Mums, pansies, black-eyed Susans, decorative kale, and Creeping Jenny vines are flowers and plants selected by Minster-based florist Keaton Topp to create a floral arrangement in a chocolate-colored wicker basket, because of their hearty ability to survive the cooler, fall temperatures before a freeze, when he and Stacey Brackeny, of Five Vines Winery, located at 12179 Buckland Holden Road in Wapakoneta, hosted a fall container garden workshop this past week.
“We have a lasting partnership with Keaton,” said Brackney. “We’ve done five or six workshops with him now. He came to us two years ago and wanted to do some events. We did a spring one, putting together a bouquet. We did a couple of winter ones making wreaths. He had some time when he wasn’t doing weddings so he did another workshop here.”
Thirty-five people attended this autumn class called “Wine and Design: A Fall Planter Workshop,” and each left with the basket they designed.
“While he’s doing the instruction, he also puts one together so the class sees how he’s doing it,” explained Brackney. “Some of the plants he does straight-up and others he puts on an angle to add dimension.”
Brackney said that while there were a few familiar faces, the majority attending were new people, adding that “a good portion were from Wapak, and Minster as well, basically because that is where he is located.”
Brackney said she is open to creating similar business partnerships, where Five Vines Winery hosts workshops and other events with local and regional collaborators, as well as serves as a locale hosting musical entertainers.
The vines are French hybrids and were planted about 11 years ago. The winery initially sold their grapes to Ohio wineries to create a finished product.
However, 3.5 years ago when the winery opened, they began to engage in the entire vertical process of wine creation, locally producing two reds and two whites in Wapakoneta.
“We grow the grapes. We process them. We make the wines. We bottle it,” Brackney said. “It is a family-run business. There are six of us all together.”
With that much to do, they fit in additional activities for visitors when they are able, particularly on the weekends.
The cost to register for the workshops varies based on the price of the materials and also helps pay for the snacks available during the event. For example, this event featured autumn sangria wine slushies and a charcuterie tray.
The next scheduled workshop led by Topp will feature a winter theme.
To learn more about classes taught by Unique by Design, stop by 72 N. Main St., Minster, or visit the Facebook page.
