Building Bouquets Out of Space, Movement, and Color

By Abraham Storer Photos by Agata Stoer May 10, 2023

Danielle Sargent and Julia Lund, owners of Honeybee Bouquets, are preparing for their busiest holiday. The two met waitressing at Mac’s Shack, an experience that has proved surprisingly helpful when their Wellfleet-based floral design studio gets inundated with orders. “You prep and prep and stress and then it’s over in six hours,” says Lund.

There are other things to do before Mother’s Day, like make graphics for marketing and cultivate collaborations with other businesses, but flowers are at the center of their work. Since starting their studio in 2020, they have established five growing locations, most on the properties of family members.

“I didn’t even ask,” says Lund. “I just showed up at my brother’s house one day and started digging holes.” They grow most of the flowers they sell, crafting bouquets that are “local and in-season” rather than “shipped in and laden with pesticides,” says Sargent.

In late April, the Honeybee workspace at Lund’s house in Wellfleet was already stocked with buckets full of daffodils, foraged bittersweet, and tulips that they planted in the fall and had recently harvested, pulling them bulb and all from the soil, which allows them to be stored for six to eight weeks in cold conditions.

“I associate Mother’s Day with spring flowers like tulips and daffodils,” says Sargent. But their bouquets are based on what is fresh, adds Lund, so all planning is contingent on what is blooming. “Last year we had some stunning dark blue hydrangeas and almost-black calla lilies,” says Sargent.

They talk about flowers in the same way that painters talk about their artwork. Lund says she gravitates more toward tonal colors. “I go more toward yellows and light pink,” says Sargent. “Danielle goes for more space and movement,” says Lund. “I go for density.” They talk about “negative space,” “round and spiky shapes,” “circular spaces,” and “nuance” when describing the decision-making that goes into building a bouquet.

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Tagged With: Danielle Sargent, Honeybee Bouquets, Julia Lund Filed Under: Makers, Visual Stories