For the past six months, we’ve been humbled and uplifted by the beauty you have shared and the stories behind your images as part of this monthly Greenhouse community-led print series. We hope the project continues to encourage you to root yourself more deeply into the nurturing soils that connection and shared beauty offer. When we read the description of Lauren’s photo submission for #bppgreenhouse, we were struck by the truth she so eloquently expressed. It’s what we’ve been hoping that this project — through your shared photos and stories of houseplants and flowers grown into prints — can offer to our collective community. 

“The resilience of plants never ceases to amaze me.  They serve as a daily reminder that while progress takes time, action, and hard work, the reward is truly incomparable.”

Lauren’s peace lily has its own beautiful story of resilience. Wrapped up with all the things we value — family, story, connection and beauty — we believe this print is the perfect celebration to mark our half-way point of the Greenhouse series. As a photographer and book artist based in Decatur, Georgia, Lauren has a home full of over 200 houseplants (and growing!). Her grandmother and great-aunts frequently tell her that she inherited her great-grandmother’s green thumb. And that’s where the story of this peace lily begins…

Lauren’s great-grandmother ('Mamaw' / Wanda) was born and raised in rural Tennessee, loved plants, and had many of them.  She was beloved by the whole family and passed away after a very quick battle with pancreatic cancer in 1996, when Lauren was just 3 years old. This peace lily was from the funeral. Lauren says her Nana (Judy) is an angel on earth and is the oldest of three amazing daughters that her Mamaw had to raise alone starting when they were all very young.

According to Lauren, her Nana doesn't have the greenest thumb in the world (though Lauren blames it on the dim interior of her house!). Her Nana was so sad when she thought that the peace lily from Mamaw's funeral was dying a few years ago. So she brought the plant to Lauren when it was clinging to life with only a few leaves left. With a little bit of special care and a whole lot of love over the past few years, it’s now thriving and putting out new leaves like crazy. Nana is just tickled that Lauren’s revived it.

Lauren says she keeps it in her guest room so that her Nana can see it and be near it when she comes to visit her.  For Lauren, her Nana, and her great-aunts, it’s a special way to honor Mamaw's memory and to keep her love of plants alive. It also serves as a daily reminder that while progress takes time, action, and hard work, the reward is truly incomparable. We’re couldn’t agree more, and are so excited to share this Greenhouse print with you. ‘The Lauren’ is the seventh print in our Greenhouse series.  This print has six custom colors that we printed on our Vandercook printing press one color at a time.

“The resilience of plants never ceases to amaze me. This peace lily was from my great-grandmother’s funeral in 1996. My Nana kept it for years and then sent it to live with me when it was clinging to life with only a few leaves left. With a little bit of special care and a whole lot of love over the past few years, it’s now thriving and putting out new leaves like crazy. It serves as a daily reminder that while progress takes time, action, and hard work, the reward is truly incomparable.”

-Lauren B., Georgia, @l_bishop

This print has six custom colors. One color = one run.

1. A terracotta clay pot,

2. Filled with brown potting soil,

3. And tall light green stems reaching up towards,

4. Luscious, dark green leaves,

5. And a peace lily with a soft white spathe

6. Surrounding a yellow inner spadix.

Enjoy “The Lauren” growing into a print!

Once we finish printing all of the colors, the paper is carefully trimmed down to the final 8” x 10” size. Next, the first copy of the 50 limited edition letterpress print is carefully wrapped, packaged, and mailed to Lauren! We could not be more grateful for the technologies and platforms that allow us to connect especially during these times of social distancing. As the first edition of ‘The Lauren’ travels via snail mail about 100 miles from our studio to its namesake, we can’t help but wonder what plant or flower beauty we’ll be printing next month!

Lauren’s peace lily, its story of resilience, and now print encourage us to patiently nurture growth, while leaning into the slow, but gratifying progress that comes from a commitment to showing up daily and bringing our best. Truly pay attention to those plants and bits of life that encourage us to continue on with resilience and courage.

With love and gratitude,

-The Brown Parcel Press Team