Flowers for a First Lady

Local woman travels to Washington to create floral arrangements for 104th First Ladies' Luncheon

By Christy Nadalin
Posted 5/21/18

It's a long-standing tradition, and it's not easy to get one of the coveted invitations to this inside-the-beltway rite of spring for Washington's female power-brokers, movers and shakers. Started by …

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Flowers for a First Lady

Local woman travels to Washington to create floral arrangements for 104th First Ladies' Luncheon

Posted

It's a long-standing tradition, and it's not easy to get one of the coveted invitations to this inside-the-beltway rite of spring for Washington's female power-brokers, movers and shakers.

Started by the Congressional Club in 1912, each of the nearly 700 members may invite up to three guests, making the list a national (and even global) who's who, many of whom will fly in from across the pond to be one of the ladies who lunch with the First Lady.

"American grown" was the directive for the year, and Mary Kate Kinnane, and award-winning floral designer who runs The Local Bouquet out of Little Compton, teamed up with DC-area floral designer Kelly Shore to lead the team of volunteer floral designers tasked with creating more than 200 centerpieces, a floral wall, grifts, and other arrangements for the event.

Ms. Kinnane brought in Julie Christina of Bristol, Educations Programs Manager at Blithewold and herself a talented floral designer.

All three women are strong proponents of the "slow flowers" movement which, if you are familiar with the "slow food" movement founded in Italy in 1986 in an effort to preserve regional cuisine and encourage the use of local products, it's basically the same thing. No tulips traveled from the Netherlands for this event.

"You've heard of farm to table," said Ms. Christina. "This is field to vase."

Last Friday, Ms. Christina traveled to Washington, D.C. to join the other designers cutting, prepping, and arranging truckloads of flowers for the event. It's a tremendous honor to be chosen, of course — but there's more to it than just window dressing. The bipartisan event raises a great deal of money, with a different charity selected as the beneficiary each year. For 2018, First Lady Melania Trump selected Lily's Place, the nation's first non-profit center for treating infants with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome — babies who are born addicted to heroin and other opioids.

"They're the tiniest survivors of the opioid epidemic," said Ms. Christina.

In addition to her work at Blithewold, Ms. Christina is the founder and creative director of Christina Flower Co., a family company she is launching with her husband, horticulturalist Dan Christina. For now, Ms. Christina takes on projects on an as-available basis, working with her schedule at Blithewold and taking care of two young sons and enthusiastic gardeners.

"It's all intertwined — growing, teaching, designing," she said. "All things gardening have truly been my passion, for as long as I can remember."

Julie Christina

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