Flagrant Blooms

By Michele Orecklin

Despite the myriad ways in which flowers are employed--to console, to woo, to cajole--they are seldom used to provoke. They seem too fragile and ephemeral to shock in the ways that fashion and art do so well. But like those media, flowers are subject to trends, and some of the leaders in the field are determined that bouquets should do more than merely decorate.

Eddie Zaratsian, who runs Tic-Tock, a Los Angeles floral store, can produce a genteel centerpiece, but perhaps due to his vast clientele in the film industry, he is inclined to create something dramatic rather than traditionally romantic: say, a small, distressed-wood chest filled with mossy greens, chocolate-colored roses and blood-red orchids that would cause the most brooding goth to swoon.

According to Li Edelkoort, a trend watcher based in Paris who produces the sumptuous periodical Bloom ("the only trend magazine for flowers and plants"), there is currently a vogue for combining flowers of dissonant colors and textures. "Florists are crossing borders, mixing food and flowers, savage and romantic, dead wood and spring flowers, and eventually I think hardware and natural things," she says.

Perhaps such floral provocations are part of the shift away from the cozy and toward the industrial in our homes. Or maybe as florists eschew mere arrangement and become "event planners," their work becomes more ambitious too.

Avi Adler and David Stark, who run the Avi Adler studio in Brooklyn, N.Y., use a whimsical theatricality for large-scale events. Hardware such as metal Christmas balls and other objects found around the home or garage often appear in their designs. The two also like to bunch similar flowers tightly together and craft them into geometric shapes. Their graphic color-blocked creations almost managed to turn the carnation into a glamorous flower again. "If you're creating flowers for a modern space, the purely romantic won't make a dent," says Stark. Instead these flowers insist on making an impression.