First & foremost: you! I love talking with clients to get to know you and the feeling you would like to create. I’m also so influenced by architecture, landscape and interior design, photography, music, writing, painting, film, and, above all, how mother nature creates her own incredible designs. I spend a lot of time out in nature, especially at our cabin on an island in Puget Sound, looking at how moss moves up a tree trunk or covers a rock; how the ditches are full of native grasses that lead up to bushes like huckleberry, salal, and Oregon Grape, which in turn are shaded by the deciduous and conifer overstory. —Endlessly educational & inspirational.

I love old gardening books like Gardens for Small Country Houses by the great Gertrude Jekyll. I read Bill Mollison’s Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual religiously. La Musa de las Flores’ The Artistry of Flowers as well as Emily Thompson Flowers are endlessly inspirational. For flower farming guidance and advice I lean heavily on the books, workshops and videos from local farm Floret.

One of my favorite podcasts is Debra Prinzer’s “Slow Flowers Podcast.”  Debra is local to the Seattle area, and I have this kind of pride-by-proximity in the fact she founded and spearheads the oh-so-important Slow Flowers movement. When people ask what it is I usually ask if they know about Slow Food. They almost always do. So I say It’s like that. But for flowers. It’s all about local & seasonal.

My studio is run out of my urban Seattle home. That way I can spend less on overhead and more on time & design. I have a crazy number of plants for such a small courtyard garden, but they bring such joy. Last summer I finally received the news that an allotment was available in a local community garden. It’s 10’x10’ and makes me so happy. It’s a permaculture garden with veggies, herbs and flowers. Some absolutely make it into your designs.