Following the success of its floral-filled debut, Flora & Fromage is returning to the Montague Retreat Center on Saturday, March 21 with a more intimate experience. While organizer Coco Bustin-Garduño has downsized the physical footprint this year, the shift is intentional — aiming to foster a deeper sense of community as guests wander through living botanical galleries and artisan cheese lounges.
“Flora & Fromage Deux: The Second Annual Immersive Botanical-Art Exhibition & Cheese Lounge Experience” begins at 7:30 p.m. The event blends an artistic exhibition of flowers and food with performance and visual art, offering cheese tastings and floral-inspired cocktails crafted by Wheelhouse Farm in Amherst.
This inaugural event was held in Holyoke in December 2024 drawing 220 attendees. The idea for this immersive experience came from Northampton-based floral artist Bustin-Garduño, who serves as creative director of Flora & Fromage.
Planting the seed
For a multi-layered experience, this event started with a simple observation in her studio.
“I was kind of messing around with some plant material, and I had some cheese in my fridge, and had the cheese out on the table with something that I was sculpting right then and there,” she said. “And suddenly it just clicked. I wanted to put the two together.”
Bustin-Garduño explained that her background is in fine art, and she owns Botanicoco, a floral design business, with a studio in Holyoke. She discovered a passion for floral design through her uncle, who is a florist and visual artist, around five years ago. She embraced the fusion of artistic expression and nature, finding that asymmetrical sculpting and design resonated with her as she began working with artists around the region.
“So this event is really highlighting that — what’s possible with floral design,” Bustin-Garduño said, “And then also [bringing] some other artists into the mix, and that feels like it’s really honoring my visual art background as well, to bring these different artists and these mediums together.”
Hannah Boulier, a Connecticut-based floral artist, is among those artists blending floral design with sculpture work. She and Bustin-Garduño collaborated last year for the first Flora & Fromage, where Boulier showcased artwork that combined food and flowers — including a sourdough sculpture incorporating dried flowers and tulips.
I feel really moved by food, and I feel really moved by nature, and this is just my way of bringing the two together.
Flora & fromage creative director Coco Bustin-Garduño
When asked about where they see the mix of flowers and food, Boulier and Bustin-Garduño both reflect on their appreciation for farms and agriculture as a natural intersection of flowers, food and art.
“I worked on a veggie farm over 10 years ago, and a flower farm got me into designing a few years back. So the farming element and the local element are super huge for me,” Boulier said.
Boulier explained that food sculpting allows artists to “think outside the box” and explore unconventional shapes. Mixing the floral elements into this, she says, is a way to add to that design choice.
What’s on the menu
After the success of the first year of Flora & Fromage, the event this year is downsized in space at the Montague Retreat Center, but is expected to create a greater sense of intimacy and community between guests, according to Boulier and Bustin-Garduño.
A new part of this year’s event is the timing. Last year, the first Flora & Fromage was held during the winter, but this year, the event is one day before the Spring Equinox on Saturday, March 21 — an intentional move by the organizers.
“We’re celebrating spring. It’s the end of winter, [and] we made it through,” Bustin-Garduño said. “It’s almost a celebration of making it through, and a celebration of transition and what’s to come.”
Both Boulier and Bustin-Garduño will be presenting their own art pieces, including a sourdough chandelier from Boulier through her studio, Living Nature Floral. The artist lineup includes ceramicist Logan Penney, creating custom vessels for the floral designs; 2D artists Rosa Beryl, Martin Bridge and Margaret Shipman, whose paintings will be for sale; and lighting designer Sean Ryan, who will provide immersive projections throughout the night.
To incorporate the food, Wheelhouse Farm’s catering will create a five-part appetizer menu of artisan cheeses with floral accents, along with a floral-inspired bar menu. A new addition this year will be a tea lounge with herbalist Melissa Cooperman.
Live music will also be played throughout the night, with Hartford-based band After School Special, starting the night with jazz. Later, DJ Trusty Rusty will play an electronic music set.
To help grow the connection between guests, Bustin-Garduño said that there will be performers walking around who will engage with guests and hand out flowers, which is a returning feature for this year’s event.
Coming into the second year of this event, Bustin-Garduño reflected on how last year, she saw the social connections being made. This year, she feels that the sense of community is needed even more.
“It feels like the world is on fire right now,” she says, pondering the question if it is OK to celebrate during unprecedented times. “I think that we need spaces like this more than ever. We need to return back to beauty, and back to connection and community more than ever.”
Tickets for Flora & Fromage are available at floraandfromage.com/tickets.