We just wrapped up our 2025 May Floral Retreat here in Portugal! Wow! Each year is slightly different and equally abundant in flowers, good energy, and beautiful people. This year we had 9 guests from 5 countries spanning ages 29-70. It felt extra lovely at this time in the world to be able to sit to down together with strangers from very diverse backgrounds and come together over flowers, gardens, and nature. I have so many photos and details to share! I am usually either teaching or bopping about with the camera so I never have many photos of myself but you can see the joy here that the guests experience, and that is what it is all about. Thank you so much to our participants for traveling all the way to Portugal to share this experience. I’ll share more details in a few posts but here is a highlight.

Karina with her freestyle wildflower arrangement.

Native strawberries from João Cunha Ferreira’s workshop and the guest baskets which include hand printed herbariums, handmade programs, floral scissors, locally made aprons, and olive flowers.

Karla with her terra cotta pitcher arrangement. The vessels are custom made by the José Franco studio nearby the village.

Sue with her flower crown at the Casa do Vinho where we hold most of our activities.

A lush plant-focused lunch made by Marta Toscano Rico.

A floral bedecked dessert.

Roh with her spacious wildflower creation.

A visit to a flower garden which operates as an organic flower farm in Colares, Flores Daqui.

Flower crown making time!

A cozy traditional dinner while wearing our festive flower crowns.

Our table was simply decorated with traditional dishes, slate blue linen, and wild roses.

Time for another dessert sprinkled with flowers!

After foraging for edible flowers and herbs with Fernanda Botelho, we created this flower salad and a nasturtium and linden pesto together with Marta’s lunch.

Wild roses and foraged flowers.

Lavender wands and a surprise lavender cake!

The magical flower garden down a hillside at Flores Daqui.

Paula helping me set up our flower studio.

Our outdoor floral studio for the week.

Ebtihal with her lace-like floral composition.

We laid the mix and match picnic table with Portuguese linen, wild roses, hypericum, wild campanula, and native strawberries.

Kathleen and her hand-tied bouquet at the village.

Jonah at her adorable cottage! Each guest stays in a cottage in the village.

Karla and Shannon’s aubergine compositions.

A low bowl centerpiece made with compostable techniques in a custom made bowl that each guest took home.

Catarina teaching a traditional Portuguese craft.

Our Dia da Espiga bouquet and table set by Constança Cabral and myself.

Look at our beautiful group!

We received some lovely unsolicited feedback that I wanted to share below:

Thank you so much for such a wonderful week. I’ve never done anything like this so I had no idea what to expect but the entire week was absolute perfection. The flower activities, the food, the field trips, the guest speakers, the location…there wasn’t a single thing I would change. (Which is saying a lot because I make a living telling people how to improve things.) you not only taught us about flowers, but also about the Portuguese culture, and about ourselves. I can’t put into words how thankful I am for the experience but hopefully you get the idea.

-Lisa

This is the most beautiful, considered, relaxing, interesting and thoughtful retreat one could ever imagine. It’s stunning in the most unpretentious way, so genuine, so truthful… I was in awe of Chelsea’s and Paula’s dedication and hard work. So if any of you are considering it for next year and aren’t quite sure yet whether to take the plunge or not, I’d say do it!! You won’t regret it.

-Constança

Thank you for the flower retreat of a lifetime!

-K

A huge thank you to all of our collaborators! The retreat would not be the same without the contribution of these art, garden, flower, food, and event experts!

Paula Guimarães: Co-host and event production (and all around good energy booster!:) Check out her Portugal rental properties at The Fig Collection.

Aldeia da Mata Pequena who goes above and beyond and lets us forage on the property.

João Cunha Ferreira: Native flower and herbarium instructor. Forager for all of our floral ingredients. 

Catarina Seixas: Herbalist instructor

Tomás Tojo from Jardins Abertos: Lisbon garden guide

Helena Loução: Watercolor instructor

Flores Daqui: organic flower farm in Colares

Fernanda Botelho: Herbalist and foraging guide

Constança Cabral: Floral history instructor and all around wonderful contributor to production! Constança taught us all about the Dia da Espiga tradition. More on that soon!

Paula P. Production assistant who helps make all of the meals happen. We adore her!

Marta Toscano Rico: Creates most of our meals with a beautiful light, plant focused touch.

If you would like to book in for 2026, we are already taking bookings! We have 7 places left. Click here for details.