I've been pressing flowers since I was a kid.

Petals tucked into journals. Wildflowers folded between the pages of sketchbooks. Stems from my grandmother's garden pressed flat and saved for no reason other than I couldn't bear to let them go. I didn't have a word for what I was doing back then. I just knew that something beautiful had happened and I wanted to keep it.

That instinct never left me.

Eighteen years ago, the man who would become my husband gave me my first bouquet of roses. I didn't even really like roses at the time — but I kept them. Because it wasn't about the flowers. It was about the feeling. The newness of falling in love with someone and wanting to hold onto every part of it. I had no idea then that we'd end up spending our whole adult lives together. I just knew I wasn't ready to let that moment fade.

So I saved them.

Every bouquet after that became a quiet question: how do I preserve this? How do I take something alive and fleeting and make it last? Over time that question turned into a full-blown obsession — and that obsession became Orchid & Pine Studio.

These pressed flowers are more than dried plants to me. They're a map. Of hikes through wild California land. Of quiet mornings in the garden. Of every moment I loved enough to want to remember.

If you're here because you feel that same pull — toward beauty, toward memory, toward making something last — you're in exactly the right place. I'm so glad you found your way here.

Let's stay connected:

Have a question about the challenge? Reach out anytime at hello@orchidandpine.com

Come share your work and your journey with us at @flower_press_society — we'd love to see what's coming out of your press this May.

Happy pressing. 🌿