Floral Art

This week in the Horticulture Seminar, we heard from DaNae Beebe of Floral Art, which is a retail flower shop known for it's original designs, located in Idaho Falls. DaNae was a student at BYU-Idaho when the floral design program was still very young, and she treasures her time spent here as a student. Being from the Boise area, she worked at a floral shop in that area for about twelve years before coming to Idaho Falls and working at Floral Art. DaNae is now a co-owner of Floral Art, along with Ian and Tania Whipple.

Although the store serves as a retail flower shop in the Idaho Falls area, they also have contracts with many hotels in Jackson, WY. In January, Ian and Tania Whipple will also be expanding to to include contracts with the two Four Seasons Resorts on the island of Lanai, Hawaii.


During DaNae's presentation, she took raw materials and crafted this design. It was exciting to see how a professional floral artist can take a few simple sticks and flowers to create a design of beauty. Something that she mentioned throughout the presentation, is that you have to be able to work with what you've got; problem solving skills are a must in the floral design business. Also, she mentioned that a person having a good work ethic and working hard is at times more important than being a really, really good designer. Of course it helps, but it's not everything.

Something that Floral Art prides themselves in is producing quality work. They are known for being a little more expensive, but that is because the flowers and materials they use are of higher quality, and typically last longer. Also, they encourage their designers to treat the designs as if they were their own, "If this was mine, how would I want things to be?" she said. By doing so, it creates a sense of pride in the designs created and sold in the shop.

Floral Art has taken BYU-Idaho students as interns throughout the years, usually having at least one a year, if not one each semester. For more information about Floral Art, their telephone number is 208-529-4887.

Be sure to check the blog during the week for any updates on next week's speaker, Josh and Eric Marble, of Chanshare Farms.