Born in Terceira Island, he left home at the age of 23. Professional life forced him to live most of his life outside the Azores, in cities like Lisbon, Braga or Vienna.
He graduated in Agricultural Engineering, holding a master's degree in Viticulture and Oenology and a doctorate in Phytotechnics. For 4 years, he studied indigenous yeasts from the Azores vineyards and is the author of several scientific publications in this area, in which, he adds, “there is still a lot of important work to be done”.

What was your professional career until you embraced this project?
My professional activity until now had always been linked to viticulture and/or oenology, essentially in the areas of scientific research and experimentation. When I started this project, I was a guest professor at the University of the Azores, where I taught Agroecology, Hortofloriculture, Fruit farming and Viticulture.

What does “Drumonde Ornelas - Floral Design Agriculture” consist of?
It is a way of life in which my profession blends with me. The idea came when I returned to the Azores. When my father was no longer able to work the land, I decided to use some land plots that did not allow mechanized work. There is a strong affective component in the genesis of this project. What I do is agriculture of affections. We are now recultivating some species which were very common in old time gardens. We work from sowing to the jar. The cultivation of these flowers could only be done according to the principles of agroecology. We know that pollution is inevitably associated with human activity. It can be reduced, avoided, but hardly eliminated completely. Many of the flowers offered to us, commercially, are not quite natural anymore. These are highly selected varieties, aiming at profit, in which characteristics as important as the aroma have often been lost. They are usually flowers grown in greenhouses, by using large amounts of chemicals. Also, they are often imported from countries where workers' rights are not respected. They come to us by plane after being in cold rooms for days or weeks. At the end of this process, their life span is very limited.
Flowers are always bought and/or offered with good intentions. What happens is that, most of the time, the story behind these flowers is not consistent with what we want to convey.
We know that it is possible to cultivate and make available flowers that grew in the Azores in a more ecological way. Almost all the species we chose to grow can be dehydrated, which allows us to increase the durability of the bouquet. This is the type of flowers we cultivate and integrate into contemporary and personalized proposals, combating the idea that an arrangement of dried flowers is “the vase with spikes that grandma has in the room”.

How do you communicate this personal and professional project?
One of the principles on which this project is based came from agroecology: “Cooperating is better than competing”. That is why the promotion of our work, and of our flowers, is based on promoting the work of local creators. We launched the “Outside the Vase” challenge on social media, which consists of proposing the evergreens as inspiration and/or raw material for artistic creations in the most diverse fields. The challenge, which is open to all, has welcomed works that I am very proud of. An example would be a painting by Luís Pedro Ribeiro, who recreated one of his works by using only the natural flower colors. Other examples would be the participation of filmmaker Miguel Aguiar or that of barber Délcio Mendonça or those of designer Adolfo Mendonça, ceramist António Pedroso or sculptor Bianca Mendes.

Why did you decide to take a risk in this new direction?
I feel that I am following the natural order of something that came about spontaneously and that I accepted as a way of being. There are times when we are sure that life is too short to refuse to do what we really enjoy. It was in one of those moments that I decided to do what I do.

You are associated with several campaigns and events. Which ones do you highlight?
Yes. Flowers bear the power to carry messages. A simple "thank you" or apology takes on another dimension when accompanied by a flower. Flowers are powerful weapons that disarm us. A few days ago we joined the International Women's Day (IWD) in a campaign that curiously excluded flowers. That they are an important part of the female universe there is no doubt. But IWD does not exist to sell flowers. It exists because there is still a lot to be done regarding gender equality and respect for women's rights. Our campaign was based on the reinterpretation of the "We Can Do It!" poster created in 1943 during the US war effort. In our version, the emblematic scarf used by Rosie, The Reviter, was transformed into a mask. Now the war is called a pandemic, and women have shown, as always, their strength in combat.
In this campaign, we asked for IWD to forget the flowers as a way of raising awareness to an excessive commercial use.
In another project, which we did for Father's Day, a girl adorns her father's beard, in a work by photographer Jorge Fernandes. With this image we want to contribute to breaking stereotypes and prejudices. Flowers are an integral part of the female universe, but they must exist in any universe, regardless of gender. Men cry. Men like flowers. And that makes them more manly.