Welcome to my home on the web. My name is Gloria Battista Collins. I am a slow flower designer and an artist.
As a little girl, my most vivid recollection is sitting at my Mom’s kitchen table, drawing pretty, colorful flowers around a house with my crayons, I would sit there for hours. Every few minutes, Mom would stop cooking, bend over my shoulder and tell me how pretty my flowers were, encouraging me to keep drawing.
Little by little, over many years, the seed she planted with her early encouragement blossomed within me into a full blown passion for all things flowers and a home grown business based on my love for them.
But not just any kind of flowers. My passion is for sustainably grown, locally grown slow flowers, grown either by myself in my organic flower garden or by the local flower farmers in the Lower Hudson Valley area of New York where I live with my family.
Today, after receiving extensive hands on training at the New York Flower School and with other internationally known flower designers, I design natural, whimsical, sustainably grown and locally grown flowers for weddings and farm to table events, corporate meetings, etc.
I love collaborating with brides to provide them with in season flowers that have special significance for them. I grow the flowers for their weddings myself and also use locally sourced flowers that I buy from local flower farmers.
photo by Karen Hill Photography
I also love collaborating with New York City and Hudson Valley farm to table and corporate event planners, who appreciate and want to help support the growth of our local flower farms and flower gardeners.
photo by Pat Furey
And now, this year, I’ve come full circle from those early days as a child, as I’ve started drawing flowers again, but this time they’re not in crayon.
It has taken me many years of learning how to grow my business in a slow, sustainable manner while still being the Mom I want to be to my 3 wonderful boys.
If you’re a Mom, too, I invite you to visit my blog to read more about the process and how its all come together over these many years of trial and error.
I believe its by sharing our stories honestly that we all learn from each other and I invite you to leave me a comment at any time.
And if I can help you with slow flowers for your wedding or event or if you’re interested in my watercolor paintings, or having me customize a product for you with my artwork, please contact me.