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Monday, June 27, 2011

Girly Girl


Some pics from a sample presented this week. The bride loved a palette of cremes, lavenders and gray so I tried my best to steer it away from an Easter Egg hunt as I could by injecting some darker tones and a variety of textures. It's just a girly thing.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Glimpses







These photos were taken at the wedding we decorated at The Chelsea Mansion. I'm holding off on bringing out the guts of the flower story until they have been published elsewhere first. The lavish centerpieces, a nod to Maria van Oosterwick and the Dutch Golden Age, in my opinion, were the visual equivalent of eating a trio of sorbets made of the freshest and ripest tropical fruits finished off with a fine Madiera. There were three styles of centerpieces surrounded by satellite floral curiosities in antique vessels, venetian glass jewel boxes and mini urns. Every treatment was an expression of delicacy and whimsy and sometimes simply utter abandon. The room was dripping with candlelight and gorgeous garlands which wrapped around columns and exploded in giant sprays of Mock Orange, Spirea and Lace Cap Hydrangea. Needless to say.... the over all effect delighted me and made me a proud momma.

...Will revisit in the near future.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Fleurida

Back from my brief hiatus in the sweltering heat of the Florida summer. Yikes! I never fared very well in that heat as a kid and still don't. Always hated having to expose my less than cheerleader perfect thighs in school and with no recourse since no one covers their legs in the Florida heat. A few decades later and I don't really care so much about showing older and even less appealing legs. One's vanity wanes with time.
What actually brought me down there this time of year was my father's 82nd Birthday and Father's Day. I may not have been born with a silver spoon but I certainly was born with an amazing father. Can't ask for much more. The first day I went with him to his farm and tended the young bulls he has recently acquired. Eating machines they are!!!
Spent the naxt day thrift shopping with my mom and sister. Florida has the best thrift shops! Brought back all sorts of interesting vessels!
This is the time of year when the trees are filled with flame colored flowers down there! My favorite tree is the Flamboyant or Royal Poinciana and it was everywhere as showy as a ornery cock. Speaking of which, my father was given 6 chicks which my Mother became completely smitten with, tending them like a mother hen. Only one will grow to crow at dawn, the others will hopefully supply my folks with eggs year round.
Wandering around I recognized sweet little weed blossoms that I remember picking as a child. Back at their house I gravitated through the topical fruit laden trees past the poisonous Angel's Trumpet tree and the fragrant gardenia bushes towards a wild foresty area and again found this vine that also took me back to childhood. It has pods with bright red hard berries, some of them with little black eyes. I still feel guilty for what I did next. I ran inside grabbed my florist knife and proceeded to prune the gardenia bush and cut down a very long section of the flourishing wild vine with berries. It was the perfect material for making a wreath with and nearly made itself. The plant is called the Rosary Pea or properly Abrus Precatorious. It's seeds are very poisonous if ingested and in some cultures are strung into necklaces to ward off the evil eye.
Didn't realize it at the time, may have been channeling my Cuban heritage creating some type of Santeria Relic.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Flower Muscle

<span class=Jasmine Flower Girl Crown

Writing to you from Florida where I came to recover after an intense week of production on a mammoth floral heavy wedding. Truly an iron florist's marathon! My A-team busted their tushkas delivering a dream world of flowers fit for royalty. I will post more photos from the event down the line. For now, here are some glimpses of the studio in full swing filled with branches (Mock Orange, Spirea, Mountain Laurel, Black Cherry, Camelia and Lace Cap Hydrangea), Garden Roses, Lupines, Jasmine, Reindeer Moss, Gloriossa Lilies, Geranium, Lambs Ear Nibs, Autumn Clematis, Every type of specialty fern I could get my hands on, etc...etc.... The wedding reception was held at The Chelsea Mansion in Port Washington in front of a lily pond which looked like the model for the great murals of Monet. Stay posted for the real money shots! Florida is captivating me right now with it's exotic flora and watermelon sunsets. It's HOT!

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Bouquet of Early Summer David Austin Roses

Saturday, June 4, 2011

The Tree of life

Tonight I saw The Tree of Life at the Sunshine Cinemas across the way from the Liz Christy Community Garden. The film is a sprawling existential masterpiece on the meaning of life. It's sparse and expertly crafted script, astoundingly exquisite cinematography, beautifully melancholic sound score and genius editing left me so overwrought with emotion that it's difficult to digest at once. All I can say is that it wraps the big question mark of our existence in a simple and symphonic story of family, love, birth, life an death.
A week ago, I took these photos at the Liz Christy Garden across from the Sunshine. The garden is one of the first community gardens in the city. I remember when I first moved to the city there were vegetables and corn stalks in what now has evolved into a very cared for woodsy garden. The tree trunk stepping maze in one of the parcels is playful and imaginative, and the wild anemones under the shade of a massive tree felt ofr a moment as if I was transported to a forest. Terrence Mallick's film made me think about what I was missing not having been a parent but then I thought about gardening and seeing my seeds sprouting and blossoming as simply another version of the cycle of life. So if I never have children yet lovingly tend a garden who's to say that my life will not be complete?

Bunny in the Garden

Bunny in the garden

A nature lover who epitomizes grace and generosity.
Leave her alone.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Suddenly Summer


Water

Everything on the earth bristled, the bramble
pricked and the green thread
nibbled away, the petal fell, falling
until the only flower was the falling itself.
Water is another matter,
has no direction but its own bright grace,
runs through all imaginable colors,
takes limpid lessons
from stone,
and in those functionings plays out
the unrealized ambitions of the foam.

......Pablo Neruda

Rose brambles on Driggs Ave

Spirea Gone,
Ranunculus Gone,
Wisteria racemes Gone,
painted toes appear.

Little bells of Mountain Laurel sweetly ring their summer hymn
and Philadelphus mocks our tender wishes to extend the mild femininity of Spring.

Soon Autumn Clematis will have it's 15 minutes of fame and dahlias will reign supreme.

Hello NY Summer!


Wednesday, June 1, 2011


It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision

.....Helen Keller