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FeedArdith in Bloom
By J. Trout Lowen
Photo by ERIC MOORE
Ardith Beveridge Maciejny moves among them, offering pointers and gentle, mom-like instruction. Mistakes are brushed aside. “That’s why they call it a class,” she assures them, “because you’re supposed to do something wrong.”
The founder and director of the Koehler & Dramm Institute of Floristry, Ardith loves both teaching and designing. “I always say I have the best job in the world,” she smiles. And it’s hard to disagree. Even on the coldest, darkest January day, beautiful flower faces and their moist, perfumed breath surround her.
Flowers have taken her all around the world, including some very important places. Ardith recently helped design the floral arrangements at the White House for the annual presidential Easter egg hunt. As a member of the Society of American Florists, she has been involved in the last four presidential inaugurations, heading up the design team for the Texas-Wyoming Ball in 2005, attended by more than 11,000 people. Ardith has also published several books and DVDs on flower arranging and design, and is a frequent guest on HGTV and KARE 11.
Not surprisingly, Ardith draws on nature for inspiration. More surprisingly, so did her mother, although she didn’t know it at the time. “My mom got my [first] name out of a True Confessions magazine. I always, always didn’t like it … and then a friend of mine many years ago did a name search for me, and [found that] it means, “flowering field” in Hebrew.
“I was predestined to be here,” she says with conviction.
Ardith has bloomed wherever she has been planted, and she’s been replanted a lot. Born in a small town in South Dakota, she attended 17 different schools before high school graduation. During one of those moves, a friend’s parents offered her a job at their floral shop. She accepted. Every move thereafter, she’d find the nearest flower shop and apply for a job. Her career took root. “Every time I go away and think that maybe I should try something else, everything always pulls me back,” she says. “Sometimes you have to lay back and let the river take you.”
The current took Ardith to Koehler & Dramm one wintry day 18 years ago. Then-owner Rick Dramm gave her a tour of the new facility, stopping at a small conference room. Without thinking, Ardith blurted out, “What you need to have in here is a class.”
Dramm agreed, and the Institute of Floristry was born.
Clearly, Ardith is more of a paddler than a drifter. Upon learning that Koehler & Dramm couldn’t afford to send her to far away classes or trade shows, she wrote letters to floral design schools around the world proposing an exchange program. Since then, she’s traveled as a visiting instructor to Brazil, China, France, Holland, and Ukraine, and in return has hosted instructors from many other countries. She’s also a design-team member for Teleflora and Smither Oasis Co., a manufacturer of foam products for the floral and agricultural industries. She recently became the spokesperson for ReCreations, a manufacturer of floral containers made of natural fiber.
Ardith is proud of her achievements—all attained by working with the flowers she loves. “I really think that your higher power will give you anything you ask for. I tell my students this all the time,” she says. “Nothing is ever put in your head that you can’t achieve.”
J. Trout Lowen is a Minneapolis freelance writer.
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