94

le s s on 1

play with
contrasting
colors
Pretty pinks and
salmonsalong with
bright greens from
the opposite half of the
color wheelcreate a
vibrancy that lights up
a room. Its springy
and refreshing, says
Chezar. Each bloom
offers a different shape,
encouraging eyes to
wander from place to
place. The angularity
of green-white lilies
breaks up the arrangement of round faces of
the rosy-hued ranunculus and parrot tulips.
Viburnums provide
the backdrop: With
their up-swooping
branches and small,
glimmering white
blooms, the effect is
practically electric.

cutting

CLASS

When Ariella Chezar gathers blooms into a vase, they seem to

take on a life of their own. We sat in on the celebrated floral designers workshop
and filled our notebooks, so we could share the secrets

behind her colorful, captivating arrangements.
p ho t ogr a p hs by GA briel a herm a n

er i n k u n k el (o r a n g e a r r a n g em en t )

le s s on 2

be
fruitful
Flowers arent the only
way to create a bouquet
with stunning colors:
Consider produce.
I especially love combining flowers with
fruits on the vine,
says Chezar. This fiery
play on the color orange uses kumquats to
adorn similarly hued

parrot tulips, ranunculus, and poppies. As

a final touch, Clematis
montana is allowed to
cascade out of the vase
with no rhyme or reason, says Chezarits
white blooms are only
visually reined in by the
white daffodil petals.
The effect, says Chezar,
is a little wild, a little
whimsical.

96

hen Ariella Chezar describes her work,

the Massachusetts-based floral designer likes to use
words of a gustatory nature. The grassy components
of her pink bouquet (page 99) are yummy, for instance, and the sorbet palette of the tall arrangement
by the window (page 94) struck her as juicy.
Arguably, shes justified. Over the past 20 years,
Chezar has designed arrangements so alluring that
they affect onlookers in a visceral way. Her creations
invite you to come closerto touch, gaze, and drink
them in. Professionals and amateur enthusiasts from
around the country flock to her flower-arranging
workshops (like the one we visited at the Jardin de
Buis, an event space in Pottersville, New Jersey), hoping to understand her sixth sense for making bouquets that are alive and loose, as ifas one student
notedtheyre tumbling right out of the vase.
Im inspired by how things grow, says Chezar,
whose second book, The Flower Workshop (Ten Speed
Press), comes out this month. She knew flowers were
her calling when she walked into a family friends
home flower-arrangement studio and was instantly
swept up by the scent of tuberose and the sea of colors
before her. It was a classic aha! moment, she says.
Today, Chezars astute choices in color allow each
arrangement to look thoughtfully composed yet at the same time exhilaratingly
wild. By the time I go out to gather flowers, Ive already decided on the color I want
for my bouquet, and I build from there, she says. The designer has the luxury of
picking from a 90-acre sustainably grown flower farm that she co-owns with her
husband in Ghent, New York.
Workshops occasionally begin outside, so students can take in the color from all
around them. This not only emphasizes the importance of local and in-season materials, but also encourages students to look beyond the flower shop for arrangement
ideasbe they an unusual mingling of flowers and vines, or branches that swoop
up in the air. In a sense, were simply putting flowers in a vasewhats the big
deal? she says. But its also an opportunity for students to delve into what they
dont normally explore. Sometimes they even cry, but for many people, its a rare
chance to be creative and play with color.
And while Chezar has created countless bouquets for elaborate weddings and
magazine shoots, she has a special fondness for showing others how to arrange
flowers for themselves. The process is beautiful and at times even emotional, she
says. For a teacher, thats very rewarding.

Chezar at work on
the arrangement on
page 94. I always
start with branches
to create a foundation and follow with
stiffer materials, she
saysin this case, lilies,
then parrot tulips.

h ai r a n d m a k eu p by r i c h a r d c o o l e y

le s s on 3

riff on
a color
Chezar goes deep
into yellow with this
bouquet of daffodils,
Icelandic poppies, and
ranunculus. Blooms
ranging from whiteyellow to yelloworange are densely
clustered front and
center, then framed by
green hellebores.
They contain the yellow, she says, like
a cuff.
Alabaster small glass
vase, in Aquamarine,
vietri.com.

99
le s son 4

take a
fresh look
at leaves

Bright orange and pink

arrangements excerpted
from The Flower Workshop: Lessons in Arranging Blooms, Branches,
Fruits, and Foraged Materials, by Ariella Chezar
and Julia Michaels, photography by Erin Kunkel.
Photography 2016 by
Erin Kunkel. Published
by Ten Speed Press, an
imprint of the Crown
Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random
House LLC.

A favorite workshop
project of Chezars is
building entire bouquets from leaves, vines,
and branches, so students learn that leaves
arent simply green
theyre numerous
shades of green as well
as plum, brown, and
more, and as valuable
to the composition as
the blooms are. Case in
point: the bouquet of
ruffly La Belle Epoch
tulips, anchored here
with putty and a flower
frog. The flowers rosier
tones are enhanced by
the fuchsia tree peonies
and white Shooting
Star hydrangeas, as
well as the rosy ribbing of the plum-tree
foliage. Its beige and
peach tones are reinforced by eucalyptus
berries and the wending Clematis montana.
Aged Venetian fruit bowl,
11", campodefiori.com.

le s son 5

er i n k u n k el (pi n k a r r a n g em en t )

tune into
tones
Opposite: Upon arriving
at the workshop last
spring, Chezar couldnt
help but notice the
hellebores. They were
growing all overand
they started everything,
she says, referring to
how she conceived of
this bouquet. They
appear mauve here, but
look closely and youll
notice other colors in
the flowers, toogreen
and white, for certain,
but also pink, beige, and
plum. I love these
dusty in-between tones,
says Chezar, who then
slipped in other flowers
that both echoed the
hellebores and added
textural nuance, including fringed lavender parrot tulips and
Solomons seal, with its
tiny white bells.
Created by Kate Berry
and Ayesha Patel
Text by Joanne Chen

marthastewart.com/floral-arrangements
Find more floral-design techniques.