Jean Anne Patrick

Pacific Grove, California On May 24, 2017 beloved and inspirational teacher Jean Anne Patrick died.

Anne was born April 4, 1938 in England. Her father was a plants man and horticulturalist. It was his love of flowers (especially roses) that influenced Anne to apply for admission to the Constance Spry Floral Design School in London. This was the starting point for her 22-year career as an instructor at the school. During her time at Constance Spry she created flower arrangements for Princess Margaret’s wedding as well as many functions for the royal family and royal residences including #10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister’s residence. These experiences were told as exciting and wonderful stories to her students everywhere.

While a teacher at Constance Spry she met Rob Reinkeins, a student from America. Eventually Anne moved to the United States and married Rob. The two settled in Carmel, California where Anne created her shop called Flowers Ltd. For many years Anne and Rob worked together on major events including: Save Lake Tahoe, an Oscar de la Renta gala, the Pope’s visit to the Carmel Mission, many country club weddings and events, and Bouquets to Art at the De Young Museum In San Francisco.

In 1997 when Filoli wanted to create a formal education program, it was deemed that a Floral Design Certificate Program would be the first offering. Anne was asked and accepted the position of lead instructor and developer for the certificated program. A bonus was that we were blessed to have her husband Rob as part of this new program as well. He developed some class offerings of his own to enrich the program. Anne’s program focused on English floral design with an emphasis on garden grown materials incorporated into the arrangements when possible. Students were encouraged to learn from how plants grew naturally in the garden environment. It was hoped that arrangers who graduated from this program would go on to become part of the House Flower Arranging Committee (which did come true). Anne and Rob taught together until 2002 (a year before Rob’s death). Anne carried on with her program for a total of 15 years, retiring in 2012.

The following Teacher’s Prayer is a very appropriate reflection on Anne’s career:

One day I would like to teach Just a few people Many and beautiful things That would help them When they will

One day Teach a few people. Anne’s prayer came true as she taught many of us beautiful ways to arrange with flowers and so many of her students have gone on to teach others what they learned from Anne.

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