Rose Story Farm Benefit for Casa del Herrero

On Friday, November 10, the world-renowned Rose Story Farm (RSF) in Carpinteria opened its doors to the public for the first time in 25 years for a ticketed fundraiser event. RSF owner Danielle Dall’Armi Hahn was talking with fellow rose designers about staging parts of the house for fun on an off weekend, which soon blossomed into a full-on late afternoon event that brought designers in from Ojai, Los Angeles, and Montecito through Goleta. 

The caveat was Hahn decided to make it an event to benefit Casa del Herrero (CDH). In an interview with me she shared, “Casa del Herrero is one of just a handful of historic landmarks in Santa Barbara County. Our home, the Rose Story Farmhouse, was built in 1880 and we thought this would be a wonderful collaboration because of the historic value of the two properties. In addition, the Casa is kicking off a major fundraising campaign, and every ticket sale will directly benefit the Casa. Originally, we were doing this ‘in house’ and just for the ‘fun’ of it. However, as the list of designers together with the accompanying enthusiasm grew, we knew we needed to open it to the public.”

CDH Board of Trustees President Heather Biles, pleasantly surprised by the collaboration, sent the CDH Flower Committee team of Jane Defnet, Cathy Clemens, and Diane Sassen to join with the RSF’s Claudio Cervantes. Designing the rooms of the house were the Who’s Who of high-end floral, namely, Teresa Strong of Container Gardens and Nikki Homan, Visual Designer of Wendy Foster Montecito; Emma Lauter of EmmaRose Luxury Floral Montecito; Kristi Meland and Jerry Peddicord of Hogue & Co. Floral Montecito; Brian Schneider of PacWest Blooms Carpinteria; Holly Vesecky – Holly Floral Ojai/Los Angeles; Ashley Morgan of Ojala Floral Ojai/Los Angeles; Nicole Chapman of DesignOjai/L.A./Malibu; Amy Pihlar of Bright Floral; Becky Knieriem ofHaute Blossoms Floral SB; Kim Curtis of Toast SB; Jenn Sanchez Design; Nina Kincaid of Coco Rose Design Goleta; Camille Griswold – Camellia Floral Design SB; Breanna Jane of BurgessBotanicals SB; The Garden Club of Santa Barbara – Cheryl Miller and Pat Tenney; and Creative Light Design Los Angeles – Michelle Selko-Cohen and Michelle Sapio.

Guests were treated to a cocktail reception, house tours, talks with the designers, a silent auction and in the house’s music room, opera duets performed by Hahn’s son Geoffrey Hahn with his wife Dorothy accompanied by Bridget Hough on the baby grand white piano. Both singers are graduates of the Houston Grand Opera Studio program.

Noted guests were Mary Morouse, Meghan Stoll, Susan Caine, Betsy Coates, Jenna and Avi Reichental, Leesa Wilson-Goldmuntz, Mari and Patrick McAlister, Wendy Foster, Alexandria Ivory, Sheraton Kalouria, Gary Bradhering, Nicole Caldwell,and Rosie Rafferty.

Hahn shares, “Honestly, this was a serendipitous idea. Typically, this weekend is the ‘calm before the storm’ of the holiday season, and the house was not booked. We discussed how much fun it would be to ‘decorate’ the individual rooms, and mentioned it to a few of our clients, and with the mix of creative minds we came up with the idea. The designers were excited as they would be able to do whatever they wanted with no constraints except their own imagination. Each designer chose a room in the house and was given free rein to create. We offered ‘foraging’ on the farm for any plant material and of course, roses. We tried not to leave anyone out and we have had close to 100% of designers we contacted, who are mostly local, however as word got out, we had others contact us directly to participate. We are all just doing what we love to do! Family, friends, food, and flowers!”

Sponsors were Otto and Sons Nursery (roses); Florabundance; Studio Arna – Arna Behar (photography); Samsara Wine; Margerum Wine Company; Loria Stern, Author of Eat Your Flowers (floral cookies); Patricia Dall’Armi (lemon cakes and biscotti); and Cheryl Miller (cookies). Hahn authored the book The Color of Roses, whose front cover was depicted on gift wrapped epicurean cookies for guests to take with them.

411: https://rosestoryfarm.com and https://www.casadelherrero.com