Cutting Class

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play withcontrastingcolorsPretty 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 arrange-

ment of round faces of

the rosy-hued ranun-

culus and parrot tulips.

Viburnums providethe backdrop: With

their up-swooping

branches and small,

glimmering white

blooms, the effect is

practicallyelectric.

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When Ariella Chezar gathers blooms into a vase, they seem totake on a life of their own. We sat in on the celebrated f loral designers workshop

and filled our notebooks, so we could share the secretsbehind her colorful, captivating arrangements.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY GABRIELA HERMAN

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befruitfulFlowers arent the only

way to create a bouquet

with stunning colors:

Consider produce.

I especially love com-

bining f lowers withfruits on the vine,

says Chezar. This fiery

play on the color or-

ange uses kumquats to

adorn similarly hued

CLASS

parrot tulips, ranuncu-

lus, and poppies. As

a final touch,Clematis

montanais allowed to

cascade out of the vase

with no rhyme or rea-son, says Chezarits

white blooms are only

visually reined in by the

white daffodil petals.

The effect, says Cheza r,

is a little wild, a little

whimsical.

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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 in-

stance, 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 creationsinvite 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), hop-

ing to understand her sixth sense for making bou-

quets 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 SpeedPress), 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 ofpicking 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 ma-

terials, 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 branchesto create a founda-tion and follow withstiffer material s,she

saysin this case, lilies,

then parrot tulips.

W

HAIR

ANDM

AKEUP

BY

RICHARDC

OOLEY

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riff ona colorChezar goes deep

into yellow with this

bouquet of daffodils,

Icelandic poppies, and

ranunculus. Blooms

ranging from white-

yellow to yellow-

orange are densely

clustered front and

center, then framed bygreen hellebores.

They contain the yel-

low, she says, like

a cuff.

Albster smll glss

vse, in Aqumrine,

vietri.com.


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take a

fresh lookat leavesA favorite workshop

project of Chezars is

building entire bou-

quets from leaves, vines,

and branches, so stu-

dents learn that leaves

arent simply green

theyre numerous

shades of green as well

as plum, brown, and

more, and as valuableto the composition as

the blooms are. Case in

point: the bouquet of

ruffly La B elle 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 rib-

bing of the plum-treefoliage. Its beige and

peach tones are rein-

forced by eucalyptus

berries and the wend-

ing Clematis montana.

Aged Venetin fruit bowl,

11", cmpodeiori.com.

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tune intotonesOpposite: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. Theyappear 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, in-cluding fringed laven-

der parrot tulips and

Solomons seal, with its

tiny white bells.

Bright orange and pink

arrangements excerpted

from The Flower Work-

shop: Lessons in Arrang-

ing Blooms, Branches,

Fruits, and Foraged Mate-

rials,by Ariella Chezar

and Julia Michaels, pho-

tography by Erin Kunkel.

Photography 2016 by

Erin Kunkel. Published

by Ten Speed Press, an

imprint of the Crown

Publishing Group, a divi-

sion of Penguin Random

House LLC.

marthastewart.com/floral-arrangementsFind more floral-design techniques.

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ARRANGEMENT

Created by Kate Berry

and Ayesha Patel

Text by Joanne Chen

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