Mountain Laurel, with its curves and extreme turns, is a favorite ingredient of mine and our clients’. Her branches reach out in a multitude of gestures like a quick sketch of lightning in an open prairie. I use a lot of mountain laurel at @rwguild because I’ve found I can reuse the same branch for at least a month and she’s perfect for the large scale arrangements I and my team make there. Even though we reuse the same branch for much longer than we can use other floral material, when it’s finally time to replace, branches take longer to breakdown and are harder to compost. Branches and trees take many years to develop before they’re the appropriate size to design with. We often use branches that are at least a decade if not several decades old and I often wonder if this is the right way. I love working with @spadaflora to procure branches because Nicole and I talk a lot about mindfulness around where the branches and trees are coming from and if the removal of certain branches are beneficial or harmful to the tree and the ecosystem. How do we continue to be responsible and loving stewards? I envision the day where florists are able to use branches knowing they are chosen and cut from trees or ground who benefit from the pruning. Wouldn’t it be beautiful to confidently know our choices in design benefited the diversity of our local forests? That we were in conversation with the living world in a way that aligned with her rather than against. A way that was collaborative rather than extractive? If you too think about this and have ideas of how we might move toward this future, I’d love to hear from you. -@alexwcrowder