Our Maestro of Flower Power: Flowers, Fun and a Bouquet to Brag About
Paul Matalucci - The Maestro is in at Apple Core Farms, a DIY flower experience not to be missed.
Story and photos by Dana Grayson
The Dalles, Ore., Oct. 1, 2026 — Paul Matalucci, flower farmer and owner of Odell’s Apple Core Farm and Cut Flowers, became a self-professed “flower floozie” at a tender age.
Paul Matalucci and Tom Osborne. Photo courtesy applecorefarm.com
By high school, he was already hybridizing tall, bearded irises in his backyard. But Paul’s day job was strategic marketing; he dreamed of trading in his white-collar job for something more earthy as the years ticked by.
He continued to dabble in flower growing, honing his skills and knowledge through experience and becoming a Master Gardener.
Then the universe spoke to him.
A cosmic event — the 2017 total solar eclipse — brought Paul to the Gorge. After the eclipse, he and his husband found themselves navigating 13 miles down a narrow, curvy, two-lane highway in complete darkness to crash for the night. The next morning, they were wowed by the scenic view of Mount Adams outside their door.
It was love at first sight.
They bought a “someday” place nearby and, by 2019, left San Francisco to follow their hearts in the Gorge.
A view from the Apple Core property shows Mt. Adams in all of its stunning glory.
Their Odell home came with a Christmas tree farm of 500 45-foot trees — a bit big for your average homeowner’s living room. Paul envisioned a different kind of farm — a flower farm where he could at last follow his passion.
The trees had to go.
New to farming, Paul developed a newfound appreciation for heavy machinery. The machines made short work of taking down and chipping the trees, which provided the perfect elixir for converting his heavy clay soil into a better base for growing a variety of plants. Still, the first two years on the farm were spent preparing the soil for growing.
Clearing the Christmas trees offered an unexpected benefit — it opened up a commanding territorial view. When their neighbors also needed to do some tree removal, their vista expanded into a postcard-worthy view of Mount Adams, with a bucolic valley in the foreground.
While Apple Core Farm and Cut Flowers is technically a flower U-pick, Paul asserts, “We’re more of a curated experience.”
Paul guides us before we begin our flower cutting and bouquet assembly.
Photo courtesy applecorefarms.com
Apple Core Farm and Cut Flowers offers a $45 two-hour workshop and a $95 deluxe four-hour workshop, as well as a do-it-yourself bridal bouquet party. Not only are DIY bouquets much more economical than those from a typical florist, but the experience also provides a far more personal approach to wedding bouquets.
“Wedding planning is super anxious,” Paul says. “It’s like a little four-hour retreat. Friends and family get together here and learn to make bouquets in this gorgeous setting. They can relax and have fun, surrounded by nothing but flowers.”
Before the flower harvesting begins, Paul covers the fundamentals of how to cut flowers and foliage. He explains that fabulous floral design centers around two classic elements — focal point and filler — and adds his “patented” alliterative trifecta, “fizz.” He finishes the pre-pick preparation with instructions on how to make bouquets last up to 10 days. Paul then turns his guests loose to harvest from his acres of flowers.
“Pick whatever gives you joy,” Paul advises. “It will all go together.”
And it does.
Thanks to his greenhouses, flowers are available from April through Oct. 30 or the first frost, whichever comes first. Apple Core’s vast variety of flowers provides everything a guest needs to build their best-ever bouquet.
“I love the sense of discovery and surprise guests get as they wander through row after row of flowers, and their delight at flowers they’ve never seen or heard of before,” Paul says. “‘That’s a tulip?!?’ they may ask, having never before seen a tulip cultivar like that one.”
I came with a friend to take Paul’s workshop in late September. My prior flower-arranging experience centered around simple bouquets in spring, when my Washougal, Washington, garden exploded with daffodils and later with tulips. Despite my love of flowers, there wasn’t much to pick from in my garden here. I was eager to explore a broad selection of flowers and learn more about how to make more interesting and longer-lasting flower arrangements.
The dahlias and zinnias stole the show in Apple Core’s late-summer garden, joined by snapdragons, larkspur, feverfew, starflowers, asters and much more. Textural counterpoints came in the form of an intriguing array of less common flowers, such as spiky blue echinops and the impossibly long, cranberry-colored tassels of love-lies-bleeding.
“That flower needs a public relations person to come up with a better name,” Paul quips.
When we were finally flowered out — a feat I thought impossible for a flower geek like me — we gathered around the cold-storage area. There, precut foliage filler — silvery eucalyptus, scented geranium and burgundy ninebark branches — was available to further plump out the soon-to-be-created bouquets. We dug into that, too.
The serious fun started when we headed upstairs to the barn workshop room, sorting out our leafy and petaled treasures, stripping the stems and beginning our arrangements. Along the way, we found ourselves making our most beautiful flower arrangements ever. We then made a second one, every bit as lovely. In our class of four, each bouquet was unique and stunning.
With some guidance and a lot of fun, our DIY bouquets were soon bursting with color and variety.
As we left, our smiles were as bright as our bouquets. Beyond the beauty of the flowers and Apple Core Farm’s stunning setting, I was filled with a sense of discovering the beauty inside myself through the power of creating something lovely I didn’t consider myself capable of before the workshop. I believe I was not alone in that sentiment.
“Not everyone can make something that pretty,” a flower-loving friend countered skeptically, admiring my bouquet.
“I couldn’t,” she insisted.
I disagreed. Paul’s selection, education and gentle guidance make it nearly impossible to leave without creating a beautiful bouquet. Hmmm, maybe there’s a gift certificate in order for my doubting Thomas friend.
Apple Core Farm and Cut Flowers can be reached through its website, applecorefarm.com, or by phone at 541-354-1520. Workshops, events and tours are by appointment only, with the address shared upon booking. Paul does not want Apple Core Farm and Cut Flowers to become a tourist hot spot, but rather a special place just for those of us who, like him, call the Gorge home.—
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