The Flower Workshop: Lessons in Arranging Blooms, Branches, Fruits, and Foraged Materials

Flowers can have a dramatic influence on the particular mood that a space conveys. Simply placing a mason jar filled with a random mix of foraged flowers, can make a space feel more joyful. I have picked up a few tips and tricks here and there, and learned from working with an interior designer, however, I have not been able to master the ephemeral and soft arrangements that are very much in style now. This particular style that is full of movement is what attracted me to the book The Flower Workshop: Lessons in Arranging Blooms, Branches, Fruits, and Foraged Materials by Ariella Chezar. Chezar is a celebrated flower designer whose work has been featured in many publications. This book is a flower lover’s dream. Chezar shares her passion for flowers and has put together an inspiring volume. She frequently refers to her style as painterly, and the description fits perfectly. The book includes tips and tricks such as using the concepts of chiaroscuro and ombré to create depth and movement. There are sections that cover essential techniques, tools, and a very helpful seasonal flower guide. In addition, there are a recipes that list the precise flowers needed to replicate a particular arrangement along with detailed written instructions and stunning photographs. The recipes cover a wide range of floral arrangement styles and they will inspire you to create beautiful arrangements at home. I received a copy of the book for review purposes.

The Flower Workshop is a wonderfully modern guide to sustainable (no foam blocks!) floral design. In this book, Chezar gives tips on how to forage for materials for arrangements, how to shop for flowers (and substitute when you can't find the flowers you want), how to compose an arrangement, how to prepare flowers and branches for arrangements, and much more. She even tells you how to enjoy flowers on a budget, which is perfect for those of us who simply enjoy having a cheerful arrangement or two in our homes, but are on a $5/bunch Trader Joe's budget and not a $12/stem Juliet rose budget. Chezar's aesthetic is far from the trite dozen red roses and baby's breath arrangement. Think Pinterest-y, loose arrangements in vintage containers that look like you transported a mini wildflower meadow into your home, or Dutch still life paintings, which obviously inspire Chezar. These are the types of arrangements that grace that trendy, new cafe in the hippest part of town. Also included are instructions for making bridal bouquets, boutonnieres, flower crowns, and even a marigold curtain. This book is a joy to read, and provides plenty of wonderful inspiration and tips to even a novice floral design enthusiast.

I have purchased quite a few floral design books and many have been disappointing, but not this one! This is the best flower arranging book I’ve read so far. I love how she takes the time to explain why the color, texture and design of each arrangement works, rather then just a recipe (but that’s included also) so I can not only learn to make all the beautiful arrangements in this book but also apply the techniques to create unique designs of my own! So many of the books I purchased previously had flowers arranged almost exclusively with foam, which I personally don’t use for environmental reasons, so I also really appreciated the fact that all of her designs are done without the use of floral foam.

If flower photos can be called eye candy, then the images in Ariella Chezar's The Flower Workshop are among the richest, most delicious and utterly decadent chocolates you can imagine. Ariella Chezar’s breakout book, Flowers for the Table has been a source of inspiration for me for years. This book will take its place alongside the short stack of books I regularly flip through for inspiration. Ariella’s greatest gift is her ability to brilliantly combine cultivated flowers and foraged elements from nature and then creatively reinterpret them. The result is always immensely interesting, often unexpected, yet always “retaining the allure of the wild,” as she explains. A master of ephemeral artwork, Ariella’s lush designs and complex color palettes evoke the subtle, layered brushstrokes of watercolor paintings. Throughout the book she describes her approach to creating these “painterly” arrangements. It is Ariella’s exquisite approach to color that distinguishes her work from any other designer, and has influenced my own designs tremendously since taking her workshop in 2013. While often mistakenly compared to the designs of Dutch Masters, her work is distinct because of her use of subtle tonal contrasts within a single color, rather than the riot of colors often depicted in the historical paintings. As she so aptly describes in the book, with too many colors, there’s “no place for the eye to rest.” Her ability to choose a base color and then “run the scales with it” is the stuff that keeps me up late at night re-configuring my own garden (again) to make room for the special fluttery filler and lush foliage that set her designs apart. The book shares some of the basic tenements of Ariella teaching and emphasizes seasonal flowers and working with local flower farmers throughout the text, which warms my heart. If I had any critiques, it would be the flower farmer nerd in me wanting to know every single species, variety or cultivar of flowers featured in each and every one of her designs. The flower selection highlighted in the pages is quite literally awe inspiring and I'm hungry to track down each and every gem. After months of waiting with eager anticipation, I devoured this book as soon as it arrived. It was such a luxury to sit and savor each and every one of Ariella's featured designs and study all the beautiful images captured by photographer Erin Kunzel. I have since ordered copies for all of my flower friends and can't recommend this treasure of a book highly enough! Erin Benzakein Floret Flower Farm [...]

Wow. I received this book way earlier than I expected and I ate it up. It's gorgeous, from the padded, embossed cover to the thick page and yummy photos. I actually read what she wrote instead of skimming through many book like this. The formulas are applicable wherever you live. However, the reason, I gave it a 4 is because the author is strives for sustainability and many of the flowers and greenery hilighted -and beautiful they are- just don't grow well in my environment or if they do, not in a sustainable manner. So there are still some holes I will need to fill in.

I have been a professional floral designer for 37 years and have followed Ariella her entire career. I’ve told many aspiring floral designers about her over the years.She is the one to follow-the one who inspired so many of the new younger guard of floral designers whether they know it or not. She is a florist’s florist and my idol. Any book she puts out is worth having if you truly appreciate the art of floral design.

I love this book. Flipping through the pages provides so much inspiration and good instructive detail. The photos are gorgeous too.

Lovely book but really didn’t explain how to do arrangements. I think I needed a beginners guide to flower arranging.