About the Atelier
Woody Shoots is a Pacific Northwest woodland atelier tended by Diane Dixon on 4.89 acres of hillside woodland in Arlington, Washington. Its materials are native-led and woodland-grown. Diane harvests them in selective seasonal windows and offers them to a small circle of floral designers.
It is a living collaboration between one person and one piece of land, carried forward season by season with precision, patience, and deep woodland knowledge.
The Person Behind the Atelier
For thirty-five years, Diane worked in fiber optic infrastructure: tracing complex systems, reading how one decision cascades through a network, and keeping light moving through glass. Alongside that career, she kept the books for the automotive shop she and her husband ran, sleeves rolled, solving problems one careful turn at a time.
Today she turns that same precision toward the woodland. She reads frost patterns, emergence timing, and branch readiness the way she once read a network: patiently, and all the way through.
A Woodland Collaboration
Diane doesn’t see herself as the woodland’s owner or manager. Instead, the woodland offers what it can, when it can. Her work is to read those offers clearly and pass them on to designers.
Material Philosophy
Diane chooses materials for gesture, branching structure, tonal depth, texture, asymmetry, and compositional presence. The palette begins with what belongs here: vine maple, cascara, osoberry, western red cedar and lichen on stormfall. It also welcomes a few cultivated companions, such as peonies, viburnum and the heuchera of the Jewel Box. Above all, the atelier values fleeting, seasonal material over forced consistency.
Stewardship and Seasonal Rhythm
The atelier is open September through June, from autumn color through winter architecture and spring awakening to the June fullness of peonies. Every July and August, the woodland rests.
In practice, harvest means light-tip cutting that encourages growth rather than depleting the plant. Each selective cut leaves the system stronger than it found it.
A Legacy in Progress
Woody Shoots is also a gift to the next generation. Diane’s granddaughter is learning beside her how to read the seasons, listen to the land, and balance beauty with business.
Working With Woody Shoots
The atelier works by inquiry with a small circle of designers each season. Diane releases material in focused pulls rather than from a catalog. All orders are pickup only, in Arlington, WA, 3 minutes off I-5 at Exit 212. Pickup hours are Monday through Friday, 09:00 to 15:00, and Saturday by appointment.