Cultivated: The Elements of Floral Style elevates floral design to fine art in this richly informative and entertaining work on the principles of floral style. A charming and intelligent mentor, Christin Geall emboldens designers, gardeners, and entrepreneurs to think differently and deeply about their work with flowers as she draws upon the fine arts and historical sources—whether exploring Baroque music, ikebana, the paintings of the Impressionists, or the work of floral innovators like Gertrude Jekyll and Constance Spry. Cultivated offers lessons and personal reflections on colour, creativity and aesthetics useful to anyone pursuing an artistic connection to the natural world.
PRAISE FOR THE BOOK:
"Geall might just be the M.F.K. Fisher (American grande dame of food writing) of flowers." —Lorene Edwards Forkner, Seattle Times
"...the book will...teach you “how to see flowers,”...It’s a worthy exercise for any design buff, who is likely to emerge from the book with newfound appreciation for the botanical arts. —Allie Weiss, Architectural Digest
"Christin Geall is the rare talent who has the eye of an artist, the pen of a poet, and the heart of a gardener." Erin Benzakein, author of Floret Farm's Cut Flower Garden
"I love this book celebrating garden-grown, imperfect, shapely flowers in glorious, dynamic, fecund vases in the Dutch still life painting style. There are elm flowers here, banksia rose twirls, plums on the branch, coppery bracken fronds-a harvest of beautiful things, overlaying an impressive depth of research and authoritative advice on all the practical skills to know to become a good flower arranger."
—Sarah Raven