We just wrapped up our 4th edition of the Flower and Garden Retreat! This was a super special group. Each participant was a solo traveler. The group meshed together beautifully! I’ll share photos in a few posts because we did so much, while at the same time, we slowed the schedule down this year to allow more restful time and spaciousness for our guests. Some of our guests request privacy so not everyone will appear in photos online.
The retreat started on Tuesday as the guests trickled in, we greeted them with Portuguese snacks: salgados (salty snacks like empada and croquete), local cheese, nuts, fruit, bread with Portuguese goat butter. jam, fresh strawberries, and cured meats and cheese.
Each participant received a Portuguese basket with a locally made apron, a special booklet for the event, flower clippers, and a special hand-printed Herbarium notebook to take pressed flowers home.
After settling into their small cottages, the guests gathered in our outdoor floral studio for an exploratory workshop in flower arranging. After giving a few small tips on working with flower stems, I let the students explore on their own without constraints, rules, or guidance. The vases we used were by the José Franco pottery studio. José Franco, was the grandfather of Diogo, the owner of Aldeia da Mata Pequena where we stay the entire week.
After the flower class, we walked up to the windmills together at sunset to forage flowers. We returned to the main house to eat a dinner created by Teresa who created a fresh pea soup and a chickpea curry with fresh toppings of herbs and yogurt. Curry is a very popular food in Portugal with many variations stemming from the former colonies and this was Teresa’s version which pulls ideas from her Portugal and Macau roots and uses her homemade curry paste!
The following day, after breakfast in our cottages which includes a daily delivery of fresh wood-fired baked bread, we gathered on the main terrace for a workshop on native flowers and flower pressing with plant biologist, gardener, and native plant expert, João Cunha Ferreira.
After the workshop, we gathered on the upper terrace for a sun-drenched lunch created by plant-based cook. Marta Toscano Rico. Lunch was light, seasonal, and beautiful with seeded crackers, fresh pea spread, cashew lemon aioli, ricotta and mushroom parchment bags, with cauliflower rice and pesto. Egg salad with fresh chives, and salads with Queijo do Ilha!
That was just the first 24 hours. I look forward to sharing more posts about this year’s retreat.
A huge thank you to our beautiful group of guests and of course Paula Guimarães who makes it all happen along with our production assistant Paula P.
If you’d like to join us in 2025, we actually only have 3 spots left! Book here or send me a message to register your interest or ask more questions.
Honeysuckle season is here! I procured a few cuttings to plant in pots several months ago and they are finally taking off and climbing up the wall. I am now just awaiting buds. In the meantime, I have foraged many fragrant, wispy stems and in combination with the sweet peas I am growing right now, they are perfect. These photos are an older arrangement I did with honeysuckle, oat grass, and wild oregano. Photographed by Sanda Vuckovic for Gardenista.
Don’t underestimate the impact of carefully selected wild grasses and seedpods for arrangements, When paired, with a one-of-a-kind ceramic vase, the result is textured and interesting. The beautiful jug is from Aldeia da Mata Pequena and the grasses were foraged by @flowermob.
Get inspired by the Portuguese countryside on one of our flower and garden retreats!
I was invited by Faith Flowers to lead a group of floral designers and gardeners through Lisbon a few weeks ago. It was a lovely opportunity to curate a city walk focused on flowers and gardens, wandering our way through Jacaranda laden squares, iconic Lisbon flower shops, and city green spaces: both public, private, and secret (!) as well as flora-inspired cultural sites. Thank you to all the guides and contributors including the always amazing co-host Paula Guimarães. Here are some of our stops:
- Florista Ferreira Borges: Campo de Ourique´s 3rd generation flower shop.
-Veronika Blyzniuchenko’s “The Beauty is a Choice” A temporary exhibit of fanciful flora and fauna paintings inspired by Portuguese azulejos and gardens.
-Jardim da Estrela with Tomás Tojo who highlights important species in the garden with historical and botanical context.
-A secret garden cafe located in a former palace and home of a natural science magazine founded in 1902. Lunch was petiscos of course! @broteriacafe
-Nuno Prate’s hidden botanical library and cabinet of curiosities.
-The city’s oldest flower shop: Pequeno Jardim.
-Nuno Prate’s wildly inspiring verdant indoor garden and tropical plant collection.
Thank you to all the people who contributed to this special walk and the 21 ladies who let me drag them through the city for some epic walking. Feel free to steal this list for your own flower and garden walk! If you’d like to visit the private spaces on the tour or have a more extensive floral experience in Portugal, visit the links below!
If you’d like to be part of an experience like this in Lisbon, sign up for our FLOWER AND GARDEN RETREAT, or put your name on the list for interest in in person experiences and workshops.
Last week I had the chance to host and teach a flower class for 21 ladies from Faith Flowers. We had a two day program that included a flower and garden walk in Lisbon.
We held the class at Aldeia da Mata Pequena and started the day with coffee and pastel de nata and an introduction to the story of the village by Ana Partidario. Next, we had an introduction to foraging with myself and João Ferreira. After we went out on a short walk to the meadows near the windmills for flowers and to view (not cut!) the wild orchids. Some of the flowers we harvested and worked with included wild native snapdragon, cabbage flowers, wild chrysanthemum, wild mustard, wild rose, wild valerian and many more!
We brought our flowers back for conditioning and then I did a large-scale wildflower demonstration. After the demo, we had a lovely plant-based lunch by Marta Toscano Rico who uses traditional Portuguese ingredients and methods in new ways. The menu was extensive but a few highlights included: lupine bean spread and pea and avocado spread with seeded crackers, Algarvian carrots, Leek tart, and an array of seasonal salads. Fruit and flower infused waters were included and of course we ended with cakes and coffee.
After the lunch we made two flower arrangements in Portuguese terra cotta. We worked with flowers that we foraged ourselves and supply grown here in Portugal and some floral supply pre-foraged by João. We ended the day with a little shopping at the village store (which includes an incredible selection of ceramics by José Franco). We had an amazing team of five producing this workshop and lunch in addition to incredibly generous hosting by Aldea da Mata Pequena. Thank you as always to my incredible co-host, Paula Guimarães!
Flower assistant: João Ferreira.
Host\Producer\Catering Manager: Paula Guimaraes.
Catering: Marta Toscano Rico.
Kitchen production: Paula Paixão.
If you have a private group or corporate team interested in an in-person workshop or private flower and garden retreat here in Portugal, you can message me here.
Photo 6 by Marta.
