Floral Designer Laura Dowling’s arrangements combine a just-plucked  quality with a refined modern aesthetic.

She is fond of using various  shades of a single hue and containers wrapped in materials such as moss or leaves to heighten the drama.  She layers materials freely, incorporating unexpected elements, such as fruits or vegetables, bundled twigs, or horsetail bamboo cut into pieces and tethered with twine.

Her role as Chief Floral Designer at the White House has her innovative arrangements contributing a new brand of chic to historic rooms.

To learn more, please see www.lauradowling.com.

A bulb, when purchased, is an underground root structure in  its dormant state.  Made up of layered flesh, like an onion,  it holds a shoot inside.   Once planted, a bulb stays dormant until the Spring sun warms and softens the soil, causing the roots to grow.  The roots take in nutrients  and water from the damp Spring ground, and the shoot pushes up through the bulb’s papery top layer.  (Bulbs also contain “lateral” buds, which eventually form new plants.)  After the flower blooms and fades, the dying leaves feed the bulb, which makes the bulb strong for the next year.  When the weather tuns cold, the bulb goes dormant again.

( As seen in October 2011  issue of Real Simple magazine- written by Madaline Sparks– Illustration by Wendy Hollender)

For more information on bulb plants, including forcing different varieties, please see www.realsimple.com.

For his 2006 series “Exploding Flowers,” the Tel Aviv–born, London-based artist worked with a florist to create elaborate bouquets inspired, he says, by Henri Fantin-Latour’s lush 19th-century still lifes. Gersht clicked the camera’s shutter as each bouquet was ignited with a small explosive. The resulting photographs are gorgeous and a little unnerving; the artist describes them as “celebratory and violent.”

Gersht’s career is exploding too. A graduate of the master’s program at London’s Royal College of Art, the photographer is on a creative tear. This past summer alone, Gersht had solo shows at CRG Gallery in New York and at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Meanwhile, he continues to travel throughout Europe and beyond to shoot new photographs and short films, including a video he made at a bullfight in Andalusia, which was part of a group exhibition organized by Ron Arad at London’s Roundhouse.

To read more please see  Elle Decor, October 2011 issue.

Looking for a magnificent gift to send along with your floral order?

This gorgeous balsa wood wall sculpture, from Venice, CA  member Floral Art, is available in several colors.   

Hand painted with a white lacquer background encased in a clear acrylic box frame-24x 24 x 5D

For more gifting ideas please see their facebook page.

…my dad started our tree tradition in the early ’70′s…christmas greens remind me of him…an amazing man…miss him like crazy…

Words of wisdom and shared floral knowledge from the blog at www.flourishdesigns.com.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Me oh my, Thanksgiving is but a week away.  We certainly appreciate longstanding traditions just as much as the next designer, but who’s to say that you can’t dress up your décor with a more modern spin?

Less really can be more: Warm colors will never go out of style for the fall season. You can easily offer more modernist appeal by working with fashioned, multi-stem arrangements.    Succulent Beauty Mark, featuring swooping callas and our signature succulents, is the quintessential contemporary design for Thanksgiving.   Delicately bold, endlessly elegant, and sure to be admired by all of your dinner guests.

Now, who said that “modern tradition” was an oxymoron?

We wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Noted International florist and author, Jane championed the vision that flowers are as exciting as fashion and interior design, but entirely more accessible. Her passion for flowers and inspiration taken directly from nature has contributed greatly to the florticulture industry.

Jane’s legacy is an international business – London – Tokyo – New York -Seoul – Hong Kong, and despite the worst recession in living memory, the business has gone from strength to strength. In the UK alone, the recent launch of the acclaimed JANE PACKER fragrance range, the expansion of the JANE PACKER on-line flower shop, and the opening of our latest store in association with John Lewis on London’s Oxford Street, are all testimony to the potency of the JANE PACKER philosophy and brand.

Jane has been busy building a strong creativeteamwho succeed her, led by her husband, Co-Founder and CEO Gary Wallis

To learn more  Jane and her contribution to the floral design industry please see

www.jane-packer.co.uk

This story is almost not to be believed…

A 1,400-hundred pound squash on display at the MarketBar in the Ferry Building was vandalized sometime in the wee hours on Sunday, Oct 30th.  The most daring aspect of the theft is the location- alongside a very busy thoroughfare  with plenty of lighting both day and night.

The owner of the restaurant states, “Somebody rather carefully carved a small hole, pulled out the plug, and reached in and scooped out the innards.”   The pumpkin was grown by Napa farmer Leonardo Urena, recent winner of Half Moon Bay World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off, who says it contained  500 or 600 seeds.

According to recent reports, a single seed from the world’s heaviest pumpkin — an 1,810-pounder grown by Wisconsin general contractor Chris Stevens — sold for $1,600!!

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner.