Lunaria Gardens

A few common plants in City Park, New Orleans, in January. Live oak (Quercus virginiana), Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides), desiccated resurrection fern (Pleopeltis polypodioides), and palmetto (Sabal). The epiphytic (tree dwelling) plants are not harming their host - they take advantage of the oak’s ability to concentrate minerals and moisture. The Spanish moss houses snakes, bats, and even a species of spider that exclusively nests in this plant. Palmetto was historicall...y used for roof thatching, as a starchy vegetable, and for weaving baskets. Here I trim back the large frond into a shape more usable in floral design. T-shirt: @dodobagels (sesame plant illustration) #plantwalk #ethnobotany #plantmedicine #wildplants #plantid #plantidentification #foraging #wildfoodlove #botany #botanist #tropicalplants #neworleans #nola #nolaplants #liveoak #palmetto #spanishmoss #resurrectionfern #herbalism #wildedibles #queerplants #queerbotany #crazyplantlady #plantgeek #plantnerd #southernplants #louisiana #growerdesigner #plantsman #botanicalforagersunitedsocietyinc

Kristen and Murph explore the flora of Clouet Gardens in St. Claude, New Orleans.

Reid + Fabian’s intimate Rittenhouse apartment wedding was featured in this season’s issue of @modluxweddingsphl! We loved providing florals and candles for this botanical, light-filled, 8-guest gathering. Read about their meet-cute and proposal in the mag (last pic). Floral design: @lunariagardens Flower farms: @lunariagardens, @jig_bee, @thebloomflowerfarm, @laughingladyflowerfarm, @florestemporis, @cultivatingjoyflowers Design assistant: @flowerclvb ... Photography: @lovebyjoemac Catering: @12stcatering Cake: @whippedbakeshop Suits: @hhcustomtailor

From the depths of quarantine fatigue, I’ve heard some folks say that they have nothing to look forward to anymore. And in some ways, I know what they mean. In the human realm, we tend to mark milestones with gatherings - birthdays and weddings and congratulations. I’ve been missing them hard, trying to make educated guesses about when we can enjoy them again. But Mother Nature’s world she is altogether unbothered. This season, the garden is what kept me sane. The plants, th...e insects, the birds - even the fucking groundhogs - they all have their own rhythm and reason. At times when I could have crumpled, I was distracted by the desire to keep up, to celebrate the first buds, to soak up the sunshine, to honor the continuous unfolding of life’s abundance. I’m always looking forward to the next season, scheming how I can improve my relationship with plants in order to share them with others. Narcissus has always been a spring favorite - it’s one of the earliest blooms, hardy and pest-resistant as all get out, and the scent brings me back to family photos in our Easter best. This fall, one of the varieties we added was Sir Winston Churchill, a highly-fragrant, award-winning cultivar. Each stem sports 3-5 ruffled, gardenia-like blooms with saffron-painted centers. I’m really looking forward to being able to include them in the April Flowers CSA. What are you looking forward to? [I’m hosting a flower giveaway! Enter before 9a Friday 12/11. See story highlight for details]

Welp, I’m laid up with period cramps, and I’m waiting on an HVAC tech because our heater decided to act up right when it started snowing, but at least I’m with the squad. Now that the farm is asleep for the winter, it’s the houseplants’ time to shine. We cherish the slivers of daylight between the long nights, exchanging inhales and exhales - alas, some rare friends to safely trade air with these days. One lesson they’ve taught me is that if someone is too high maintenance, i...t’s best to not mess with them, no matter how pretty they are. I don’t need drama queens in my life. What is something you’ve learned from plants that also has a broader application? [I’m hosting a flower giveaway! Enter before 9a Friday 12/11. See story highlight for details]

Grandmother, lost and found :: My mom and her twin brother were adopted. Some of my earliest memories involve witnessing her desperately searching for details about her biological mother, and coming up against the brick wall of 1950s Catholic services records. This was before internet, before Facebook. After one dead end after another, she put the idea to rest. Last year, my siblings and I gifted our mom a @23andme test. It took her a while to get around to it, but upon resul...ts, she found she was linked to a couple of cousins. She was nervous to contact them, but I advised her to go for it if she felt drawn to. This fall, while our family was gathered for a backyard birthday, she got a call back from one of the cousins. She excused herself from the party. Finally, after over 60 years of only knowing the barest outlines, she was speaking to someone who knew the woman who birthed her, Veronica Cullen. (Swipe to see a photo with my great grandmother, including a doggo cameo.) As my mom is developing a relationship with her blood kin, and my dad’s mother is in hospice, and it’s been 23 years since the passing of my mom-mom, I’m feeling inspired to start a family history project to record these lives and stories. And I have half a mind to do some sort of floral installation at all 3 of my grandmothers’ West Philly childhood homes Let me know if you’re interested in following along as I learn more. How does your family share its collective history? What media have you used to organize and archive the ephemera? What rituals do you have for keeping memory alive? [I’m hosting a flower giveaway. See story highlight for entry details.]

On this slice of earth, it’s the time for Marigolds. En Español: cempasúchil, from the Nahuatl cempohualxochitl. An Aztec symbol of the goddess of death, the essential oil is still used to cleanse corpses, and the flowers are used in abundance en el Día de Muertos. In Thai, it is known as , translated as star glittering. Usually yellow or orange, this variety is Ivory Moon. In the heavens, it’s the time of the new moon. Hidden by shadow, but poised to show its shin...ing face once more. In our hearts, it’s time for a new beginning. It’s time to be gentle but strong. To be observant of darkness, death medicine, and to lay to rest that whose time has come. And to recommit fiercely to life, to nurturing, to hope. Please be kind to yourself and others. Please vote. Flower model: @fran.zea

Congratulations Lauren & Michael!! (Swipe thru for cute doggo shots! ) It was so lovely to work with the family and envision a palette hinting at the Latin American locales near to both of our hearts. The Corona postponement meant instead of the peonies of June, we featured end-of-summer dahlias, zinnias, and gomphrena native to pre-Columbian Central America. And instead of an indoor country club, celebrations took place en el aire libre at a historic family estate. It felt ...like everything was meant to be. All the blooms were grown by womxn in the Philadelphia region: @thebloomflowerfarm, @jig_bee, @laughingladyflowerfarm, and yours truly. Shoutout to my amazing assistants @flowerclvb, @amuehl, @fran.zea Vendor squad: @shannonwellingtonweddings @saltandsonderstudio @barberella_beauty @sunnybrookgolfclub @illuminaire_ @whitegloverentals @atoz_party @chariotvalet @nutmegcakedesign @intertwinedbypatrice See more

Free flowers/ workparty/ internship opportunity! TOMORROW, Sun 12-4p, we’re hosting a workparty at 5116 Pentridge St. We’ll be getting our hands dirty in the beautiful weather, weeding, mulching, and gabbing. RSVP by 10am and take home a bunch of flowers ALSO, we’re hiring fall interns, for immediate start until mid-December, at our new home at @pentridgestation. We’re expanding our crop production area, wholesaling to local florists, planning a couple design workshops, ...and making our studio a lovely and efficient place to work. Email me [email protected] More info via link in profile!

Some scattered thoughts, this Labor Day Oof, what a month: 2 double wedding weekends, moving, then a much-needed vacation to Maine. It was so valuable to step back and recharge, amidst family and fog and ferns and lichens and waves lapping at rocky shores. Now I’m catching up: prepping for our last wedding of the season, fall planting, and drafting quotes for 20212022 couples. This holiday, I worked, because I wield the double edged sword of the business owner-operator. The... other night, my partner and I did the Proust Questionnaire, and one question asked, What is your greatest extravagance? It took us a minute to think of mine I’m quite frugal. But then we landed on my autonomy. I’ve committed to a path without job benefits, retirement, stability, because of my commitment to the command over my time. Relatedly, in response to What is your greatest happiness? my answer was the sense that one’s time is well-spent at every moment. Time is our most limited resource in this fleeting existence. And yet most of the world’s populace toils to meet basic human needs. Everyone’s time and humanity should be valued, not extracted and exploited to serve the insatiable greed of capitalist forces. Today I worked, because I’m trying to purchase land that was stolen from indigenous people, with capital built upon the labor of African slaves, with earning potential randomly inherited because of white skin. I also worked because I have the privilege of extreme schedule flexibility. And I worked because of my belief that my labor can serve the land, the ancestors, the community, the future. All this while purchasing supplies from Amazon, manufactured and distributed thanks to a concertina of exploitation. In a global pandemic, in a world full of injustice, everything feels confusing. There is certainly no ethical consumption under capitalism. And so let’s be gentle with our selves, with others. Let’s make our labor have meaning. Let’s all do our part in the movement toward liberation. Let’s fight for our humanity, the land. [Me with an armful of zinnias: Oklahoma white, Oklahoma salmon, Benary Giant Salmon, Queen Lime red, Queen Lime Blush, Queen Lime Orange.]

Perhaps a little late for their anniversary, but Juneteenth feels like the perfect day to celebrate the black joy, freedom, love of Kirtrina Baxter and Stanley Morgan. These two very special humans are connected to too many amazing people and projects to name. But related to their wedding, the ceremony was at @urbancreators’ Life Do Grow Farm, where they otherwise spend their days building community resilience with food, education, art, and celebration. And the reception was ...at @oneartcommunitycenter, home base for @soilgeneration, of which they are core members. Over the years, I’ve been awed by SG’s work in grassroots activism + advocacy. Their 4 pillars include: 1. shared black and brown leadership, 2. racial and economic justice, 3. anti-capitalism, and 4. agroecology. Now that is a platform I can get behind! This year, I started to make a small, monthly donation to their work. Maybe this holiday, you can too. In the bouquet, there were ranunculus and sweet peas from @shepardsphilly, and peonies and agrostemma grown in West Philly. Photo: @chefdobson

Today in my neighborhood, I felt the sting of tear gas - a chemical tactic banned in war, but used freely by police to disperse protestors. We’re just a stones throw from the site of MOVE, when the city bombed a residential block in 1985. Today, comrades who identified themselves as medics were shot by rubber bullets. Reporters were arrested while covering protests. Friends have been arrested for breaking curfew. People are hurting, and want justice. Sometimes that means redi...stributing merchandise from corporations. The companies that snatched up stimulus money during a pandemic, those that exploit workers, that stole this land, and extract resources the world over. As @tamikadmallory said yesterday: "America has looted black people. America looted the Native Americans when they first came here, looting is what you do. We learned it from you. We learned violence from you. If you want us to do better, then damnit, you do better. How can I do better? I’m going to start by donating to @phillybailout, helping to clean up locally-owned @52ndstreetwestphilly businesses in the morning, and getting involved with @blmphilly‘s movement to stop @phillymayor’s proposed budget increasing police funding while decreasing all other city programs. And I’m going to share flowers. There is so much going on, so much to process. I hope everyone is staying safe and taking care of themselves. In solidarity, #blacklivesmatter #defundthepolice #justiceforgeorgefloyd #justiceforbreonnataylor #justiceforahmaud #endwhitesupremacy

As I look at this bouquet I made 4 years ago, toward the beginning of my flower growing journey, I’m thinking about what we memorialize. This holiday offers us an opportunity to recognize those who have died while serving. In the traditional context, it’s for those who have served a greater idea, the idea of America, a concept with which many of us have complex relationships. But what if we reframed this? What if we memorialized those who served the greater emotional/ communi...ty/ intellectual/ humanitarian good? I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I look back at my past self, or old work, I feel a little bummed because it seems immature. Hindsight illuminates what I could have done better. But I’ve been trying to honor those old actions, former versions of self, as evidence of my progress. Seeing room for improvement is a sign that I’m learning, growing. One can never step in the same river twice. Doesn’t our old self die with every moment, and renew with the next? We have shed infinite versions of our selves, all of whom were doing their best, working toward who we are in this moment. And so let’s honor those who have died while serving the greater good, shall we?

Since all of our spring weddings have postponed, I’ve been busy pivoting to wholesaling blooms on the fly, while establishing new gardens at @pentridgestation. So I haven’t been making much time for design. But this evening, my bestie @amuehl came to the studio to play and gab. Years ago, a mutual acquaintance introduced us because we both worked with flowers, and we became fast friends. She’s assisted me with stressful weddings, housed me when I was going through a divorce,... survived food poisoning at my place in Mexico. We’ve wingwomaned at wee hour dance parties, and kept weekend coffee dates sacred, calling it church. But when we’re alone with blooms, it brings us back to our formative night of designing graduation party arrangements, fueled by whiskey mixed with some weird 7-11 brand green apple soda. Tonight she designed with the purples and whites, and I put together this spring arrangement in a palette evoking autumn, maybe? The combo of coral and burgundy seem to do that. Just 3 ingredients: La Belle salmon ranunculus, burgundy Cotinus/ smokebush, and Cytisus scoparius/ scotch broom. I believe this broom is ‘Burkwoodii’, a sterile cultivar, unlike the yellow straight species, which is invasive in the American west. I imagine that’s why I don’t see it used very often in the floral industry - it has a stigma as a weed a lot of places. But I’ve never seen it spread here in Philly. Blooms a week or two earlier than Baptisia, one of its lovely native cousins.

Introduction post! I’m Kristen, the grower/ forager/ designer behind Lunaria in West Philadelphia. I farm across several plots, primarily for weddings, but as this pandemic has shifted most of our couples’ plans, I’m now doing more wholesaling to florists. I’m glad they’re able to continue providing flowers to folks, even if they’re mostly looking for cheery brights, instead of the wedding whites I planned on! I’m 30-something, queer, polyamorous, and gender non-conforming.... Re pronouns, in the words of @rupaulofficial, you can call me he, you can call me she, you can call me Regis + Kathie Lee. I’m very emotionally connected to this city. Both of my grandmothers grew up in W Philly - one a few blocks away from my house in Cedar Park, and the other near @bartramsgarden. When I was 2, my parents bought a fixer upper just outside city limits, in a neighborhood they otherwise couldn’t afford, in order to give me a better education than the Phila School District could provide. I grew up with a hyperawareness of class - I felt poor compared to my suburban classmates, while my Tacony cousins thought I was rich. Yes, I operate a biz. But there is a subversive mission. Firstly, I want to provide alternatives to the trad floral trade, in which 80%+ of flowers are imported, many from exploited Latinx workers, relying on chemicals that are banned in the US. I want to strengthen Philadelphia’s urban habitat, economy, human connection. And I want a % of my labor + harvest to benefit grassroots orgs + the marginalized. I have too much social anxiety for canvassing or protests, but I can support movement work in other ways. Let your QT/POC and organizer peeps know I provide discounts or donations. I have a few past lives/ weird hobbies, but I especially love getting down to hip hop, afrobeat, reggaeton, Latin, house/ ball. The desire to dance to my fave music in a safe space in West Philly led me to throwing @lowfidelityphl parties at @dahlak_paradise. That led to a recent collaboration with their beer garden, @pentridgestation. We’ve been establishing new growing beds on this former vacant lot, and I’m excited to share our new journey there!

Happy 2nd anniversary! Whitney was such a beautiful and sweet spring bride! Her and Zach’s classic April wedding is our first feature on the new website! Link in bio Vendor roundup: @dannygormanphotography, @bhldn, @amesalonandspa, @crustveganbakery, @benarijewelersofficial, @minted, @overbrookgolfclub, @cultivatingjoyflowers

I often enjoy the little clusters - I hesitate to call them arrangements - I dash together from the bits left over. They’re wholly unlike their larger, more considered progenitors, carefully composed to mark weddings, birthdays, anniversaries. No, these scraps that I over harvested, or snapped off from main branches, these are just for me. I never think they’re enough to constitute anything of value, just a few paltry fragments, really. But after an unselfconscious couple of minutes, they come together with an outsize charm as if to prove that there is always glimmer in the humble. And they’re just enough as they are. [Anemone, dogwood, hellebore, narcissus, Heuchera villosa, stachys in @broadbent_pottery]