GIVING BEAUTIFUL FLORAL THANKS RIGHT NOW

We’ve gathered some of the most beautiful seasonal floral arrangements we could find happening right now to share with you. They exude gratitude for nature’s bounty, the artist’s eye, and the family and friends at our holiday tables.

We love the way this arrangement marries florals with edibles. Petals Ink produced a voluptuous coupe, spilling over with a tumble of fat black grapes and soft sexy deep red roses, as a split crimson pomegranate nestles in, showing off its starburst patterned seeds pavé.

What a wonderful new interpretation of a “cabbage rose!” Lori Friedman, of Flowers For The People, studies the contrast of a sturdy winter vegetable, with its strong textures and flavors, juxtaposed with a bunch of delicately petaled and scented roses. It sits perfectly atop a greenware pedestal.

Floral designer Erin Benzakein, of Floret, and Jennie Love, of Love n’ Fresh Flowers, co-created the Seasonal Bouquet Project website and workshop series, teaching flower farmers and designers how to create intense beauty by working with the abundance all around them, right in their own “backyards.”

Floral designer, gardener, and author, Debra Prinzing runs a floral design blog and podcast called Slow Flowers. She is interested in floral design using heritage growing and keeping techniques.

Prinzing takes a very local approach to ingredient selection in her floral arrangements, using seasonal locally grown flowers, foliage, fruits, vegetables and other organic matter. She wrote The 50 Mile Bouquet, a beautiful book promoting this philosophy.

Prinzing interviews other floral designers, like Local Flowers Advocate Kelly Sullivan. Kelly is an up-and-coming studio floral designer, small-scale flower farmer and owner of Botanique, in Seattle, Washington. Sullivan’s aesthetic and seasonal/local approach is complimentary.

Sullivan’s designs are romantic, loose, and natural, with fragrant heirloom blossoms, and loads of textural plays, with swirling vines, funky foliage, punctuating seed pods, and gnarly branches.

Oranges, ambers and yellows play shockingly well with clear hot pink, with snappy fresh white relief in this arrangement.

All flowers used in Sullivan’s designs come from either her 500 square foot Cutting Garden in South Seattle or from flower farmers in Washington and Oregon.

Fleuriste Poinciana created a fresh approach to a Thanksgiving still life. Bright orange calla lilies relax into place, belly to the bottom, cupping a plump purple succulent.

Photographer & floral designer Mirtha Bucaro, of B&B Floral Design, created this ball of autumn colors, with an unexpected combination of orange and yellow calla lilies, lush white and fuchsia corsage orchids, and vermillion amaryllis.

Pomegranates and roses are paired again in this beautifully textured floral design by Flower Factor. This feels completely different. With South African protea adding a spiky anchor and evergreen fringe, a light touch of gypsophila, and some white winter berries.

Read more about Beautiful Thanks, as it relates to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact including Beautiful Thanks to BeautifulNow Fans Now.

Enter your own images and ideas about Beautiful Thanks in this week’s creative Photo Competition. Open for entries now until 11:59 p.m. PT on 11.30.2014. If you are reading this after that date, check out the current BN Creative Competition, and enter!

PHOTO CREDITS:

1. Photo: Courtesy of Petals Ink. Pomegranates, Grapes, and Roses in a Floral Arrangement.
2. Photo: Courtesy of Flowers For The People. Vegetable and Floral Arrangement.
3. Photo: Courtesy of Flowers For The People Austin. Cabbage Rose Centerpiece!
4. Photo: Courtesy of Floral designer Erin Benzakein, of Floret, and Jennie Love, of Love n’ Fresh Flowers. Seasonal Bouquet Project.
5. Photo: Courtesy of Debra Prinzing. Floral Arrangement from The 50 Mile Bouquet.
6. Photo: Courtesy of Debra Prinzing. Floral Arrangement by Kelly Sullivan, Botanique.
7. Photo: Courtesy of Debra Prinzing. Floral Arrangement by Kelly Sullivan, Botanique.
8. Photo: Courtesy of Debra Prinzing. Floral Arrangement by Kelly Sullivan, Botanique.
9. Photo: Courtesy of Fleuriste Poinciana. Thanksgiving Centerpiece.
10. Photo: Courtesy of B&B Floral Design. Custom Thanksgiving Centerpiece.
11. Photo: Courtesy of Flower Factor. Autumn Centerpiece.