AMAZING FLOWERS FOR AMAZING THANK-YOUS

One of the most beautiful ways to say Thank You is with flowers! With Thanksgiving around the corner, there’s still time to think about bringing your host a gorgeous bouquet or centerpiece. And, fortunately, there are plenty of other occasions and reasons to give thanks throughout the year… even to give thanks to yourself!

We’ve hunted and gathered to find exceptional floral designers who can inspire you and set you up with truly breathtaking memorable arrangements. Our favorites are those who create true works of art.

These are not your typical neatly uniform bouquets and centerpieces. You won’t find ordinary standard mums or roses. In fact, nothing about these offerings is ordinary. Instead, they are astonishing, with unusual blooms, seeds, pods, branches, leaves and other organic materials that surprise and delight us. There is a trend towards using local and seasonal elements as well.

Whether you are inspired to order gifts, decorate your own home, or add floral magic to an upcoming event, check out these magnificent ways to say Thank You below.

SARAH WINWARD

Floral designer Sarah Winward often travels to her clients to create flower arrangements inspired by the local colors and texture and changing of seasons. Her flowers evoke the feeling of freshly gathered garden flowers, with all their natural variations and inconsistencies. Her philosophy is that flowers should feel natural -- at home in the environment in which they will be viewed.

Each arrangement is more than just a centerpiece or a bouquet, it has layers of beauty that are meant to be experienced, not just seen.

Winward works internationally, but resides in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she calls the base of the Rocky Mountains home.

EMILY THOMPSON

Emily Thompson collaborates with “the rough hand of nature,” contrasting and juxtaposing refined, cultivated flowers with wild and unruly ones. Their arrangements are as unusual as they are magnificent --  sometimes ornate, other times austere and stripped-back designs. Typically centerpieces and bouquets contain seasonal rare and unlikely flowers, seed pods, branches and undergrowth. They revel in the obscure and give love to the “hard-to-love.”

All flora used in Emily Thompson arrangements comes from local growers and foragers whenever possible, gathering the most beautiful from forest, field, swamp and bog. With fine arts degrees and UCLA, Thompson’s creations are each works of art.

MOONFLOWER DESIGN

Moonflower Design, owned by floral designer Mandy O’Shea and farmer Steve O’Shea, creates floral arrangements that are a fusion of artistic expression and love for natural rhythms. They bring together the most beautiful and sustainable elements of nature and agriculture -- all in season, locally harvested at their own 3 Porch Farm, so everything is incredibly fresh.

Loose and lovely, each creation is set free from the confines of the traditional styling and instead, each sprawls a bit, exploring motion and space.

The floral design studio is an extension of our farm and our farm is an extension of our design studio. They are passionate about growing the most exciting, romantic and sought after flowers on the market, yet they also have a strong pull to try out new varieties, rare beauties, and gorgeous southern antique varieties that can’t be found anywhere else. Find out more about 3 Porch Farm.

SAIPUA

Floral arrangements from Saipua are both hauntingly beautiful and brimming with joy. They are made from founder Sarah Ryhanen calls “dream flowers,” flowers they could never get without growing them themselves. Their farm, Worlds End, spans 107 acres of rocky clay soil in upstate NY. A flock of Icelandic sheep keep them company. The original barn and house were built in 1825.

Because they grow their own flowers, they are able to experiment with unusual varieties.

Ryhanen is a self-taught floral designer, stylist and writer, with a background in Contemporary Art. Her work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Vogue and Martha Stewart Living. Co-Founder Eric Famisan runs the farm at Worlds End.

LOVE‘N FRESH FLOWERS

Jennie Love had her first flower patch at age four in her mother’s huge kitchen garden on their 5th generation family farm in central Pennsylvania. She put a little white picket fence around it to keep her 3 older brothers from smashing her delicate blooms.

Love’s love of flowers inspired her to found Love 'n Fresh Flowers, one of the first and few urban flower farms located within a big city’s limits. The farm sits on 2 acres in the city of Philadelphia, where she grows everything she uses in her gorgeous, yet quirky bouquets and centerpieces.

Check out flower workshops, offered by Love ‘n Fresh Flowers and Floret Farm.

For even more floral inspiration, see if Flowers Can Teach You to Open Up (very cool GIFs!), check out and more Extraordinary Floral Gifts, and start planning for Valentine’s Day with Flowers That Make Hearts Beat Faster!

Read more about Beautiful Thank-You’s in Beautiful Places to Say Thank You.

And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Mind/Body, Soul/Impact, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Arts/Design, and Place/Time, Daily Fix posts.

Want more stories like this? Sign up for our weekly BN Newsletter. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr. Join our BeautifulNow Community and connect with the most beautiful things happening in the world right now!

Do you have amazing photos? Enter them in this week’s BN Photo Contest. We run new creative contest every week!

IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: Courtesy of Sarah Winward.
2. Image: Courtesy of Sarah Winward.
3. Image: Courtesy of Sarah Winward.
4. Image: Courtesy of Sarah Winward.
5. Image: Courtesy of Emily Thompson Flowers.
6. Image: Courtesy of Emily Thompson Flowers.
7. Image: Courtesy of Moonflower Design.
8. Image: Courtesy of Moonflower Design.
9. Image: Courtesy of Saipua.
10. Image: Courtesy of Saipua.
11. Image: Courtesy of Love 'n Fresh Flowers.
12. Image: Courtesy of Love 'n Fresh Flowers.
13. Image: Courtesy of Love 'n Fresh Flowers and Floret Farm.
14. Image: Courtesy of Sarah Winward.
15. Image: Courtesy of Sarah Winward.
16. Image: Courtesy of Sarah Winward.