Artist, Helen Hornberger, revived the techniques of French tole to create naturalistic representations of the state flowers. The artist used thin copper sheets as her base, and painted them with oil paint in the natural colors of the blossoms and leaves of the Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia). A cluster of pale pink, cup-shaped blossoms on thin brown stems are surrounded by five green leaves on a brown branch. One of the leaves is signed by the artist.
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The Congress of Representative Women at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago proposed that each U.S. state and territory select a flower to represent their state in the “National Garland of Flowers.” This resulted in the National Floral Emblem Society. Each state has adopted to represent the state and its people based on their importance to the state’s history, economy, folklore, or native varieties. Tole artist Helen Hornberger created each artificial flower representing each state to create for a bouquet displaying America’s floral diversity.
CONNECTICUT: The Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia) was designated the official state flower of Connecticut in 1907. The flower was championed by over 3,000 women, who encouraged the Connecticut’s state legislature adopt the flower by sending lawmakers sprigs of Mountain Laurel for their desks. Native to North America, this flowering shrub was first recorded in 1624, and has continually attracted attention since the earliest days of America’s colonization. The Mountain Laurel blossoms are a mass of tiny pink, white, or red flowers that stand out boldly against the darker surroundings of the evergreen shrub. These flowers burst forth with their beautiful fragrance every year in May and June. Mountain Laurel grows throughout the eastern United States, and is found along the Connecticut roadways, wildernesses, and lawns and gardens. It generally reaches 6 to 10 feet tall in the openings of the spruce-fir forests and flourishes in the Appalachian Mountains.
PENNSYLVANIA: The Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia) was designated the official state flower of Pennsylvania on May 5, 1933. When the matter of choosing a state flower was discussed, the Pennsylvania General Assembly could not make up their minds. Therefore they drafted two different bills naming two different flowers as Pennsylvania’s state flower for the governor to decided and sign into law. One named the Mountain Laurel, and the other was in favor of the Pink Azalea. The governor of the time, Gifford Pinchot, ultimately chose the Mountain Laurel, by many accounts, based on the council of his wife. This evergreen shrub flourishes throughout the state of Pennsylvania, filling the woodlands with its distinctive pink flower in the spring and summer months. Pennsylvania also has a designated "beautification and conservation plant," the Penngift Crownvetch was made a state symbol in 1982.
Signed:
Hornberger signed on the front of one of the leaves
