9 Winter Floral Events in San Diego
The holiday season is picking up, which means our schedules are packed with parties, special meals, and gift shopping – phew! It’s a busy time, but if you’re feeling uninspired by the usual holiday agenda, why not carve out some time for creativity, and connect with nature through a floral workshop! San Diego has pretty excellent weather this time of year, which means we’re lucky to have a variety of indoor and outdoor floral classes to enjoy this season.
Native Poppy is hosting several fun floral events at our San Diego flower shops this season, plus we’ve gathered a list of more flower-powered community events to help you get inspired!
Lightscape at San Diego Botanic Garden
Nov. 15, 2024 - Jan. 5, 2025 - hours vary
SD Botanic Garden - 300 Quail Gardens Dr. Encinitas, CA 92024
Dazzling light displays along a 1 mile trail inside San Diego’s crown jewel of flora: the San Diego Botanic Garden. While most flowers are not in bloom this season, the garden has been transformed with eye-catching light installations, meant to dazzle visitors as they walk through the gorgeous garden path. Now in its third year, the spectacular Lightscape showcase in SDBG’s lush garden is open on select dates from now til January. Interested in a more traditional family Christmas photo op? SDBG is hosting Santa on Dec. 7th in their greenhouse conservatory, filling the verdant space with poinsettias for extra holiday joy.
Dahlia Digup at Beeworthy Farms
Saturday, November 30th, 2024 - 10-11:30am
Beeworthy Farms - 441 Quail Gardens Drive Encinitas, CA 92024
Join our local flower farm partners Beeworthy Farms for a fun-filled morning touring their upcoming spring plantings, and then get ready to dig up some gorgeous dahlia tubers to take home and plant in your own flower garden! Led by Cat, BeeWorthy’s expert organic farmer, you’ll learn to unearth a sonic bloom dahlia tuber clump to take home (limit 1 clump per person), and receive care instructions for your new plant.
Winter Wreath Making Workshop
Saturday, Dec. 7th, 2024 - 1:30 - 3:30pm
Culture Brewing - 111 S Cedros Ave Suite 200, Solana Beach, CA 92075
This wreath workshop is the perfect way to kick off the holiday season. Learn how to make Native Poppy’s signature wild and whimsical winter wreath while sipping on craft brews at Culture Brewing, just down the block from our Solana Beach store! Enjoy fun and comprehensive instruction in Native Poppy's signature wreath style, a complimentary pint of choice, and the wreath you make to take home. Bonus: stick around after class to snag bites from the Global Tacos taco truck! This class is perfect for beginners, and a great opportunity to spend extra time with a friend or loved one during the busy holiday season – plus you’ll make a gorgeous wreath to display all season long!
South Park Winter Walkabout
Saturday, Dec. 7th, 2024 - 5-9pm
Native Poppy - 3009 Grape St. San Diego, CA 92102
This celebration of community is a great excuse to pop over to the neighborhood for some holiday shopping. Stop by Native Poppy’s South Park store for a fun floral giveaway during the South Park Winter Walkabout! We’ll be playing a fun guessing game giveaway – can you count how many ribbons are hung on our holiday garland? The winner with the closest guess receives a gorgeous greenery garland to help them celebrate the season.
Floral Fusion Resin Art Workshop
Saturday, Dec. 7th, 2024 - 2-4pm
Art Magic - 2399 Fifth Ave, San Diego, CA
Get a jump on your holiday gift list, and create your own custom set of floral coasters. Discover the art of preserving real pressed flowers in resin, and learn the secrets of how to capture the beauty of delicate dried flowers in useful home goods. The class is all-inclusive, but you’ll learn what flowers work best for preserving in resin, empowering your future projects!
Ikebana Flower Arranging
Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2024 - 9:30-11am
Japanese Friendship Garden - 2215 Pan American E Rd, San Diego, CA 92101
Join Yumi Rakers, a certified instructor of the Sogetsu-ryu school of Ikebana, to practice this beautiful floral arranging technique in the inspiring Japanese Friendship Garden. Part floral art, and part mindfulness practice, Sogetsu Ikebana aims to be present, to be vibrant, and to be flexible. Bring your own flowers and branches, a kenzan (Flower frog), Ikebana scissors or floral shears, and a container, and get ready to try your hand at this beautiful, meticulous art form. Can’t make it to the workshop? Yumi is also hosting a live Ikebana demo in Balboa Park the following day for the Ikebana International San Diego chapter!
Sound Healing & Floral Tarot Circle
Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024 - 7-8:30pm
South Park, San Diego (Address provided upon booking)
Jen Lagedrost Cavender, creator of the Tarot of Flowers (which you may have seen on the shelves at Native Poppy’s stores), is hosting a 90-minute holistic experience inside her floral studio. A beautiful opportunity to relax and recharge with other floral enthusiasts, and enjoy a card reading from Jen’s gorgeous illustrated tarot deck, a powerful and insightful tool to access the intuitive guidance of Tarot through the metaphoric language of flowers.
Jen combines flower folklore and the metaphoric wisdom of flowers with their corresponding archetypes within the Tarot to offer you a blooming world of insights and guidance to support your daily mindfulness practices and self-care rituals. Join this workshop to receive deep floral wisdom, set intentions, and then relax into the healing frequencies of sound during this deeply restful refresh and realignment experience.
Flower Arranging 101 Workshop - Color Theory Series
Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024 - 6-8pm
Native Poppy, 142 S Cedros Ave, Solana Beach, CA 92075
Celebrate the season and get ready to arrange flowers like a pro at this fun, after-hours Flower Arranging 101 workshop, with special instruction on color theory for floral design. December’s Floral Color Palette: red, peach, white, and winter greens!
This workshop is part of our in-person floristry class series we call Workshop+, the twelfth of 12 months of workshops which feature extra instruction in our signature monthly floral color palette. Missed the January - November classes? No worries! This special class will cover all the basics of Flower Arranging 101, and offer additional instruction tailored to your skill level. Designed to be taken as a stand alone course, or as part of a series staggered throughout the year. A great way to build your floral skills and knowledge!
Rose Parade Float Preview
Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024 - 8:00am
Multiple locations
Get a sneak peek of the Rose Parade floats before the parade begins on New Year's Day! Each parade float is crafted from botanical ingredients, using a variety of fruit, seeds, bark, grasses and of course, breathtaking flowers being applied to the floats by hard working volunteers as well as experienced professionals. This behind-the-scenes tour gives you a chance to see some of these magnificent floral floats in their final stages of preparation for the Rose Parade, and get an up close look at the designs being crafted at the Rosemont and Brookside float construction zones.
