Flowerstock 2021: A Focus on Hope and All Things Flowers

Flowerstock 2021 is happening November 9th. We are so excited to share our love of flowers, floral design, and making a positive impact on the world through our work. Flowerstock brings our community together. We can grow and learn through classes taught by the best educators inside and outside of our floral industry.

As we gear up for the big day, we want to look back at Flowerstock’s inspiration and values, what we’ll be focusing on in 2021, and reminisce about what we learned last year. 

How Flowerstock Started

The first Flowerstock formed from Holly Chapple’s vision of a celebration of all things flowers. She wanted to bring together the top educators in a format that was fun and accessible for designers.

Flowerstock was originally hosted at her Hope Flower Farm, but due to Covid, had to move online for 2020. Surprisingly enough, that only helped Flowerstock grow. We were able to involve more teachers and attendees, and what could be more comfortable than watching from your own home on your own timeline? 

The move to virtual has kept intact that vision of bringing together community in a fun manner, but made it more accessible than ever. We’re excited to keep growing as we host Flowerstock 2021 online again.

Flowerstock 2021’s Theme: Hope

After a very long pandemic, we all need a little hope. Everyone has had to deal with extra stress this past couple of years, but we’ve often had to do it without a fully functioning support system thanks to Covid restrictions. 

As Holly has shared, her family has been going through a very difficult time recently with her husband Evan’s cancer diagnosis. He is her rock and support through everything she’s built, including Flowerstock. Right now, Holly, her family, and her team need to focus on hope, and we’re sure you could use some, too. 

This year we’re also focusing on the hope that we can make a positive impact on the environment through sustainable floristry. We know that as florists and curators of natural beauty, we can have a profound impact. We want to preserve that beauty for future generations. All of our 2021 educators will be using sustainable floristry methods in their presentations. 

Looking Back at 2020

As you can see looking at our line-up from Flowerstock 2020, our teachers shared the values that our theme of hope will focus on this year: using foam-free arranging methods, building confidence and resilience, and celebrating everything we love about flowers.

Here’s a look back at our 2020 educators:

• Holly Chapple of Holly Heider Chapple Flowers showed us how to design with her signature pillow armature.
• Jessica Hall of Harmony Harvest demonstrated the basics of designing with a pin holder flower frog.
• Christin Geall of Cultivated by Christin showed how to make a statement piece using color theory and foam-free design.
• Sarah Richardson of Leafy Couture encouraged us to use bolder color and texture choices.
• Paulina Nieliwocki of Blue Jasmine Floral taught how to create a wild and whimsical centerpiece design.
• Susan Mcleary shared her methods for creating layered, foam-free floral arches.
• Leatrice Eiseman of the Eiseman Center for Color Information & Training, as well as the Pantone Color Institute, answered all of our questions about color in a live Q&A. 
• Gregor Lersch of Gregor Lersch Design showed us how to make reusable armatures out of birch and twig.
• Sarah Simon of The Mint Gardener demonstrated watercolor use on paper flowers, and how painting can be a mindful escape.
• Quynh Nguyen of Pink and Posey showed how beginners or experts can craft realistic paper flowers from crepe. 

• Debra Prinzing of Slow Flowers Society encouraged us to stand out by better telling our personal story and brand message through the words we share.

    
• Carlene Thomas of Healthfully Ever After shared how we can focus on dietary wellness through addition, not taking away.
• Julie Tobi of J. Eliza Creative helped us focus on our passion and find fulfillment in what we do.
• Jacob Eastham of Thinkerton Agency taught us how to use creative problem solving in our personal and professional lives.
• Megan Pollard of We Choose Joy gave us four strategies to empower teams to succeed

If you attended Flowerstock 2020, you still have access to all of this amazing content. Make use of it!

Flowerstock 2021 attendees will be able to watch and rewatch classes as many times as they want. This event is all about building up our confidence as florists, and sometimes we need to hear a message more than once. 

Be sure to follow @flowerstockathope on Instagram for details about our 2021 educators, tickets, and more. Also keep an eye on @hollychapple, as she’ll be sharing Lives about Flowerstock 2021. We can’t wait for you to join us on November 9th for our live classes and to gather together as a floral community.