Holidays at Cheekwood
Famed Former White House Florister Returns to Cheekwood
Through the creative imagination of Cheekwood directors and staff, Nashville is on its way as a hub for world-class floristry. For those new to the term, “floristry” is used when those who create décor using flowers reach the next level of artistry. Enter Laura Dowling.
In 2024, Dowling came to Cheekwood for the first time; I was able to interview her via Zoom. With a master’s degree in Public Policy Administration, she had initially followed her degree as a non-profit executive—Manager of Strategic Communications at The Nature Conservancy. Later, following her dream, she trained for several years with famed French floristers. With that training and subsequent experience with large events, she applied and was accepted by First Lady Michelle Obama for the role of Chief White House Floral Designer.
After Dowling’s spectacular success in Nashville, Fleurs de Ville, a Canadian floristry partnership made their premier trek to the Music City in September 2025 with their production Artiste, “a floral celebration of extraordinary artists across diverse disciplines.” This success flowed smoothly into Dowling’s theme this year, “Sweet Holiday Dreams.”
Last year, when writing about Dowling’s work, I described the Morning Room display as like “the best children’s books, fascinating aspects for the inexperienced, deeper understanding for the knowledgeable.” The same applies this year when, in a behind-the-scenes look, I was able to interview the artist in person as she guided me through the heavy lifting required to place delicate floral dreams on display. With a voice as gentle as rose petals held by the firm stem of her determination, she explained how each room’s theme fits within the overall concept from holiday lyrics like “if only in my dreams” from “I’ll be Home for Christmas and the dream sequences from Nutcracker.
Referencing the title, if not the theme, of Elvis Presley’s 1957 hit, “Blue Christmas” a plethora of decorative blue balls and ribbons in a plethora of sizes, shades, fabrics, and lengths were piled on tables, stacked in boxes, hung on trees, wired in frames ready to hang. Staff and volunteers were bustling to get each room finished before opening day. This blue-themed room and “Gifts of the Garden,” in shades of pink featuring boxes of donated French silk bougainvillea were only two of the displays Dowling and her talented group of designers were preparing.
In one hallway, Robbie Honey, a “global adventurer and plantsman” from South Africa, was crafting a woodlands theme using one of Dowling’s signature practices, the use of organic materials in unusual ways. Having traveled worldwide celebrating unusual as well as everyday plants compiled in his book The Accidental Botanist, he was now in Nashville creating decorative balls from slender tree branches. Robbie also crafted “aerial butterflies,” butterfly designs affixed to thin wires so they appeared to be flying above the tops of trees in the library.
In that same room with the butterflies, Paul Miller, now living in Arizona, designed color wreaths. As a leading designer for Sunshine Bouquet in his original home state of New Jersey through Florida, flowers from Colombia and Ecuador grown on eco-friendly farms provide some of the orange and copper coloring among the greenery.
In another room, 40,000 glitter-edged paper flowers waited to be attached to square frames for the windows of the mansion’s loggia. They were made by masses of dedicated volunteers on Cheekwood-sponsored “craft days.”As we wallked down the stairs past what I thought of a bright thin “trumpeter trees” guarding the greenery boas ribboning the staircase handrails and balusters, our path led to massive emerald green trees flanking the door into a peaceful garden trellis area ready for patrons to take selfies.
The design staff of fewer than ten added to hundreds of volunteers led me to ask Dowling what tips she would have for the amateur. It seems that planning such an event is much like planning a musical performance, orchestration and logistics are vital. She liked the musical comparison and also considers her ability form a whole from differing parts as “much like creating a bouquet.” For amateurs? Have a theme, start early, and use layering, both in decorating each space and in carrying out the plan. For more ideas, see her lastest book, Designing Christmas. “Sweet Holiday Dreams” will be on display at Cheekwood November 21, 2025–January 4, 2026.
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Y Kendall is a Stanford-educated musicologist, specializing in dance history who recently earned an MFA in Creative Nonfiction at Columbia University, studying nonfiction writing with Ben Ratliff and Margo Jefferson. Kendall’s diverse works have been published in Alchemy: Journal of Translation, Columbia Journal, Mitos Magazín, The Hunger Mountain Review, and The Salt Collective, among others. Born and raised in Tennessee, Kendall now lives near Nashville, freelancing as a flutist and writer, while caregiving for relatives.
