Perfectly arranged

Behind every dream wedding stands a florist whose flair and talented design gives poetic expression to his or her client’s style and personality. Every sumptuous detail is considered carefully and executed perfectly.

Next month, when Holly Heider Chapple is in town for Art in Bloom, the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s four-day celebration of floral designs and the art that inspires them, the who’s who of Manitoba’s floral designers will have the opportunity to learn directly from this world-class florist as she teaches her approach to floral artistry.

In addition to a master class for professional florists, Chapple will give a floral workshop (sold out weeks ago) to non-professionals seeking a hands-on learning experience.

Modelled after popular Art in Bloom events hosted annually at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the WAG’s event will run from Thursday, April 20 to Sunday, April 23.

Petals West, the event’s major sponsor, is supplying all of the flowers, branches and spring bulbs in various stages of bloom together with reams of natural moss for a collaborative floral arrangement to be created by Chapple and local designers that will cover the length and breadth of a specially constructed wall (13 metres wide and five metres tall) in Eckhardt Hall.

Work will commence early in the day on April 20 so that by the time the Preview Party — a ticketed event — starts at 7 p.m., Eckhardt Hall will be transformed by flowers into a spring awakening.

Recently, Chapple took time out of her busy schedule to talk with me about flowers, design and creative inspiration. The mother of seven children (yes, seven), Chapple says her flourishing business began as a means to be able to work from home while raising her children at the same time.

Chapple makes her home in Leesburg, Va. Down the road from her 2.5-acre property is Hope Flower Farm, a 25-acre farm she purchased a few years ago.

In addition to providing a bounty of fresh flowers and greenery for Chapple’s designs, Hope Flower Farm is also a destination for floral designers from all over the world to both learn from each other and to teach others. Indeed, in 2010, Chapple established an international network of florists and event designers for whom collaborating is key to growing their industry.

The arrangement of flowers as artistic expression involves skill and technique. When booking a floral and event designer for an upcoming wedding, it’s important for a bride to identify her personal style. A good floral and event designer, Chapple says, creates custom pieces that speak of the bride who will carry the design, show the personality of the couple and be a reflection of their special day.

"It’s very easy for designers to get caught up with creating some amazing piece," Chapple says, "and disregard the couple they are designing for."

Thanks to the powerful influence of social media and social network sites such as Pinterest, brides are more aware now than ever of beautiful products and beautiful flowers, she says. It’s possible to recreate almost anything, says Chapple, whose own signature style is one that never looks artificially structured or composed. Freshness of design, as though blooms and greenery have been gathered directly from the garden, is one of the many reasons that her style is so appealing and sought-after.

A garden influence has been a natural progression among top designers such as Chapple and Ariella Chezar, another flower stylist who also maintains her own flower farm. "Anything you source from your own garden sets off your designs beautifully," says Chapple, who adds that a growing number of florists want the experience of growing their own flowers and using them to design a beautiful piece of floral art.

Like most gardeners, Chapple works within the vagaries of climate, although in her case it is the south’s exceedingly high temperatures that can be a limiting factor. No matter. While growing dahlias in the heat of summer can be challenging, her garden yields glorious annual and perennial options also beloved to zone 3 gardeners, such as scabiosa, zinnias, scented geraniums and gomphrena.

Flowering fruit trees and in particular shrubbery such as spirea, vibernum, mock orange, Deutzia and hydrangeas are essential elements in the garden, says Chapple, who begins forcing branches by the end of January in order to have blooms throughout her home.

And then there are the summer weddings to plan for. At one time, lilies, carnations, mums or baby’s breath were standard fare at weddings. Today, Chapple says, delicate, elegant blooms such as peonies, ranunculus and sweet peas are some of the most stylish blooms.

Currently, Chapple says she loves blocking multiple flowers (three to five) of the same type for a bold statement. This creates greater impact rather than separating flowers and placing them apart at equal distances throughout a design.

Chapple admits, too, to recently falling in love with the muddy, antique-brown tones exemplified by plants such as Cosmos atrosanguineus (the chocolate cosmos) as well as the lacy umbels of chocolate-coloured Queen Anne’s lace. Two-toned antique-hued carnations in champagne and chocolate or Double Deep Brown lisianthus with lavender-brown petals provide a moody-broody colour palette that makes every colour combination work, Chapple says.

Rustic wedding chic, which makes use of locally sourced natural organic textures, has been a popular style for the past few years. With Greenery named as the Pantone colour of the year for 2017, Chapple expects this trend to continue, but with more emphasis on the emerald shades of green rather than the blue-green tones of the ubiquitous seeded eucalyptus.

Cascading greens, such as ivy and jasmine vines, are very much on trend right now for creating garlands. An interesting choice for a garland that has seized the imagination of brides south of the border, says Chapple, is a vine known as Southern Smilax. A long vine with larger leaves that are a delicate green, Southern Smilax drapes beautifully on banisters, archways, gazebos, mantles or wherever hanging greenery is needed.

Anticipating brides’ interest in this latest must-have greenery, Gloria Sawatzky — a Winnipeg florist, co-owner of Beyond Flowers and a member of the WAG’s Art in Bloom planning committee — recently brought in Southern Smilax and says that it lends itself perfectly to being entwined with blooms. Fresh Italian Ruscus greens and Sprengeri greens are also popular for their draping qualities, Sawatzky says.

"I think we’re going to see a lot of dark green ferns, such as Plumosa (asparagus) fern," Chapple says. Glossy, dark green camellia and gardenia foliage pairs well with roses, of which the exceptionally beautiful, cup-shaped David Austin garden rose with its delicious fragrance is the premium choice.

Chapple’s imagination knows no limits. If perfect beauty can be found in a single flower, just imagine the visual feast that awaits you when Chapple and Manitoba’s most talented floral designers collaborate to work their magic for the Art in Bloom Festival.

The WAG has another surprise in store: more than 60 local participants will interpret 15th to 21st-century works from the WAG’s collection with their own unique floral arrangements. Fresh flowers and vases, too, will be available for purchase.

For more information visit wag.ca.

colleenizacharias@gmail.com