Visions of Tulle and Petals at Dior

Nothing like poppies to add some light and ephemeral wistfulness to January!
Dior Haute Couture has also stolen my heart with their flounces of silk tulle and Irving Penn silhouettes sashaying down the runways in Paris this week! If she wasn't pregnant I'd definitely put money on the "Swan" of the moment donning one of these to retrieve what surely will be her Oscar next month. Ah... fashion and Hollywood I want to hate them both and do on many levels but occasionally magic surfaces from the material and cinematic worlds. In these intersecting instances The House of Dior and our own little princess Natalie have succeeded. Bravo! Who could foresee where the two would miserably part!

And more pastel Dior runway visions paired with Hydrangea, Ranunculus, Thistle, Queen Anne's Lace, veronica and Astrantia.

Alicia's Cosmetic Bag Launch

Here are some photos from the Alicia Siverstone launch of her Eco-Tools make-up brush kits. This is the second season she has designed these kits and we are proud to have been asked back to provide flowers and special bouquets for her famously original and enthusiastically received gift bags to the editors. This year the flower colors were eclectic and variety choices unusual from Echeveria Blossoms to Tree Peonies. They suited Kit Kemp's whimsical interior design aesthetic perfectly!

An Unusual Winter's Tale

My little collaging fingers couldn't help but combine these two somewhat kindred images. The color story begs union yet the lady in question is from a time when women began to claim their voice in a male dominated world and this assemblage of flowers has a very modern feel to it.
What does a bouquet say?
It can be symbolic in it's character. This bouquet (Echeveria, Ilax Berries, Narcissus, Tuberrose, Dusty Miller and Lambs Ear) tells us a lot about our protagonist, lets call her Margaret.
The who, what where?
It's winter and our elegant lady is waiting, perhaps at a train station. Although she is self sufficient and worldly she longs for a partner. This bouquet can symbolize the fulfillment of this dream. Two independent and equally expressive Echiverias are a focal point in the arrangement. She is also a woman who takes great care in her attire and essence. The Paper-Whites are sweet-scented, and when combined with the aromatic Tuberrose, lend a fragrance as inviting as a proper ladies' powder room in a desaturated era.
Margaret is a modern woman who still retains a romantic streak. She is cool and collected and lends the cultivated air of gentility but can also be bold and is well prepared to hold her own in any scenario.
Most likely she would never have envisaged this bouquet for herself but fast forward 70 years and here it is. She was a woman way ahead of her time!

Icicle Night Flights

I was walking by the brownstone next door last night and saw such beautiful reflections coming from icicles that I had to try to get a shot with my iphone. Unfortunately the photo above doesn't do the sighting justice and today it simply wasn't the same. It got me thinking about the beauty and transience of the icicle and how winter delivers these fleeting gems like gifts for dealing with the biting wind and dark days that make you want to stay in your flannels all day. So I went to the studio determined to conquer the contrived concept of the crystally/sparkly bouquet! Can the beauty of winter actually be invoked in a bouquet through campy gimmicks! Ha! and these are my daily challenges? what has life come to? But hey! I AM a florist so allow me to digress. I tore through my art supplies and floral knickknack tins and found crystals, opalescent paint pigments, faux juniper berries and commenced to spray and hot glue myself into a frenzy, coating stems of eucalyptus into shimmery snow-like and crystallized versions of their former selves. Ok, I have to admit it was fun and I was kind of tickled by the results so in they went with the Ranunculus, Angel Winged Begonia leaves and Dusty Miller. I may expand upon this idea.... I may not. After all sparkles have never been my forte but I secretly love this "Winter Garden Bouquet" then again it may simply be a case of falling in love with an idea. That's ok too.

Time to Conjure

seasonal bouquet montages

Market Sightings 1/11

Ahhh 28th St NYC!! Begonia leaves and Golden Clover!!!!Thank you for fulfilling that eternal need of witnessing the perfection of nature! And my two addictions, flower shopaholism!!!!!!! and the use of exclamation points!!!!

Celebrate Your Day of Birth

The fleshy gentleness of "Juliette" David Austin Roses in the company of exuberant "Free Spirit" Roses. A bright cheerful gift for the loveliest of clients! Happy Birthday Kristin!!!!

Story time

Consultations at the Ace Hotel with a lovely June Bride yielded the germs for a sumptuous wedding at an estate in Long Island this Summer. Here's my first go-round. Thanks Ariella Chezar for always inspiring (many of these images are examples of her masterwork!).

011111 Inspiration....Bring it on!!!!!

Hurrah! 011111 We are perfectly aligned to move forward into the year with pluck and aplomb!
Birds flying high you know how I feel
Sun in the sky you know how I feel
Breeze driftin' on by you know how I feel

It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
For me
And I'm feeling good

Fish in the sea you know how I feel
River running free you know how I feel
Blossom on the tree you know how I feel

Dragonfly out in the sun you know what I mean, don't you know
Butterflies all havin' fun you know what I mean
Sleep in peace when day is done
That's what I mean

And this old world is a new world
And a bold world
For me

Stars when you shine you know how I feel
Scent of the pine you know how I feel
Oh freedom is mine
And I know how I feel

.......Nina Simone

New York Horticultural Society Gala 2010

The theme was "Fairy Tales, Legends and Myths". We decided to create a statue based on the Grecian myth of the god Apollo and his beloved nymph Daphne :
"where the god's infatuation was caused by an arrow from Eros, who wanted to make Apollo pay for making fun of his archery skills and to demonstrate the power of love's arrow. Ovid treats the encounter, Apollo's lapse of majesty, in the mode of elegiac lovers, and expands the pursuit into a series of speeches. According to the rendering Daphne prays for help either to the river god Peneus or to Gaia, and is transformed into a laurel (Laurus nobilis): "a heavy numbness seized her limbs, thin bark closed over her breast, her hair turned into leaves, her arms into branches, her feet so swift a moment ago stuck fast in slow-growing roots, her face was lost in the canopy. Only her shining beauty was left."
We based the sculpture on various renditions of the myth through the classical 15th century painting by Antonio Pollaiuolo to the baroque life size statue by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and reinterpreted it using materials such as bark nuggets for Daphne's body, covering her skin in flax seeds, attaching live phalenopsis roots to her feet and giving her the appropriate laurel branches with attached laurel leaves. Apollo also wore a laurel wreath as did each chair swag. We suspended a bevy of suspended votives to signify the presence of Eros(a primeval deity of sexual love and beauty who embodies not only the force of love but also the creative urge of ever-flowing nature, the firstborn Light for the coming into being and ordering of all things in the cosmos) All in all the final centerpiece was imbued with many literal references to the allegory of unrequited love.


A closer image of Apollo draped with a massive dried leaf and the detail of Daphne's foot sprouting roots into the mossy earth below.