Bouquet of the Week: Visceral Color
As part of our recurring Bouquet of the Week series, Garden Collage continues to present a weekly inspirational bouquet that incorporates intriguing new elements into the traditional practice of flower arranging. This week, Garden Collage Graphic Designer (and resident in-house Chef) Eidia Moni Amin styles a bouquet honoring visceral color and all that it represents.
“You need more color: you’re too young to not be enjoying them.” As my friend and I walked through Chelsea, gallery hopping on a windy Saturday, I thought about his comment. I did in fact, in the recent week, purchase a navy blue winter wool coat. Just another navy blue in my increasingly, blue, black, and gray wardrobe. At one point, I reached out to show him something, and he grabbed my hand to look at my nails. “So you DO incorporate color, just in a very subtle manner.” I looked at my nails. They were painted in a soft ballerina pink.
This week’s bouquet is about the visceral colors. I may be walking around wearing darker shades, with airy colors on my nails, but I feel the hues of the flowers in this arrangement. I emote crimson reds, romantic pinks, and slight greens. They are very Spring colors for this very blue-gray winter, but I am eternally a Spring child (I was born in April). Wearing my shield of monochromatic deep hues, I walk around feeling the whimsical nature of the Anemones. They have a symphony of a deep purple blue center, and are surrounded by smiling petals with notes of fuschias, whites, and the slightest touch of yellows. They are emblematic of the duplicity of my external versus internal selves. The Amaryllis are there to represent the present season: Winter. Yes, flowers will bloom- always and forever.
Mother Nature never ceases to grace us with her omnipresent bounties. These flowers constantly reinforce the concept of growth even in the most unexpected conditions. Again, the nuanced hues of pink imply that once the next few months fade, there is another season of renewal awaiting its bloom. Of course, I also had to allow the white-green novelty tulips a place in the arrangement. They carry a personality of their own. While the conventional tulips are gentle, with smooth curves that bloom from closed to open bulbs, these novelty tulips have character. They are the “Jane Austen’s” of tulips: still tulips, yet with persistent, unconventional traits.
