FLORAL DESIGN INTENSIVE
FLORAL DESIGN INTENSIVE
Honoring the season’s abundance by practicing daily floral design techniques with Sarah Ryhanen of Saipua.
Monday September 28 - Sunday October 4, 2026
Worlds End School | Esperance, NY
Price for the week: $2,404-$1,900 (depending on lodging choice)
Instructors: Sarah Ryhanen
In this week-long early autumn investigation of beauty we’ll first get good at noticing. You’ll train your eye to spot the perfect wiggly stem in the garden and while studying the nuance of color, movement, form and composition. Special emphasis is placed on designing with a light, airy touch whether we’re practicing small tiny ikebana style arrangements or vast installations.
Each morning after breakfast, Sarah will demonstrate a different floral technique before the group heads into the flower cutting garden and wild hedgerows to gather materials. Afternoons are spent in the studio, where you’ll workshop ideas and arrangements to be discussed and critiqued. Throughout the week, we’ll explore bouquets, large-scale designs, using kenzans (frogs), and other approaches to working with seasonal materials.
This course is designed for flower novices, professional florists, gardeners, farmers, and anyone interested in deepening their relationship to flowers. You’ll leave with new technical skills, a sharper eye, and a deeper appreciation for the beauty that comes with noticing and paying attention.
PREPARATIONS / CONSIDERATIONS
SCHEDULE
Day 1 ✴︎ Arrival
Students arrive after noon on Monday, are settled in and are then asked to be at dinner at 7:30pm. We typically eat together in the large breezeway of the barn.
Day 2-6 ✴︎ Instruction
After breakfast, Sarah will offer a demonstration of a different technique each day. You'll then spend the mornings in the cutting gardens foraging around the farm, learning to spot the perfect wiggly stems and understanding the nuance of color and form.
Break for lunch at noon.
The afternoon is spent in the studio (generally 2-4pm) where you'll workshop the morning's materials into arrangements. These will be discussed and critiqued. Each day is devoted to a different technique: bouquets, large-scale designs, and working with flower frogs.
Free time will be built in throughout the week. Late summer is one of the most beautiful times to visit Worlds End. While flowers will be our primary focus, you’ll also have time to immerse yourself in the craft culture of the farm and experience its many practices firsthand. Forage with Lada, visit Max in the ceramics studio, and explore soap making and essential oils with Susan. Dinner is either together with the cohort or on your own in the communal kitchen.
Day 7 ✴︎ Departure
Students are welcome to end the week with lunch at coyotecafe, the farm’s monthly drop-in cafe, leaving by 4pm. Extra credit will be given to students who participate in designing the florals for the day’s cafe experience :)
MEALS
WHAT TO EXPECT
Worlds End School’s campus is nestled within a diversified, handscale working farm. We raise Icelandic sheep and chickens in addition to growing vegetables and flowers.
If you reserve a bedroom in the communal barn we will provide all the bedding and blankets you need.
Class is limited to 6 students.
This course is self-catered meaning that students are responsible for their own meals within our communal kitchen and vegetable gardens. Ingredients change week to week, and part of the joy of these long courses is participating in a cohort of students living communally with our full time residents and staff! Typically students bring dairy, coffee, and any treats or things they know they like to eat. Meals always miraculously and deliciously emerge from the group. More information on what is stocked in our pantry will be delivered in the welcome information sent before class 2 weeks prior.
LODGING
LODGING OPTIONS ARE FIRST COME/FIRST SERVED
1) COMMUNAL BARN - with four shared bedrooms, electricity and plumbing. There are 3 private bathrooms. One indoor shower and one outdoor shower.
2) CAMPING - there is a flat camping area in a field 5 minute walk from the COMMUNAL BARN. Bring your own tents, tarps, gear.
3) Stay OFFSITE and COMMUTE to Worlds End Farm. There is a Quality Inn & Suites 10 minutes away in Central Bridge, NY or a handful of airBnB rentals within 20min driving time.
All students will have access to shared bathrooms and our communal kitchen.
There is wifi and excellent cell phone service for most networks.
COST
$2,404 includes instruction, access to the communal kitchen and lodging in a private bedroom, shared bathrooms, and NY state sales tax.
$1,900 includes instruction, access to the communal kitchen and students will camp or arrange their own lodging offsite
Payment plans available upon request; please write admin@saipua.com.
INSTRUCTOR
Sarah Ryhanen
Sarah Ryhanen is a farmer, florist, and educator working at the intersection of beauty and utility. In 2006, she opened the first Saipua studio in Red Hook, Brooklyn, selling her mother’s olive oil soap and developing a self-taught floral practice.
Over the following decade, Saipua became internationally known for its event design, helping inspire a generation of florists to work with seasonal, local, and foraged materials in asymmetrical forms.
In 2011, Ryhanen purchased Worlds End Farm to grow flowers for Saipua and to house her floristry teaching programs. By 2022, the farm had evolved into a campus supporting students engaged in land-based work, from shepherding to soapmaking.
Ryhanen now lives and works primarily at Worlds End alongside her parents and an evolving cohort of artists and farmers.