Beauty in the barn

There's nothing artificial about Cindie Sinclair. Or the 1880s former dairy farm east of St. Paul, Minnesota, where she lives and works. Vines cover a traditional red barn and a cottage. Islands of colorful hydrangeas and peonies dot a green, grassy paddock. In an open-sided shed where cows once rested, a workshop is in session.

Cindie is an artist, and like French impressionist painter Claude Monet, who found unique beauty in ponds of water lilies, she takes both her inspiration and much of her raw materials from this secluded country oasis of only 12 acres. Cindie is a floral designer who weaves unmatched creations, sometimes from roses and hops -- the perennial vine whose fruit adds zest to traditionally brewed beers. Or she may weave flowers into grapevines. She may start with just a twig.

"It's pretty dramatic, what can come out of nature," Cindie says.

When she began her career in Twin Cities flower shops, her craft was approaching an industrial routine.

"Flower arranging had almost resorted to a paint-by- numbers approach," says Cindie, a thoughtful, soft-spoken woman with a shy smile.

It was almost inevitable that she would eventually move away from the city in her search for more creativity.

"I'd always wanted to live in the country, ever since I was a kid," she says.

Inspired by the English countryside

Her flight to rural Minnesota took a detour, to a brief stay in the south of England, near Brighton. The way rural Britons worked traditional livelihoods, such as beekeeping and raising herbs, into a simple, rural life impressed her. When she returned to Minnesota 17 years ago, she jumped at a chance to buy an old dairy farm.

Restoring the farmstead has taken time. First, she converted a dark and dusty granary into a well-lit workshop with a drying room and a walk-in cooler. With the help of a friend who had restored buildings in Maine, Cindie tore out the interior boards. She had the building insulated, wired it for electricity, and had plumbing installed. Today the granary turns out beautiful, sophisticated flower arrangements for Twin Cities weddings and events.

She also restored a 1950s cottage. "That's a Sears cottage, the kind you used to be able to order from a catalog," she says. Today, the cottage is used as a bridal party dressing room for outdoor weddings held on the farm.

As much as possible, Cindie has kept the original structure of each farm building. "Maintaining the integrity of the buildings has always been important to me," she says.

She converted an open-sided loafing shed that once sheltered cows into a pavilion. Cindie, who has shared her vision in talks at the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, holds workshops in the pavilion. She leads classes in arranging and drying fresh flowers from the garden.

A few tips from a master floral arranger

To her students, Cindie offers these ideas on drying flowers in silica gel: Those that work best are ones with a high petal count such as peonies and roses. The petals support each other.

Several of Cindie's favorite flowers for cutting are shrubs -- hydrangeas, viburnum, spirea, and lilacs. She also uses daffodils, peonies, delphinium, grapevine, bleeding hearts, and a few hardy shrub roses.

Hydrangeas are great for both drying and cutting, she says. Only a few varieties, such as Annabelle and P.G., are hardy enough for local subzero temperatures in winter.

Some dreams for the future at Camrose Hill

The place that Cindie has named Camrose Hill Flower Studio and Farm is still evolving.

Cindie hopes to one day put up the 25x100-foot Lord and Burnham greenhouse that she salvaged from the Maytag Estate in Newton, Iowa. The greenhouse, owned by the family that started the Maytag appliance business, has curved glass, gothic arches, and dates to the 1920s.

Whatever Cindie does to the farm, it will not have an overly manicured appearance. She tries to live in harmony with nature, not to dominate it. The farmstead is ringed by tress and shrubs. She leaves a few brush piles to shelter rabbits. She plants flowers for butterflies. She doesn't use chemicals for fertilizer or for killing weeds.

She hopes to organize a series of one-day retreats at the farm that are "inspired by beauty and all that God provides for the world."

Cindie says her philosophy is mirrored in the book, Noah's Garden: Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Backyards by Sara B. Stein. Science writer Stein share's Cindie's belief that backyards and rural farmsteads can be ecosystems that support a rich variety of wildlife.

"What I've instinctively done," Cindie says, "is to try to use the landscape as it is and to add things to it that enhance it."

To learn more about Cindie's Camrose Hill Flower Studio and Farm, visit her Web site at www.camrosehillflowers.com.