How do certain color combinations, flowers or bouquet styles become today's favorites? Just as tastes shift in fashion, interiors, cars and food, there's always something new pulling us further down the garden path. Maybe we're wired to notice the unusual, but consciously or not, people in the flower world keep comparing and weighing options as they look for a fresh corner of the color wheel or a surprising way to pair the familiar with the new.
The Hensley's team likes to spot these shifts, big or small, because they shape what we grow and how we arrange it. Brief crushes or lasting changes, flower fashion is worth watching.
In part 1 of the Slow Flowers floral forecast, we covered key trends in flower farming and floral design. Now, at the height of the season, here's a fresh look at new colors and shapes, shown in designs by Slow Flowers members.
Wildflowers Have Their Way
Wildflowers are a relaxed, fleeting expression of America's tie to the land, from meadows and stream banks to woods and trails. Plenty of reputable sources offer sustainably collected or cultivated wildflower seed, so flower farmers can safely and legally grow lasting favorites like asters, bee balm, black-eyed Susan, and lupines.
It's a truly American look. More couples are choosing natural-looking flowers that seem freshly gathered from a meadow or woods, mixed with cutting garden favorites, and the just-picked style is showing up in flower crowns, garlands, bouquets and centerpieces.
Plenty of field-grown flowers suit this loose, unfussy style, and designers will keep finding new ways to use it. Wilder doesn't mean anything goes, though. Pick bold flowers like sunflowers or cosmos as focal blooms. Add texture with airy flowers like Queen Anne's lace or nigella, and soften the design with annual foliage, vines or trailing touches like hanging amaranthus.
Superstar Greenery
Call it "50 shades of green," and thanks to flower farmers growing interesting foliage, trendsetters now find plain greenery boring. Instead, an unusual mix of foliage, herbs and other green elements such as succulents, air plants and pods can lift any arrangement, bouquet, centerpiece or container.
The greenery boom has been building for years, and it got a big boost when Pantone picked it as its 2017 Color of the Year. Called GREENERY 15-0343 and described as a "fresh and zesty yellow-green shade that evokes the first days of spring," bupleurum is practically that color in plant form.
All-foliage or mostly-foliage designs bring new energy to floral work. Florists are moving past everyday salal, fern and bear grass to less common choices, many of which do double duty: fragrant scented geranium and other herbs; woody stems that give structure, such as smokebush, ninebark, pittosporum, boxwood, myrtle, magnolia and camellia; and very textured leaves or fruit, such as artichoke, pomegranate, snowberry and raspberry.
How foliage is sourced matters too. Material gathered sustainably from gardens, orchards or woods is far more exciting than the standard selection florists have long been offered. Finding sources for unusual leaves takes some creativity, but that creativity is paying off for flower farmers and designers who embrace new foliage and a green, eco-minded style.
Some of the best greenery is herbs. Easy to grow, often long-lasting in the vase and very fragrant, sages, basils, mints, flowering oreganoand other herbs are blurring the line between kitchen garden and cutting garden.
Warm vs. cool design tip: For an all-green or mostly green design, remember that some foliage leans cool, with hints of silver, blue, and burgundy, while others lean warm: acid yellow, chartreuse and gold-green. Notice these undertones and play up just one. If you want both warm and cool greens in one bouquet, use a variegated leaf to tie them together.
Color Update — Beyond Blush
In an earlier Slow Flowers industry forecast , bright pastels and deep jewel tones were tipped as a coming palette, richer and more vivid with deeper petal color. That suggested a move away from the craze for blush-toned 'Cafe au Lait' dahlias, especially for weddings. Pantone's next Color of the Year was MARSALA, in line with that call for richer, brighter palettes including watermelon pink, orchid purple, and cerise red.
Many growers and designers say blush is still going strong, but the range of wedding colors is widening, and two themes are becoming favorites with Slow Flowers farmers and designers: Butter Yellows and Muddy Neutrals.
Have fun working buttercream and tans/beiges/coffee tones into your designs this season and beyond. Look at the rich, elegant results you can get with colors that lean toward the soft yellow side of blush or the deeper brownish-pink side. Either one will help you branch out smoothly as your palette grows.
More on Floral Trends
Thanks to the Slow Flowers members who shared designs showing these shapes and colors so beautifully! Want to take part in future floral trend surveys? Join the Slow Flowers mailing list to get the next questionnaire.
