As my writer friend Elaine recently reminded me: "You can't throw a stone a few feet in this area without hitting someone with a fascinating story to tell."
Petaluma-based Fallon Shea Anderson tells hers and other people's stories with her exquisite floral arrangements, designed in a distinctly natural, free form style, with dewy, fresh-cut, antique roses hand selected at dawn from Garden Valley Ranch as main characters in each unforgettable tale.
"If a potential client tells me they don't like roses, we're not a good match. For me, it's all about the roses. Mine is a timeless style, I arrange flowers how they grow in the garden, wild and whimsical and of course, rose focused. It's very nostalgic. I am actually growing the roses for your wedding, or special event right here."
Anderson has emersed herself in the rose world since finding herself in awe on her first visit to the ranch five years ago. "I'd been at school studying interior design. I was working in retail, in clothing. I wasn't in a good place. I stopped by Garden Valley on recommendation of a friend and after two hours of intoxication by fragrance, I knew that I had found where I needed to be."
So convinced was she, that the plucky, then teenager, asked for a job on the spot. "I started on a week's trial and I've been here ever since."
Floristry was a natural next-step for Anderson, as brides planning weddings at the Ranch admired her self-taught handiwork with early arrangements on site.
"Friends in horticulture ask me why I am focused so entirely on roses," she said. "With over 30,000 different varietals in the world, I tell them it's ok. It's my niche. Each rose has its own shape, fragrance, character and habits and I am addicted to fragrance."
Clients find Anderson primarily through word of mouth (a recent Martha Stewart Living spotlight on nine-acre Garden Valley Ranch, featuring a photo of the florist in the field hasn't hurt her reputation, either!). With orders for up to two weddings a weekend during peak summer months, Anderson's regularly on the road around wine country and out to the coast, spray mister in hand, as she drives her floral fantasties to top-notch destinations such as the Pelican Inn at Muir Beach and Sonoma Valley's Beltane Ranch. Many of her arrangements are destined for weddings at the Ranch itself.
She begins with a client consultation that develops into an inspiration board, drawn from the early background in interior design. Creative commissions have included the construction of custom trellises and arbors and an intricate, three-way bridal bouquet that was tied together with ribbon to split upon release at the traditional end of festivities. The day that I visited the florist in her studio she was putting finishing touches of pale pink tea roses into a vintage tea pot, for an Alice in Wonderland wedding theme. Other prototypes were more dramatic, yet each, most strikingly original in its own way. Anderson drives down to the San Francisco Wholesale FlowerMart frequently to source sweet peas and other seasonal blooms as supporting cast members to the roses she hand selects and cuts herself. Greenery's sourced from the ranch and surrounding areas.
Fragrant English-style, hybrid tea and special spray roses are amongst the more than 60 varietals laid down a quarter of a century ago at Garden Valley Ranch by rosarian, renowned author and SF Chronicle columnist Ray Reddell. The Ranch dates back to the 1880s, when a lieutenant of General Mariono Vallejo, cattle rancher Harrison Mecham built an ornate three storey Victorian for his daughter, Isabel. Sadly, the home was lost to fire in the 1980s, though trellises, a gazebo, gravel pathways and Victorian-style ranch buildings set amongst the 10,000 roses at Garden Valley, provide a genteel atmosphere of preserved heritage.
The small cottage featured in the photo collage is actually a fully renovated, railroad depot from the days when Victorian farms and ranches were connected from inland out to the coast. The tiny old depot today serves a more refined role as dressing room for bridal parties marrying on the Ranch.
A small crew, including Garden Valley Ranch owner, Mark Grim with Anderson as his most intrical ranch team member when not designing for her own business, treats roses on the ranch with respect they deserve. "We don't use any harsh chemicals, keeping everything natural. We feed the roses fish emulsion(for sale along with bare root varietals in the Ranch store) and compost tea.You could eat our roses," she said.
I watched Anderson at work in her studio on-site as she shared with me tips on home flower arranging and how to extend that precious bloom time once cut roses are in the vase. "The ideal time to cut roses is around three hours after sunrise for the best fragrance," she said. "Take off almost all of the leaves, except for maybe one or two and cut stems, under water, at an angle. Add a little sugar and a drop of bleach to the vase water, recutting the stems and changing the water every day." Don't expect roses to last more than three or four days.
Anderson has visions of expanding workshops and classes, Mother's Day champagne brunches and other public events at Garden Valley Ranch, following an extremely positive recent experience hosting a group of 16 floral arrangers from the Little Flower School of Brooklyn.
Time is the only constraint for a rose florist such as Anderson. "I can't take on two many events at one time as quantity is a major challenge when working with white heirlooms and other roses in high demand." Despite the thousands of bushes in bloom at Garden Valley Ranch at any one time, Anderson's integrity as an artist is to keep her work pure. Hers are the best of the best, earmarked for her wine country weddings and shipped, on ice to top florists in New York.
What's next for this passionate, young stylemaker in rose floristry? Her mother's wedding, at the ranch, this June. "For once, I'll get to stay and party," she said, eyeing a pail of yellow roses sitting on the countertop, awaiting her touch.
Contact Fallon Shea Anderson at Fleurs de Fallon, after checking out the dreamy floral photography on her site.
From a bride to be-- working with Fallon is wonderful! I can't recommend her enough!
Posted by: Tracie | Thursday, June 14, 2025 at 09:37 AM