Boothbay Region Garden Club

Martha Blakeslee on 'Flower Arranging at the White House'

Martha writes: 

"After graduate school, where I earned a Master’s degree in art history (to go along with my bachelor’s in art history), I worked as a museum collections manager.  I began at the Georgia Museum of Art, and then later worked at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.
When my third son was born, I left the Gallery and was a full-time mom until that baby went to kindergarten.  That is when I decided I would try to work as a florist.  I was able to work part-time for one of the big event florists in DC, whose warehouse/studio was close to my house.  He was a wonderful teacher and boss, now a wonderful friend, and I worked for him for several years.  

 

In 2005, I was able to volunteer at the White House flower shop for Christmas decorating.  The chief florist at the time was Nancy Clarke, and she asked me to come back as one of their part-time florists.  I continued there until 2010, when I became the chief floral designer for the British Ambassador’s Residence.  At the same time, I began working part-time in the Office of the Curator at the White House, helping out with collections management there.  

 

I also had private clients in DC.  Essentially I had three part-time jobs that felt like more than one full-time job, and carried on until we decided to move full-time to Maine in 2016.  I went back to DC periodically to work for the Curators until the Covid shutdown, and now I am happily enjoying life on West Harbor pond. I now can garden a lot, and have been showing dahlias a bit - won a judge's award at Common Ground my first time out!"