Flower Muscle

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!

Bouquet of Early Summer David Austin Roses

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.

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!

photo by Hannah Davis

It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision

.....Helen Keller

Laguardia Corner Garden

Laguardia Corner Gardens
at Laguardia Place and Bleeker

It was a sweltering Memorial Day and I held true to my self-assigned task of visiting community gardens. To my chagrin Laguardia Corner Gardens at Laguardia Place and Bleeker St was actually closed to the public so I wandered around it peering through the chain linked fence with my lens. Unfortunately NYU which owns the supermarket next to the garden plot plans to build a high rise which will block the sun needed for the flower beds! Currently the garden land is owned by the NYC Dept of Transportation and members have tried to have it transferred to the Dept of Parks and Recreation (makes sense) which would protect the gardens. For some reason it hasn't come to pass. Hmmm, who's your daddy NYC?...... NYU?

I digress...I felt like a kid locked out of a candy store. The gardens looked so lush and well cared for. Eventually I spotted a lone loyal gardener, Diane, who I asked to let me in to photograph for my flower blog. It's funny how saying you're a blogger now has nearly equal clout to a certified press pass!

Moral of the tale: If you wait long enough, you'll get in.

Which reminds me of my dear friend Sara Jones- florist and NYer extraordinaire whom I met while working at Greenwich Orchids years ago. Sara knows that rule only to well, having played by it at Studio 54 back in the day. Although I doubt she had any trouble getting in being the original hipster/singer/artist and a Warhol darling. Sara tends a parcel of the Laguardia Garden and has done so now for 15 years. On the concrete promenade alongside the garden Sara has also painted a torquoise mandala and I witnessed three young tourists meandering through it to pose for a photo once they reached the center. (see video).

I asked Diane where my friend's area was and she pointed to a shady spot under a tree. What struck me in general about this community garden was how lived in it looked. Truly, a gardener's garden attributing to it's unique charm. Under Sara's tree I found this fantastically weathered antique wheel barrow. with a wilting iris resting it's head on the wheel and plants growing up through the spokes. The rose bushes were just past their peak but it was still glorious in color and show.
Bravo Laguardia gardeners! Bravo Sara Jones!

People's Garden

People's Garden

at Riverside and 90th st

This weekend I am visiting as many NYC Community Gardens that I can and bringing it back to you before the hot days of summer wilt away these achingly beautiful sights around town. The photos above are from the People's Garden at 90th St and Riverside on the promenade. The small plots each have a distinct style of their own (or their proprietor) like the rock garden, or the small and perfectly manicured boxwood topiary garden and the wild flower section. You can walk through the small stone paths and discover unusual and enchanting specimen. The handful of NY volunteer gardeners that make this possible are painstakingly dedicated and obviously know what they are doing.... and I want IN!!! Just wondering which one I'll be luck enough to have a piece of-yes, I'm doing my homework. Spring will be over soon enough, I hope you get out there and see some of this and if not, enjoy my small contribution- sharing the love.

Crisp, Classic and Natural

Every client, event and locale require appropriate treatments for table top flowers. Approached by one of our blue-chip clients to design a summer event in Newport R.I., I immediately reached for the silver julep cups which are classic, timeless and work in a pinch when seeking vessels for events that require less frills and still aim to impress. Pictured above is a trio of various cup sizes filled with monochromatic crispy white summer flowers. The smallest cup is filled with grasses and wild flowers and the two larger ones alternately display solid and generous arrangements of peonies with viburnum and lisianthus arranged in a loose style which retain the classic mushroom shape and staggering the stems at different heights for more of a naturalistic aspect.

Coral Compote

I've been collecting these dolphin compote dishes with the hope of using them at the right event. They are the perfect height and size for a pedestal vessel and imbue the table with nostalgia and romanticism.