Create a Bouquet with Downtown Farmers’ Market Floral Vendors

Beautiful blooms for your own bouquet await at a new event in Downtown Des Moines (DSM). Check out Bouquet Making 101 at The Stuffed Olive from, following the Downtown Farmers’ Market presented by UnityPoint Health – Des Moines to choose your own flowers and foliage for a floral arrangement you create yourself. You can even take it home at the end of the event for just $30!

Bouquet Making 101 Event Q+A

We’ve reached out to several flower vendors who will be at the event, including:

• Aundrea Eilers, Wren & Willow Farm
• Jason and Jessica Mortvedt, Iowa Lavender
• Meredith Nunnikhoven, Barnswallow Flowers

How long have you been a vendor at The Market?

Aundrea Eilers: This is our third season as a vendor at The Market.

Jason and Jessica Mortvedt: This is Iowa Lavender's second year at the Des Moines Downtown Farmers' Market. Our farm is just outside of Ames on Highway 30 and it's a quick drive to Downtown DSM. We love bringing our relaxing hand-crafted lavender products, delicious lavender lemonade and fresh cut lavender for everyone to enjoy.

Meredith Nunnikhoven: This is our first season at The Market, but we’ve been in the flower farming business for 14 years. This is our first return to a major metro market. We used to sell sweet corn in the ‘90s at Historic Valley Junction. We’re back at The Market to get feedback on our Compostable Vase invention, and the Downtown Farmers’ Market is a great opportunity for that.

Why did you choose to participate in the Bouquet Making 101 event?

AE: I love growing and working with flowers and enjoy being able to pass that joy onto others.

JJM: Lavender is a gorgeous bundled all together, but adding lavender to a bouquet of mixed flowers adds a little bit of whimsy, elegance and of course a lovely relaxing scent.

MN: I wanted to sign up for this event because it shows people not only our investment in connecting with community and teaching, but it’s a fun time to connect with curious and inquiring minds a step beyond just buying the product. It opens this whole world that people didn’t know existed. The flower farming movement is growing, and wouldn’t it be nice if in every grocery store, it was all local flowers?

What flowers / advice will you be providing?

JJM: We will be providing our long stem lavender called Sensational. The beautiful blooms have a long stem that makes it perfect for bouquets.

MN: We’ll be debuting the Compostable Vase invention. This is the first major market in the country to see it. When people come to class, they’ll see something special because the whole product will be compostable from the flowers to the vase. Since we’re a sustainable farm, we no longer use glass, tenor or plastic.

What recommendations do you have for those building bouquets at this event?

AE: Have fun! It’s art, so there really aren’t any rules.

JJM: Enjoy the experience of hand-selecting all the blooms for your bouquet. As you are building bouquets, you are getting to incorporate the best of the flower farms around Greater Des Moines (DSM) into your own masterpiece. Be sure to add a few sprigs of our Iowa grown lavender too.

MN: This event is a great time to ask questions and get more feedback and learn how to design these types of locally grown flowers. It’s a lot different than flowers shipped in from out of the United States. And who better to teach and inform people than the people who work with it all the time, those of us who are farmers and florists?

Bouquet Making 101 Tips

Regina Quiambao of Floral Sunset Farm provided tips for making a beautiful floral bouquet ahead of the Bouquet Making 101 classes as well as tips for caring for your flowers at home. See her recommendations below:

1. Start with larger, focal flowers and fill in with flowers that have multiple stems and small clusters of flowers.
2. Add a secondary flower (flowers that are single stem, cup shape or daisy like flowers and smaller than the focal).
3. Add texture flowers next (flowers or pods that have an interesting texture on them).
4. Add a line or spike flowers (flowers that add height).
5. Finally, add foliage.

When Quiambao makes bouquets, she considers the color and the mood of the bouquet. Focal flowers set the direction. Pair with colors that complement or contrast each other. If pairing contrasting colors, find flowers with variegated colors. This acts as a bridge in pairing two contrasting colors. The color wheel is a great tool for color combination. An interesting bouquet will include different shapes, textures and colors. Different varieties and shapes of flowers, like umbrella shape blooms, cup, spike, cluster, plume and more will make it interesting. In a bouquet, use an odd number of stems (1, 3, 5, etc.). Cut all stems when finished and wrap with a rubber band and wrapping paper.

Once home, use a clean vessel and clean water and recut at an angle. Remove foliage that touched the water. Change the water, re-wash the vessel and recut the flowers as much as you can for a longer vase life. If you can, changing the water every other day works wonders in keeping the flowers alive longer. You can also place flowers where it’s cool, away from the heat vent and away from direct sunlight to help them last.

Find out more about Bouquet Making 101 or register here for a time slot. Free classes will take place from 1 – 1:45, 2:15 – 3 p.m. and 3:30 – 4:15.

There are so many fun events specific to Downtown DSM. Attend annual events like the Downtown Des Moines Farmers’ Market, World Food & Music Festival and Holiday Promenade or find live music happening each week through the "Live Music This Week in DSM” blog series.