Winter is coming, we’ll settle for warehouse flowers until March !

Thanks for your loyalty and your encouragement. I have never abandoned the flowers. 

I totally agree with Paula’s floral design vision: “My own personal style and preference is for natural, abundant and romantic flowers. I prefer simple arrangements with a wild twist. (…) I dislike over-worked fussy designs and prefer the flowers to speak for themselves. I like to think that in my work the flowers are the stars of the arrangement. I hope my input enhances the beauty of the plant material without being too dominant, and that my style is accessible to all.“

Courtesy Paula Pryke

Peonies are already available at florists’. Although knowing they are greenhouse cultured, I can’t resist to their charm. further more, the ones I  bought yesterday smelled so good, just like garden ones. And I found Mooseberry (Viburnum) flowers to match them, how resist ?

Moosberry or Cranberry (Viburnum) is one of my favorite foliages. Between a flower and leaves, it has the most perfect pastel color and the most delicate posture to match pastel colored spring flowers.

Vase Haviland

I arranged this bouquet of tulips in a Gien Vase of the collection “Mille Fleurs”, one of the most famous “demi-lune” vases that I purchased in Gien, the factory of store of the faience brand.

Courtesy Gien

That is why I don’t dig up these weeds which invade my balcony and choke other plants. They soften up my heart with distant childhood memories…

Many signs indicate the spring’s approaching this week: green buds on plants, blackbirds singing all day long to attract females, daytime becoming longer and longer…

My last bouquet is composed with flowers and branches with a spring touch.

- Salix gracilistyla: Rosegold Pussy Willow/Saule/银芽柳

-  Craspedia: Billy buttons/Craspedia/金槌花

- Molucella: Bells of Ireland/ Clochette d’Irlande/贝壳花

- Eucharis: Amazon Lily/Lys d’Amazonie/油加律，亚马逊百合

- Hypericum: Hypericum/Millepertuis/金丝桃

At the moment their aren’t many kinds of flowers, and even the bulb spring flowers are cultivated in greenhouse or they come from the South, warn coountries.

Though quite limited in choices, I found some beautiful flowers: blue hyacinth, orange tulip and yellow mimosa. This forms a very gay spring bouquet with contrasting colors. Normally I prefer bouquets with the same color tone (different shades of a same color or very closed colors familly), but this time I’m really convinced by the contrast colors.

We should always try different things, and to surpass oneself.

In fact, after a stressing and exhausting week, my biggest pleasure and the best way to relax is to buy some flowers and arrange a bouquet.

Here I post some of my latest bouquets.

By the way, I took these pictures with my new camera, SONY NEX 5, the most compact bridge camera which just came out. I’m quite satisfied with it, although I didn’t take the pictures with a macro lens for close-up views, they are quite clean-cut and the colors are beautiful for a very sunny day.

Yes it’s also a topic from my flower school’s homeworks. It’s about a sympathy arrangement to be placed in front of the statue of Pont de l’Alma, in Paris, where Lady Diana had her car accident and passed away.

I choosed Automn flowers and fruits to make a seasonal composition with chearful colors, instead of a conventional sad arrangement for this kind of occasions.

Flowers used in this arrangements are:

-  Chrysanthemum: Chrysanthemum/Chrysanthème/菊花

- Gerbera: Gerbera/Gerbera/非洲菊

- Hydrangea: Hortensia/Hydrangea/八仙花,绣球

- Hypericum: Hypericum/Millepertuis/金丝桃,黄海棠

- Amaranthus: Amaranthe/Joseph’s-coat/尾穗苋

- Rubus: Blackberry/Mûre/复盆子

- Kniphofia: Torch Lily/Faux aloès/火炬百合

- Nigella: Love in a Mist/Nigelles de Damas/黑种草

Currently there is a competition of Dahlia flowers in the Park. This is a tradition of the Park since 1992.  I’d like to share some pictures with you.

Which one do you prefer? You can go and vote for your favorite variety until late September.

I love these colors : orange, yellow, white, which are quite cheerful but announce already the coming of Autumn.

By the way, the 8th August is the first day of Autumn this year according to the Chinese lunar calendar.

So for the Chanel arrangement, I chose red and white as major colors because they are the colors of camellia, the flower of Chanel, and also because the match of these two colors is very chic.

I used 4 species of flowers:

- Polianthes tuberosa: Tuberose/ Tubéreuse / 晚香玉

- Rosa

- Paeonia

- Amaranthus

In Beijing or other Chinese cities, you won’t see many florist’s shop. There are several big markets gathering dozens of flower shops, for trade or for retail.

I wanted to see the possibility for a Western florist to open a shop in Beijing. I’m still quite persuaded it will work, for two reasons.

On one hand, there is a need in China. I have seen several people with a bouquet in the street or even in restaurants — Chinese people do think of flowers when they have to make a gift.

On the other hand, the current offer in the market is not very satisfying. Most of Chinese florists have no professional traning and don’t have very accurate taste in line with international trends. They creations, though sometimes reflect the Chinese floral art style, are not original because everyone is doing the same thing.

With the Chinese people’s love for luxury and Western lifestyle, I’m sure that a luxury florist store like Lachaume of Paris can be a successful concept in Beijing. Maybe first among foreigners living there and fashionable Chineses, and then it would be possible to educate the Chinese and make the market bigger and bigger.

Here are some photos I’ve taken in the flower market I visited.