Showing posts with label designing with flowers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label designing with flowers. Show all posts

Friday, February 14, 2020

Design and Thousands of Exotic, Colorful Orchids Mark NYBG's 2020 "Kaleidoscope" Orchid Show Featuring Famed Floral Designer Jeff Leatham



Design marks the 18th year for The New York Botanical Garden’s (NYBG) signature art feature: the much anticipated, annual Orchid Show.  
I came away from the Tuesday Press Preview smitten.  New decade ~ new look.  This year’s display is marked by an integration of a thoughtful, sophisticated design - with a capital “D.”  Which only makes sense because this year’s designer is Jeff Leatham, the award-winning artistic director of the Four Seasons Hotel George V, Paris, with studios also at the Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia at Comcast Center and the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills. According to NYBG, “He has been creating a sensation with his floral installations since he began his career in 1995. His work is a combination of his love for flowers and passion for design. Using shape, color, and simplicity, his creations are dramatic, bold, unforgettable statements that are always an integral part of the setting. Leatham has produced spectacular displays in Paris for nearly two decades, and in 2014, he was knighted with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres—the highest honor for artists and others who have made a significant contribution to French culture. His clients include Cher, Dolly Parton, Tina Turner, Oprah Winfrey, the Kardashians, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and many others. His publications—Flowers by Jeff Leatham, Flowers by Design, and Jeff Leatham: Visionary Floral Art and Design—remain best-selling design books worldwide.”
Later, the very huggable Jeff told a smaller group of us that he is also a brand ambassador for Waterford (Oh brother, now I have to have his amethyst-colored champagne flutes from the Icon Collection - so colored because the Vanda is his favorite orchid.  So much so that he has a Vanda tattoo on his ankle. Very sexy homage, indeed. (Plus, you have to love a man who so loves orchids that he literally wears his love on his - well, not sleeve, but you know what I mean!) 
 Further, NYBG named a Vanda orchid in Jeff’s honor.  
Last year, the Garden saluted the Bronx’s own Awkwafina! Love her. 
This year’s Orchid Show is: Jeff Leatham’s Kaleidoscope. With color his admitted passion, the designer clearly found inspiration in the Garden’s world-class orchid collection.  I later learned his father is a botanist - so Jeff has a plant pedigree that informs his floral designs. “Color is the first and most important aspect of my work, always,” Jeff Leatham said when describing his creations for The Orchid Show. “I want every gallery to be a different color experience for visitors as they move through them, like looking into a kaleidoscope. I loved kaleidoscopes as a child. You start dreaming as you look through one. People have seen the interiors of the Conservatory already, but with this exhibition, I want them to look through them like never before.”
I too love kaleidoscopes and have one perched on a favorite coffee table in our country house's garden room. I was already feeling the affinity...
Here, according to NYBG, “Thousands of orchids are on dramatic display in dazzling creations on view February 15 through April 19, 2020. Leatham’s captivating designs and installations transform each gallery of the exhibition in NYBG’s historic Enid A. Haupt Conservatory into a different color experience, like the turn of a kaleidoscope.”
In the 2020 Orchid Show, incredible orchids provide bursts of forms and colors—in purples, reds, oranges, and hot pink—revealed through overhead arches, vine-inspired ribbons, mirrored sculpture, and dramatic lighting, and other artistic embellishments. Leatham worked with horticulturists from NYBG, including Senior Curator of Orchids Marc Hachadourian, to assemble orchids from its collections as well as from some of the finest growers in the world. Orchids of seemingly every conceivable shape and provenance, including rare and iconic specimens, are on display in breathtaking configurations. 
We were most fortunate to have Marc lead the tour of the Kaleidoscope show.  
Marc too, is also a rare jewel - his knowledge of orchids is incomparable.  You must get his new book if you don’t already have it in your home library.  Although, his Orchid Modern, is not a book that will sit on your bookshelf, rather you will be referring to it frequently for design and care tips.  
 I love the creative ways Marc shows to use orchids to amplify your home floral designs with his step-by-step projects. I’m making the bonsai orchid art! And I can’t help but note the subtle yet pointed kind of parallelism between Marc’s emphasis on orchid Design and Jeff’s bold emphasis on Design for the show.  Orchid Karma, you might say…. 




Visitors to The Orchid Show: Jeff Leatham’s Kaleidoscope are greeted by a most dramatic display: purple Vandas suspended above a 10-foot-tall mirrored orchid sculpture with a fountain of water streaming into a black pool. 



We were treated to Marc’s tour of the other galleries and spaces of the exhibition, each designed in its own color scheme, include plantings of green and white cymbidiums amid grasses, yellow orchid arches, and a most dazzlingly - a breathtaking kaleidoscopic tunnel of pulsing orchid-hued lights.  




The light tunnel is ever-more astonishing because previously - this was just a dark, rather dank passageway from one Gallery to another.  I think some of you know, I worked at NYBG (and BBG) and always thought this was a forlorn space, not fitting for the glamorous Garden. But here, Jeff took a challenge and transformed it into a hearth-clutching experience.  
This talent for making lemonade out of lemons is another key reason to visit the Orchid Show this year.  A bit of background if you don’t know is that there is a massive restoration (nearly $18 million investment) going on in the main dome of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.  Yet, rather than lament the loss of using that space (or using an add-on temporary space as was done for the Holiday Train Show), the Garden and Jeff teamed up to use many, too-often overlooked spaces - the ones more often thought of as pass-throughs rather than the show-stopping ones. Maybe design lessons for your home, as well…. 
I very much respect that design challenge; moreover, you as the visitor get to see the places you probably don’t see nor visit.  It’s a seamless, sensory experience for the visitor Marc and Jeff explained as we toured the Galleries. 
Jeff told me that in addition to flowers and plants, he most often works with lighting, noting that it’s a valuable investment to spend on special lighting and/or candles because it creates an unforgettable ambiance - especially at night.  So here too, please make a point to visit this special Kaleidoscope Orchid Show during the day - and at a twinkling, magical twilight. 

In addition to the Tunnel of Light, there is more design art: here is a hanging passementerie of orchids on a newly-painted grayish wall that Jeff said, “Points up the vibrancy of the orchid space.”  He explained how the visitor experience is different as they experience the change in the visual focal point. There’s that element of surprise and discovery, yet again. The design composition does indeed make the orchid colors pop, along with “pocket designs” you first glimpse as you descend the stairs from the Desert Gallery, while trying not to remain longer in order to view that ornamental edging: 



Seeing the “pocket” design vignettes Jeff created, I followed up on a comment he made earlier about his background growing up where he loved working indoors with his mother on interior designs, teasing how these exquisite examples show his time with Mother was indeed well spent.  He smiled and said he agreed. Jeff is a true sweetheart talent.

And I love that the Garden has you walking through the Desert - to discover an “extreme” orchid whose natural habitat is an arid place.   Did you know that orchids grown on every continent except Antarctica? (Although, I read it was 69 F degrees there today - arghhh - so maybe that too will be impacted…)
Nevertheless, the Eulophia petersii is one of the most desert-adapted orchids, as Marc explained to us.  I viewed this orchid recently at the Tucson Botanical Garden where they detail this orchid as “…growing in arid habitats from Namibia all the way to the southern Arabian Peninsula. An extreme succulent, it stores water in its large pseudobulbs, thick rigid leaves, and an ample system of fleshy roots.” This kind of “aha” is so joyful and educational and lends an added sense of surprise and discovery to the show, especially as the orchid is part of the Garden’s permanent Collection is probably overlooked.
  

Please do pay tribute to the Garden’s extraordinary exhibit interpretations.  After all, NYBG is a cultural institution - and its artful plant collections and designs are ever more potent now.  I believe it’s imperative we not only bask in the glory of our plants - and these orchid jewels but also pay homage and revere our plants - learn how to protect them and in turn, they will provide for us as they have done for millennia.  While you will undoubtedly be dazzled by the orchid beauty, please stop and also read the signage. They are like the Signs of the Cross … and oh-so-fascinating. Learn about our plants… Here, the Garden points out important points about biodiversity, science, and the environment that, increasingly, cannot be overlooked… 



And please don’t miss a Vanda that Marc pointed out to us: a rare Himalayan orchid that is on the endangered species list:  The Vanda coerulea. Honor this orchid… 


And then there are the layered exhibits to be enjoyed as you climb the stairs to three different landings in the Rainforest.  These too are a new feature to be discovered due to necessity. Now there you can enjoy a vertical design and the skywalk. Love it:
 

Very cool to look down through the landings at Orchids! 



This year’s emphasis on design is further captured in Jeff’s  desire to promote a sense of discovery and enchantment - as there are oodles of incredible orchids tucked into and about the Galleries.  Look for them. Stop and, well, smell the orchids!
 
Jeff also has placed very tall, orchid-colored, painted, bamboo reeds in and among the orchid exhibits.  They add a touch of design whimsy and surprise much like jewelry to an ensemble. More garden glamour.  


In the Desert Gallery the reeds are a sapphire blue, inspired by Yves St. Laurent’s Moroccan idyll vacation home.

There were magenta reeds in the Rainforest Gallery: 

Furthering the design element is the extraordinary “Rise and Shine” exhibit, as it’s referred to because of the focus on yellow and orange-colored orchids and plants.  There are always the arches over the black pool, but whereas there’s now an emphasis on the yellow to changing red and orange spectrum over the mirror reflected pool that adds depth and mystery.  Further transforming the space is that Jeff and the NYBG team covered the fountain there in moss, to accentuate the orchid showcase - 
Years ago, I rendered this in pen and ink - when I find it, I’ll share.  (Smile).  

And ta-dum - the orchid arches are reflected in the dark pool below -giving an illusion of a full circle. 
I couldn’t help but comment to Marc that the design amplifies the Tunnel of Light full-circle design…  Ahhh, the art of floral design …. 

Exhibition Programming Features Stylish Orchid Evenings, a Designer Talk, and More

During Orchid Evenings on select dates throughout the run of The Orchid Show: Jeff Leatham’s Kaleidoscope, adults 21 and over can experience the exhibition at night with music, cash bars, and light bites. Princess Lockeroo, one of today’s leading Vogue and Waacking-style dancer-choreographers, teams up with renowned musician Harold O’Neal for a fierce and fabulous performance. Come dressed in your boldest floral-inspired fashion and express yourself on the runway. Purchase a cocktail, beer, wine, and more from one of NYBG’s seasonal bars. Local flavors from the Bronx Night Market celebrate the city’s diverse culture. Advance ticket purchase is recommended to guarantee admission to these signature events. Visit www.nybg.org/event/the-orchid-show/orchid-evenings/ for more details.
On Thursday, February 20, at 11. a.m., in NYBG’s Ross Hall, hear Jeff Leatham discuss how he brings his floral designs to life. A Q & A session and book signing will follow. Registration for “Floral Design Talk with Jeff Leatham '' is required.   
Other exhibition programming includes Orchid Basics Q&A on Saturdays and Sundays, 1–4 p.m. at NYBG Shop where staff help customers select the best orchid for the home, and Orchid Care Demonstrations on Sundays at 1 and 2 p.m. in the Haupt Conservatory GreenSchool, where orchid experts provide advice on how to choose and successfully grow these elegant plants.

The Garden is offering a special photographers’ session, Friday, March 6; 8:30 -10 am for the professionals.  This is the only time that tripods will be allowed in the Conservatory - so register early for this rare opportunity. 

I get asked very often about caring for the Phalaenopsis orchid - the rather ubiquitous and honestly, easy-to-care for smiling face of an orchid.  But if you’re rather befuddled by its growing habit, be sure to sign up for the Phalaenopsis Care session, Saturday, March 7th.  
You can also benefit from the March 14th session, Orchids: Divide, Repot, Rejuvenate

Round out an Orchid Show visit at NYBG Shop and select from thousands of top-quality orchids, from exotic, hard-to-find specimens for connoisseurs to elegant yet easy-to-grow varieties for beginners available for purchase, along with orchid products and books.

For more information about The Orchid Show: Jeff Leatham’s Kaleidoscope and to purchase tickets, please visit nybg.org.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Secret Gardens & Beds with Benefits



The Secret Garden was the theme of the Herald Square, NYC Macy’s Spring Flower Show this year.  www.macys.com/flowershow

Judging by the swarms of people elbowing each other to eagerly pose near the lush, colorful, blooming floral displays with family, friends or in Selfies - the cat was definitely out of the bag! 


The spectacular, Free, annual flower show is a perennial – favorite! 
(Sorry, can’t resist all the botanic wordplayJ
Flower fans from nearby and around the world set their spring calendar by the event - which this year ran from March 23 to April 6th - to attend professional demonstrations, special events and guided tours. 




Beds with Benefits


Who knew that a retail sales floor was also a glamorous garden bed? 
The garden sprites at Macy’s Entertainment and Parade group accessorized the store not unlike a botanic garden conservatory. 
Dangling like giant earrings from the ceiling and miles of elevated fashion runways from pillar to post: flowers and plants everywhere!
Minus the pollinators.


Within the Secret Garden theme was the Garden of the Mind.
The two most prominent garden compositions were located on the Mezzanine with three bridges “linking” them, further fostering the feeling you are being embraced by flowers and greenery.

Looking out and across from the perched garden there, I couldn’t help think of a floral analogy: the shoppers looked like so many bees flitting from counter to counter; stopping to admire the floral displays…









The mezzanine arbor was fashioned with beds that were filled with a rambunctious mix of plants: evergreens, ranunculus (LOVE this flowering plant!), astilbe, pansies, lilies, iris, clematis, camellia, and more. 
This garden display was located near the windows and a Starbucks so you could also sit and enjoy the winter garden scene.  





The opposite side mezzanine appeared less pronounced but its ambitious Under the Sea Garden that highlighted Cirque du Soleil’s Amaluna – now at Citi Field -- showcased beds filled with architectural-looking plants of aloe, asparagus fern, and tropicals, including bromeliads.  









Five celebrity floral designers flexed their botanic style, creating a showstopper for the Bouquet of the Day display.   

Their floral creations were in the spotlight for two to three days. This kept the bouquets fresh and the shoppers coming back to see the new look.  In fact, Macy’s told me the Bouquet of the Day was so popular and so many people got up close and in the display, that they had to put crime-scene tape around the design’s display!  
At least the tape’s pretty pink color was seasonally appropriate…

The five floral designers are so good, worth noting and sharing:

  • ·      Jes Gordon, jesGordon/properFun www.jesgordon.com - Named Biz Bash’s Top 35 Event Designers in North America and The Knot’s Best of Weddings Awards in 2012
  • ·      Olivier Giugni – L’Olivier Floral Atelier www.lolivier.com “French-born Olivier brings elegance, sophistication, and joie de vivre to his designs.”
  • ·      Ed Libby – Ed Libby & Company – www.edlibby.com  “A full environmental experience and close attention to detail” are Libby hallmarks
  • ·      Angelica Gomes – Angelica Flowers and Events – “Rio-born Gomes creates beautiful floral designs with the passion and energy of a true New Yorker.”
  • ·      Kenji Takenaka – Noir Hanna – www.noirhanna.com “Captures the mesmerizing world of flowers… Clients include Carnegie Hall and the UN, and named floral designer for the Quin Hotel.”

Floral compositions were worked into the merchandise displays too, as well as the featured gardens.
The plants seemed to be selected for their sheer Wow appeal.  

Obviously, there was no apparent thought given to the taxonomy or hierarchy of the plants’ display. 
If it’s a looker, it made the cut to a starring role. 


And I just love how irresistible the plants are to people – it’s positively magnetic.
Plants are exotic and otherworldly.
Plants create an intimate experience - whether at Macy’s or the botanic gardens – visitors get right up close and take a picture, or reach out and touch the plants.












Which brings up the care and maintenance.
Every night, Long Island’s Ireland Gannon nursery waters the potted plants and change out the wilted cut flowers.
According to Macy’s the controlled air in the store makes keeping the flowers happy a very big job.
Following the show’s conclusion, the retailer spreads the botanic bounty to further beautify Gotham. The cut flowers are composted and the living potted plants are donated to Bette Midler’s NY Restoration Project. www.nyrp.org  

Haute Couture Flower Power

Not surprising, the most popular floral composition was Lady in Red, according to Macy’s.  
And believe me, Nancy Reagan has nothing on this dame!  

Located at the 35th street entrance, the statuesque stunner was a towering 14 feet tall, her gown made from more than 2,000 flowers.   
Roses anthurium, gerbera daises, cockscomb, and hydrangeas were artfully arranged to create a red dress and model that no Fashion Week designer could compete with.

The bottom of the dress was potted plants and the bodice and head were cut, tubed flowers that Gannon nursery traded out and refreshed every night. 

The red color and size was one-two punch of unadulterated Flower Power.

Flower Express

With flowers and plants beckoning at every turn, you can’t help but feel like you’ve stepped into a head-spinning Arcadian dream.
To better make sense of all the floral displays and not overlook anything, Macy’s offered guided tours every 30 minutes.

My tour guide told me the tours start off with a few folks and then like a kind of Pied Piper Petunia with a microphone, draws in people – like a honeybee to pollen – so that the tour ends up with 40 to 50 people who’ve joined the group by mid-point.

Our guide was friendly and eager, pointing out plants we probably would’ve missed, such as the “rare” (according to the guide) citrus tree he said was from the Philippines and is used to make a delicious homegrown marmalade there. I’ve since learned that the calamondin orange home is China. 





Next to that, high up on a garden bridge, was a pretty flowering almond plant.



In the Garden of the Mind, the tour guide pointed to a conifer and then mischievously asks, “Does anyone know what juniper is used in?”
No takers.
OK. For me, it was a kind of momentary “Floral Flashback” - a scene reminiscent of my conifer ID class on the grounds of the New York Botanical Garden (www.nybg.org) with instructor Mike Ruggerio asking the same question with what I remember as the same mirthful “I’ve got a secret” grin.
The suspense is killing the apparently teetotalling group. I snap out of my juniper reverie.
“Gin.” I finally say.
Everyone breaks out in “naughty but nice” giggles. 
And they make me feel like I’ve won the lottery.
They crown me “plant duchess,” I guess, because just then the woman next to me “tests” our combined plant knowledge and asks what’s that one, pointing to a plant in the center aisle garden bed.
I wait for the tour guide.  He’s stumped on this, apologizing profusely.
“Cycad” I offer. 
This leads to a brief discussion of the cycad, it being a part of the pine tree family and having worn the mantle of the oldest plant on earth – that is - until the Wollemi Pine was recently discovered by plant hunters led by David Noble in an inaccessible part of the New South Wales part of Wollemi National Park. “Descendants of an ancient line of conifers that had been thought extinct for millions of years.” Botanists matched it up and confirmed it was something they had seen previously only in fossil records.”
I love plant stories, don’t you?

The tour guide proudly shows off a Jeffery Rudell-designed Gulliver Traveler-sized mobile bloom creation hanging from floor to ceiling. www.jeffrudell.com    

With obvious craft-making pride, the guide recounts how he helped make the giant blooms. “We used ribbons (rather than Jeffery’s signature paper) – 75,000 ribbons that we pushed through the ½” screen frames.”
One side looked like tapestry and the other side was a neat, Scrunchy-like effect.

The blooming mobile also featured giant scrollwork.  This in turn, made the Macy’s folks scurry to bring out their signature, Victorian gates from its inventory stored in their vault.  (Love to explore the vault, wouldn’t you?)

The guide explained how the retailer hadn’t used the gates for years.
I see that the gates are also featured on the Secret Garden brochure.  
I’d leave these gates on display. They are gorgeous and obviously possess an enduring pedigree.


Rudell’s book, Paper Blooms: 25 Extraordinary Flowers to Make for Weddings, Celebrations & More was available for sale in Macy’s Cellar. And here: http://www.amazon.com/Paper-Blooms-Extraordinary-Weddings-Celebrations/dp/1454703504




The Pepperidge Farm® Goldfish® Garden for Kids was mentioned as a garden to visit. I didn’t visit the garden but it sounded cute: “Finn & Friends’ fish Finn was the theme, with the fish and Goldfish brand crackers sharing values (!) of optimism, goodness, confidence, playfulness and imagination."  Whew! Think of that next time you want some crackers in your soup.  Ha. However, if the sponsorship allowed kids to explore the “Great Outdoors” I don’t care a whit about whether the brand alignment is a wet noodle or a crispy cracker.




Tablescapes: The Eyes Eat First

Throughout the duration of the show, Macy’s hosted designers including Kate Spade, Marchesa, and Lennox, to introduce their stunning new spring dinnerware patterns.

Spade’s Charlotte Street is geometric patterned with stripes and polka dots for “casual brunch to family dinner.” goo.gl/7F7fZg 


I adore Marchesa’s fashions and her line of plates is inspired by her bridal gowns’ “lush, lacy detailing.” The Midnight Blue line pattern is “bold florals in a dramatic dark color palette, set against gleaming white.” http://www1.macys.com/shop/product/marchesa-dinnerware-midnight-blue-collection?ID=1121642  


The French Perle Bead from Lennox “invokes classic Parisian style with rippling, dotted edges adorning the sturdy stoneware.” http://www1.macys.com/shop/product/lenox-dinnerware-french-perle-ice-blue-collection?ID=540237

I’m very partial to the Oscar de la Renta line of botanical dinnerware available as a “new, limited-edition home collection at The New York Botanical Garden.  The fashion designer is “an avid gardener and floral expert,” and was allowed to handpick the images from the NYBG LuEsther T. Mertz Library’s Rare Book Collection for his home collection http://nybgshop.org/index.php Gorgeous botanical artwork of greens and pinks and lush florals of peony, mayapple leaves create a happy and elegant tablescape.   

I will be at the Garden Friday to visit the Orchid show, accompanied by my mother and a dear garden client and friend, Maria, so we will check out these beauties, along with the orchids.  



While looking for Jeffrey’s Flower book, I ran into a Tablescapes demo by Barbara K – founder of Tools for Women DIY setting up for a session.   

I met her previously at a Gift Show – so it was nice to see her again and learn how she continues to extend her business and brand.  “It’s all about DIY,” she peeped with a dare-you-to-argue kind of stare.
I’m all for the makers so no argument from me.











She and her team were poetry in motion, creating three home entertainment tablescape compositions: 
summer picnic, 







garden party, 


and date night.
“I want to inspire people and take the mystery out of creating a tablescape experience,” said Barbara K. 

I’d leave the mystery in. But I got her point.  Let your imagination and creativity soar. Don’t be afraid. 
Make your tabletop a fantasy.
The French have a saying when referring to the plated meal: “The eyes eat first.”

Speaking of the French and their ready reference to all things amour (now, that’s brand alignment!) Barbara K stops, framed card for the date table and marker pen in mid-air, to ask what to write on the display card: “I love you? or Will you marry me?” 
I suggest the latter.  In a time when everyone seems to Love everything, the notion of marriage sounds more nuanced, more meaningful and yes, filled with "mystery.”

Tell your story with flowers and plants.    

Happy spring!

When you visit the Macy’s Secret Garden web site – you can send me a glamorous Petal Gram!