Some photos are too good to leave on your phone
We turn your favorite image into a handmade pressed floral portrait — made with real blooms from our California studio. Each piece is uniquely yours.
Floral Portraits
Your favorite photo reimagined with real, hand-pressed blooms. Turn your memories into botanical art that captures someone you love.
Botanical Name
The Language of Flowers collection. A name — a new baby, a birthday, or a milestone — spelled out in pressed botanicals and framed. A gift that grows and evolves with you.
Classes & Workshops
In-person floral portrait and flower pressing workshops across the Bay Area and Santa Cruz. Your hands-in-the-blooms, no fluff,no gatekeeping, all the floral fun.
Your favorite photo - pressed in flowers, yours forever.
There's always a photo that stops you.
A soft smile. The way the light caught a moment you didn't want to forget.
We take that image and build it into a layered, floral portrait using real pressed flowers sourced directly from the Orchid & Pine garden and local farms - handmade in our California studio.
- Custom mixed-media artwork: your photo printed on deep Fuji Matte photo paper mixed with real pressed botanicals
- Made from your image of choice— any portrait, any memory, any person you love
- Every bloom hand-selected and pressed for color, texture, and composition
- Framed and ready to hang. Completed in 3–4 weeks from your order
- Limited commission spots open from September to May in order to give your artwork the full attention it deserves.
Their name, pressed in flowers
A new baby. A milestone birthday. A person worth marking a moment for.
Our botanical name collection includes pressing a name — or a single meaningful word — into a one-of-a-kind pressed floral gift on archival paper. Handmade, one at a time. Beautiful in a nursery, a gallery wall, or wrapped as a gift.
- Custom name spelled out in hand-pressed botanicals
- Available framed or unframed on archival paper
- Every flower sourced and pressed by Charina's hands
- Perfect for new babies, birthdays, and milestone gifting
What you'll learn
How to select, harvest & press flowers for portrait work
How to select your reference photo
Floral color theory and composition
The technique of placing & adhering pressed botanicals
Finishing, framing & displaying your work
- How Commissions Work
Three steps from your photo to your wall.
Share your photo
Send us the image that matters — a portrait, a moment, a face. We'll discuss composition, mood, and choose blooms that complement the feeling of your photo.
Charina makes it by hand
Over 3–4 weeks, Charina builds your portrait starting with initial digital proofs incorporating your composition with real pressed flowers chosen from Orchid & Pine's botanical library. Additional pressed flowers may be incorporated from your garden, wedding bouquet or other milestone marker from your life.
It arrives, ready to hang
Your finished piece is carefully framed and shipped to your door. We share progress photos throughout — so you can look forward to it arriving.
Made by Charina — a trained designer who slowed down to look at flowers
Charina Cabanayan is a visual artist specializing in floral and portrait work. Her love for nature and working with the Earth led her to become a steward of the land, growing flowers on 3 acres bordering a 50-acre timber preserve near Santa Cruz, California.
Charina was formally trained in fashion design—which gave her a deep understanding of proportion, texture, and color relationships. Charina brings this background experience into her botanical art, where the same precision and patience find their fullest expression.
Today she works on recreating family portraits, mixing photography, mixed media, and pressed flowers to preserve and share your favorite moments. She also teaches seasonal workshops and hosts Sit & Craft activations monthly at the Westside Farmers Market in Santa Cruz. Today, Charina continues her art practice, incorporating graphite and watercolor techniques with the flowers she grows and presses twice a week in her studio.
Everything on this site was made by her hands.
Working with Charina has been easy from the first moment we met. Besides being an artist, she has also been the owner of a retail store, which makes a big difference because she understands the challenges that come with it.Charina is warm and personable, she reaches out often, replies promptly to emails or texts, pays attention to details, replaces items when needed, informs you about any changes or updates. She ensures every aspect of our collaboration is handled with care.
It’s been a while since I’ve taken an art class of any type. Time and money were factors, but mostly I missed something that spoke to my heart. My first interaction with Charina of Orchid and Pine was so welcoming that I knew I’d found just what I needed: flowers, learning new skills, incorporating parts of my life, and a beautiful environment. The pressed flower frame class, hosted at Home by Zinnia’s in Scotts Valley, featured a beautiful layout of needed supplies and clear, well-thought-out instructions that allowed participants to explore the process while making connections to the people involved and the images we were working with. The food, libations, and décor of Home by Zinnia’s made it a perfect Sunday evening treat. Being able to return home with a beautiful frame filled with flowers and a precious picture was exactly what my heart needed!
A beautiful and creative experience! I attended a floral frame workshop with Charina and absolutely loved it. The class was relaxing, creative, and thoughtfully guided - she’s clearly a natural teacher at heart. She also shared a beautiful variety of pressed florals, some from her own garden! I’m thrilled with the gift I made for a friend that celebrates a sweet memory. Highly recommend!
Land Acknowledgement
The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, comprised of the descendants of Indigenous people taken to missions Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista during Spanish colonization of the Central Coast, is today working hard to restore many of their traditional cultural practices, including land stewardship. The Amah Mutsun are working to develop effective relationships that will allow them to heal from the historic trauma that resulted from the tragic history of these lands. The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and Land Trust invite other Indigenous peoples and allies to join them.
Image by Sarah Star Photography
Journal
How tight should I tighten my flower press?
Why Do My Pressed Flowers Turn Brown? Top 3 Mistakes to Avoid
Tired of seeing your beautiful blooms end up in the compost bin? Floral artist Charina shares the three pivotal lessons that transformed her preservation process from frustrating to vivid. Learn why timing is everything, how to find 'peak bloom,' and why the 24-hour check is the secret to avoiding mold. Plus, get the first look at the #MayFlowersPress challenge coming this May.
How to Grow & Press: Foolproof Flowers to Press (Spring)
If you’re new to growing flowers to press, the possibilities of what to grow can seem endless.
But not all flowers press well, and not all flowers that press well, are easy to grow.
So we’ve taken a bit of the initial guesswork out and have listed our top 5 non-fussy flowers that are both easy to grow + press, just for you.
We gratefully acknowledge brand ldesign by Sarah Vassella of Sacred Made Studio. Photography by Alicia Telfer at Mid-town Creative and site design by Dmitry Makovksy.