Taking Floral Design Lessons from the Woods

Someone once asked me what made my floral design style unique. I had to stop and think about that answer.

I know my work is natural and inspired by gardens, but many of us who practice floral design can say the same. This was a call to think deeply about what influenced me. What shaped my ideas about flowers, plants, and design? What struck my eye?

Deciphering the Origin of My Floral Design Style

So much of my floral design style formed over many years, as I’m sure other floral professionals could say for themselves as well.

But it didn't take too long to figure that the farm I grew up on in Southern Maryland was a huge part of my design eye.

“What has deeply driven your own floral design style?”

My brothers and I lived on an old tobacco farm with our parents and family. My grandmother, Nora, grew the usual splendor of garden flowers that one would imagine around her house—lilacs, peonies, bearded iris, daffodils, tulips, dogwood, viburnum, hydrangea, and such.

My grandfather, Stanley, grew acres of vegetables and fruit for our family and neighbors to enjoy. These included the usual selections that you might imagine, too—tomatoes, cucumbers, lima beans, string beans, peas, corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes, cantaloupes, watermelon, and so much more. That farm was a rich tapestry of all things growing!

Beyond the gardens of the house and fields, there was what I learned to be my place—my escape to a quiet and peaceful place: the woods. With its tall hardwood, deciduous trees, soft ground-covers, ferns, and moss, and its babbling gravel-lined streambeds and brooks that led to the Chesapeake Bay, it was my haven.

There, I could contemplate and bathe in the secret life that sprung forth under the leafy green screen of those trees. There, I found magic and all the inspiration I would need and draw from for a lifetime.

Embracing the Natural Inspiration of Woods in Floral Design Work

Whether it be in a vase or in the garden, it is the woods that gave me so much in the way of inspiration and cues for arranging plants and flowers.

The years that I spent observing and playing in the woods, fields, and gardens gave me an understanding of how plants grow in nature. It is how they commingle, stretch to the light, and coexist or layer—despite their competition for all they need through drought or abundance!

Take a moment and imagine the woods or look at these forest images. You can see the tallest trees like beech, sycamore, poplar, maple, and oak soaring high overhead.

“It is how they commingle, stretch to the light, and coexist or layer—despite their competition for all they need through drought or abundance!”

Then we move downward to understory trees and evergreens like holly, dogwood, sweet bay, or magnolia, reaching up under the leafy screen of their tallest brothers and sisters.

Further down, we can find shrubs like rhododendron and grasses anchoring the roots of its taller friends. Then ferns, mosses, lichen, and other ground covers—even brambles and vines growing into the mix—add in a touch of chaos or visual drama.

There is much layering of many plants and plant types. Left on its own, it can create a very eye-pleasing arrangement! There is an order to the layers from tall to short, but also a randomness that is pronounced through a rhythm, one that cycles much like a fractal—an up gesture, a down gesture, a sideways gesture.

Listen to your intuition. That rhythm resides there too!

Observing Natural Arrangements

Take in all of these ideas. See the moments that nature provides as vignettes, like a tree that grows out and arches over a shrub—and how they both reach out from the edge of a stream bank to catch the light of the sun.

There is a pleasing elegance about these moments—an arrangement. Take time to appreciate the layers. The layers can teach us how to arrange.

All in all, every plant is looking for light. If there is a gap in a forest canopy, the undergrowth will look for and grow toward that light. Look at this image.

“Take time to appreciate the layers. The layers can teach us how to arrange.”

You can see that the leaves are all layered to the light. They all are putting their best face forward to capture the sun's energy (the edge of the forest is to the left out of the image). Now, look at the stems. They support the leaves in the same way. So it's the light and how everything layers and grows to the light that creates a natural arrangement!

The same can be shown in our own flowers and floral designs. No matter what you style as a designer, if you want to bring a sense of natural lilt to your designs, then pay homage to this one aspect of “layering to the light.”

If I had to narrow it down to one takeaway from observing the woods, it would be that each stem we arrange has this "true north." Every branch or leaf has a direction in which it grows and reaches for the light. This is key for me in arranging flowers.