In Bloom
At a fundraising event, everything was COMING UP ROSES—and hydrangeas, dahlias, and more
Written by Joan Tapper
Photographs by Sara Prince
With a jaw-dropping abundance of flowers and design imagination, the Rose Story Farm showcase event last November—a fundraiser for Casa del Herrero—was a huge, sold-out success. But it all started out far more modestly, says Danielle Dall’Armi Hahn, who owns the farm with her family. The author of The Color of Roses (Ten Speed Press, $35), Hahn has found myriad ways to promote the beauty and variety of the signature blooms, but this event offered something new.
“The designers installed flowers everywhere, from the entrance into living and dining rooms, into bathrooms and bedrooms, upstairs and down.”
“The original idea was to do it for fun for [floral design] clients and provide photography for them. It was just going to be for local florists, but as others heard about it, they wanted to join in. And once we got started, it was too big not to invite the public.” As a longtime admirer of the Casa and its board, she decided to turn the showcase into a benefit. “They are supportive of my business,” she adds. “We have a historic home as well, so I felt it would be a good match.”
The venue would be the 19th-century residence on the Rose Story Farm property. “The house was built in 1890 by a Boston sea captain, and it’s reminiscent of a ship,” Hahn says. “There’s a central staircase, which provides interior light and windows all around. We lived in it for 20 years, and no one has remodeled it.” When her kids left for college, the family moved to a smaller home, but they still return for the holidays. The Victorian architecture provided an apt backdrop for the wide-ranging over-the-top floral installations.
“You hear about design houses,” says Hahn, “but that can be an expensive way to do PR. We didn’t want this to cost anybody anything but time.” After her sister, Nina Dall’Armi, and staffer Alex Ivory came up with the idea, they put virtually no restrictions on the designers, who were free to use anything on the property—roses, of course, dahlias, hydrangeas, hellebores, lots of greens, persimmons and lemons, vegetables, and fruit. They could take as many roses as they wanted and use any props they found on the farm. Otto and Sons Nursery and Florabundance also contributed blooms. “No one had to buy anything,” Hahn notes. “They could do as little or as much as they wanted. They just had to come up with a design.”
Eventually 17 teams—from Santa Barbara, Ojai, and Los Angeles—participated, and although some planned to do modest arrangements, “when people saw what the others were doing, they got inspired.”
The Santa Barbara Garden Club and Casa del Herrero both took part, and Rose Story Farm’s designer, Claudio Cervantes, worked on the outdoor table arrangements and the large urns. Inside, at the top of the stairs, was a photo booth where guests could pose among prolific blooms. The visitors were entertained by opera singers Dorothy Gall and Geoff Hahn in the music room. The results tickled the senses with visual beauty, fragrances wafting through the house, and the sounds of music.
Toast Santa Barbara drew on a dream narrative for the fanciful branch-hung bower on a sleeping porch.
The designers installed flowers everywhere, from the entrance into living and dining rooms, into bathrooms and bedrooms, upstairs and down. Two designers shared the kitchen, with Your Creative Light Designs even filling the dishwasher and oven with flowers, as well as setting them on tables, while Pacwest Blooms placed their arrangements in the dining half of the room.
SR Hogue took over the bay window sitting room and created a tea setting there. Teresa Strong installed a tribute to Wendy Foster using dress forms and clothing in the dressing room.
Jenn Sanchez of Jenn Sanchez Designs incorporated rare plantings and red roses in her creation in the library. She says, “Rather than a formal arrangement, I opted for a large central tower to live at the center of the room, experiential in that visitors can walk around and interact with it.”
Kim Curtis of Toast envisioned a boy spending the night at his grandmother’s house and imagined a scenario for one of the bedrooms and an adjoining sleeping porch: “When she tucks him into bed for the night, she places armfuls of roses from her garden on his nightstand and around the room.”
For the master bath, Ashley Morgan of Ojala Floral had a vision. “I was inspired by the painting of what I imagined to be the Italian countryside hanging above the clawfoot tub,” she says. “I selected large and round antique hydrangeas from the garden as the focal flower accented with waist-high, blushy Princess Charlene de Monaco roses from the farm.”
One of the designers summed up her enthusiasm: “We never get to design what we want. We’re always led by clients. I was incredibly thrilled to design with no budget, no design constraints, no color demands.”
Says Hahn, “It was so surprising to see what people could do. People were blown away. You see how creative everyone is.”
