Magenta vs Puple

Violet/ Blue post for Traditional Home Facebook Page

"Blue Mammy" Roses, Clematis, Sweet Pea, Lisianthus, Phlox, Pincushions, Super Vanda Orchids

Bride's Maids bouquet of Stock, Geranium, Maidenhair Fern and Viburnum

Delphinium blossoms decorating a Strawberry Shortcake Wedding Cake

Hybrid Delphinium and Larkspur

Tall arrangements: Curly Willow w/Mokara Orchids & Delphinium w/Larkspur

Here are some photos from today's Traditional Home Facebook blog post and others from a Violet themed wedding we produced this weekend at Tribecca Rooftop.

If truth be said, purple is not my favorite color of the spectrum. It crosses into fuchsia and blue so readily that it's often a challenge to keep true to an exact hue when buying for events. The same can be said and probably applies even more so to the saturated hot-pink family which you have to keep a very close eye on when ordering and picking up from the market. Magenta and many pinks and purples are not found on the visible color spectrum because they require a mix of multiple wavelengths to exist. That may be the reason they are so difficult to describe to your growers when ordering a very specific hue. Once I produced a magenta wedding and ordered the orchids directly from the growers. When the packages arrived they looked lavender veering into purple. A quick flurry of unexpected activity ensued, including running to the market before closing time to buy what I could find on hand that could substitute for the purple shipment. Needless to say time was spent, nerves were frayed and my feet were already hurting! What could have been a smooth operation turned into yet another stressful challenge. Tip of the day: make sure your vendors have exact names and samples before ordering and then check all the boxes before you leave with them to ensure you have exactly the correct shade of pink that's on the invitations!

 

Macri Square

Francis Benjamin Johnson

Climbing Rose Archway

Pink Rambler Rose

There's this little Square off the Lorimer Street subway stop called Macri Park and it's overrun by these sweet tiny rambling roses. No one really cares to the border garden at one end of the square and there's something beautiful about an unkempt garden where wild vines and sprawling rose brambles mingle with the hydrangea bushes heavy with puffy clouds of powder blue and lavender heads. I make it sound much more romantic than it  is with the traffic roaring overhead on the BQE. It's one of those Williamsburg slacker gardens that claim a charm of their own simply by surviving another year in a tiny lot of soil surrounded by industrial pollution and hipsters letting their dogs run next to it in an old bacci court and what serves as the only dog run in the neighborhood.

Misty, Rainy May

Smokebush

 

 

Central Park 5/22/12

Ta Da! And Summer begins

Went through the park yesterday and wistfully bemoaned the reality that this year's long Spring has ended. Here I revisit an arrangement form a previous recent post of young peach branches from a good friend's backyard with Tree Peonies, some Euphorbia, Viburnum, Lambs Ear, Parrot Tulips, Lily of the Valley, Passion vine and a few sprigs of Columbine as a farewell to this year's most unusual long winded season. Repetitive, perhaps but non the less pretty. Have a wonderful Memorial Day Holiday lovelies!

Emotional Life

 

 
Roses are everywhere now. Rambling up through Maple Trees, weeping over garden gates and climbing up brick walls. The border garden behind the studio offered some great long branches that I combined with flowers left from the fundraiser we donated flowers to this week at the NY Botanical Gardens. (St Christopher's Inn Org.). The affair raises over $100,000.00 and I was very happy that we could contribute in some form. It's a very special and needed organization.

With a few Azalea and Smoke Bush branches, Peonies and the roses from out back I assembled a somewhat discordant jumble of reds and whites shown above in the silver urn. This arrangement reflected my own inner emotional workings. Sometimes things just don't come together the way you'd wish they did but it's all a part of the whole and not necessarily good or bad. Tomorrow is another day with another set of battles and emotions and another chance to make another arrangement.

The Question of Color

More of the same.....
more Tree Peonies, Heleborus,  Begonias, Bleeding Hearts, Passion Vine, Camelias, Poppies, Jasmine,Columbine. More was more last week.
One of my fellow flower enthusiasts once gave me a very touching compliment. She said that I used color the way the English do- unabashedly. She said the Brits always have this confidence to combine bold colors in ways that work.
Ironically, my color choices are never something I over-think. I just choose those which makes me feel happy and alive. I know they're not always the most popular or trendsetting choices but they appeal to me and perhaps they resonate with a deeper memory of the tropics of my childhood in West Palm Beach where flowers meant brightness- Corals, Reds, Pinks, Orange, and Chartreuse. Sometimes, I feel like making a moodier palette but this is one I always return to especially in the Spring. Hopefully they lift other people's spirits too.

"I Just Adore A Penthouse View"

Today a good friend of mine asked if I could help thin out the young peaches on his tree. It was quite an undertaking and helped me appreciate the amount of work that day laborers on farms are subjected to. Of course I squandered off with a few fallen branches of my own and raided the studio fridge for a few choice specimen left from earlier this week. Tree Peonies, Columbine, Viburnum, Lily of the Valley, and blossoming Passion vine held court in this tangle of Peach branches, cushioned in Geranium, Euphorbia, and Lambs Ears. If arrangements had addresses (and they do) this one would surely be an UES belle.

Spring Antiques Show at The Park Avenue Armory

This week was the Spring Antiques Show at the beautifully restored Park Avenue Armory. I had the honor to decorate the show with our oversized floor arrangements as well as providing flowers for vendors. My amazing crew managed to artfully install 28 bales of Crabapple, 9 bales of Lilac, 6 bales of Viburnum and three bales of Peonies. Imagine the fragrance as guests entered through a forest of Spring branches finished with masses of Jasmine and Lilac! The challenge of this job came after the opening festivities when the heat from some 60 booths lit with high powered spot lights created a toasty environment for all that splendid material to live in. Daily watering, spritzing and pruning helped keep the arrangements looking fresh for the duration of the show but not without much TLC. Tonight we break it all down and I can take a deep breath. Mission accomplished!

Soaring and Weeping

Confetti of Cherry petals have wilted and gone but the colors that remain on it's branches have a richness all their own. Young rusty growth against the teal green mature leaves and reddish brown bark offer remnant filament of the flower stamens on their black hips a backdrop to dance on like a miniature ballet troupe. Ok, flower dork in da house!
Sometimes I simply have nothing to say and I start rhapsodising about nature in a gag-me kind of way.
This arrangement is a style I particularly gravitate toward for centerpieces. The pedestal on the iron birdbath acts as an elevated platform for both a weepy effect allowing for the composition to simultaneously project upward giving the leading "lady" or flower in question the spot light while cascade over the plate's edge creating graceful arcs of movement and texture. Feeling the "Flower nerd" coming on again strong!

Ok, here's a tip, when working with Japanese Maple cuttings for an event store the cuttings wrapped in wet newspaper in a dark garbage bag, with ends crushed and in water, until hours before the the event especially in the warmer months when the tips will curl and dry before your eyes.

Riverside Park Sunsets

New York is such a hard place to live with so many demands and distractions that one often forgets of it's many sanctuaries. Yesterday I took a stroll along the Riverside Park river's edge as the sun was setting and immediately was swept away by the the way the sunlight sparkled diagonally across the river. This park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted who also designed Central Park and Prospect Park retaining the English gardening ideal of the times.
My eye was drawn to the golden light reflecting through the decaying black moorings that look like tombstones and bouncing off mica in giant granite rocks lining the walkways.  Something about water and sunlight has a way of easing mental and physical tension, giving one the ability to breath deeply and gently surrendering to beauty and nature.
Spring's grand show is waning but there's still much to see in terms of blooms. Lilacs and azaleas are front and center and the bells of Solomon Seal are ringing everywhere!