“A cool monochromatic palette sets the tone for this lavish yet unassuming arrangement.”
Taking cues from the structured yet informal courtyard gardens of French country manor houses – geometric forms, cool monochromatic color palettes and decorative wrought-iron treillage – floral designer John Regan, M.F.A., Ph.D., fashioned this lush asymmetrically balanced floral design, uses for which span gifting to party and event décor. A glorious orb of Florigene Flowers’ spectacular ‘Moonaqua’ carnations is offset by a “thicket” of magnificent ‘Applause’ roses from Suntory Flowers while distinctive burgundy Echeveria bisect the two groupings and Phalaenopsis (moth) orchids and curly willow, with their curvilinear lines, add movement, rhythm and dimension. This design is a study in contrasts: at once, structured yet unstructured, formal yet informal, grand and lavish yet unpretentious and restrained.
STEP 1:Fill a glass or plastic cylinder vase with floral foam and flower-food solution. Place the cylinder vase into a decorative lattice-type or other open-framework containers. Stabilize the cylinder vase inside the decorative container by pressing sheet moss into the space between the two.
STEP 2:Thoroughly soak a floral-foam sphere in flower-food solution. Press the saturated sphere securely onto the edge of the decorative container. For additional stability, insert one or two long wood picks or hyacinth stakes through the sphere and into the floral foam in the cylinder vase.
STEP 3:Densely cover the floral-foam sphere with carnations. Next arrange the roses opposite the carnation sphere, in a somewhat free-form manner. Impale several Echeveria onto wood picks, and arrange them to bisect the rose and carnation groupings. Finish the design by incorporating a variety of foliages, branches of curly willow, and a stem of Phalaenopsis orchids or a Phalaenopsis orchid plant.
