Discover.
And I think the name says a lot about it.
Discover
When I look at the Discover trend, I see exploration.
I see unexpected combinations.
I see texture.
I see movement.
And I see permission to be a little less predictable.
The designs I created for the show were inspired by that feeling.
One of the larger pieces combined rich rust and copper-toned roses with vibrant green hydrangea and zinnias, glossy magnolia foliage, branching materials, and layers of texture.
I love the contrast in that design.
You have the refinement of the roses sitting beside materials that feel more natural, organic, and almost wild. The branches create movement and line, while the different textures keep your eye moving through the design.
That contrast is a big part of what makes floral design interesting to me.
We don’t always need everything to match perfectly.
Sometimes the beauty is in putting two things together that you wouldn’t normally expect to see side by side.
Letting Line and Space Become Part of the Design
Another design from the program was a lower, more horizontal composition using sunflowers, roses, textural greens, branching materials, and deep earthy tones.
At first glance, the sunflowers may feel familiar, but the shape of the design changes the entire feeling.
Instead of creating something round and symmetrical, the branches and flowers move outward, allowing space between the materials.
That negative space is just as important as the flowers.
It gives your eye a place to rest and lets individual stems become more important.
One of the things I talked about during the program was learning to allow the material to guide the design.
Sometimes a branch already has the perfect curve.
Sometimes a flower naturally wants to face one direction.
Instead of fighting that, I like to work with it.
That is where some of the most interesting designs happen.
Texture, Texture, Texture!!!
If I had to choose one word that really stood out to me while designing within Discover, it would probably be texture.
The hand-tied bouquet I created is a good example of that.
Soft blush roses were paired with vivid orange pincushion protea, golden celosia, burgundy foliage, and looping grasses.
The grasses don’t simply frame the bouquet. They move in and around the flowers, creating circles, curves, and layers.
That changes the bouquet from something simply pretty into something you want to look at a little longer.
You start noticing the details.
And that is one of my favorite parts of floral design.
I want someone to see the overall design first, but then I want them to look again and discover something they didn’t notice the first time.
More Than Recreating a Design
That is also why I enjoy teaching.
I don’t want someone to leave one of my programs thinking, “Now I know how to make Kari’s arrangement.”
I would much rather they leave thinking, “Now I understand why that worked.”
Once you understand line, texture, focal area, proportion, color, movement, and scale, you can take those ideas and make them your own.
And that is where creativity really begins.
There is room in this industry for so many different styles of floral design, and I think that is one of the reasons I still love it after all these years.
There is always something else to learn.
There is always another flower to discover.
There is always another technique to try.
And there is always another designer who sees something completely differently than you do.
Coming Home Inspired
By the time I headed home to Texas, I was tired in the best possible way.
I had spent the week designing, talking about flowers, meeting new people, learning, laughing, and being surrounded by some incredibly creative people.
I came home with new friendships, new ideas, and even more appreciation for this industry.
A huge thank you again to Sequoia Floral International for allowing me to be part of such an important milestone, and congratulations on 50 years.
Thank you as well to Flora Haven, United Wholesale, Teleflora, OASIS Floral Products, and everyone who helped behind the scenes to make the week and the design program possible.
California was good to this Texas flower girl.
And this is only the beginning of the story.
Over the next few blogs, I’m going to share more of the American Floral Trends that inspired the designs from my California program, the color stories behind them, and how I interpreted each one through flowers.
For this first one, though, Discover seemed like the perfect place to start.
Because after all these years in flowers, I still think one of the best parts of being a designer is discovering what comes next.
Kari Gaudet, AIFD, CFD
Owner & Creative Director
The Flower Place | Beaumont, Texas
Your Local Flower Girl
