Flowers: The Complete Book of Floral Design

by Paula Pryke, with photography by Kevin Summers

Rizzoli, 265 pp., $45

There are a few florists in town whose stunning flower arrangements literally chew the scenery at a party, stealing guests’ attention away from attractions they’re meant to enhance: the buffet, the guest of honor, the hosts. Every time I find myself in the presence of or, even better, the recipient of this species of botanical eye candy, I always tell myself that if I just stare at it long enough, even snap a picture of it, I can reverse-engineer the arrangement, cut out the middleman, do it myself – for a lot less money than the florist charged. Wrong. Never works; these florists know something that laymen don’t.

This might all change now that I’m armed with London floral bwana Paula Pryke’s latest book, complete with the drop-dead gorgeous arrangement on the cover. While I’ll concede that I’m unlikely to try at home some of the over-the-top designs – the positively Ethel Merman-esque Roses and (white maribu) Feathers extravaganza, for example – within these pages are revealed many useful and elusive secrets of the trade. Who would have thought that flowers could be easily held in place by placing them within the squares of a grid created by strips of tape stretched across the top of a vase? And, at long last, I will now know how to create one of those cool bouquets of calla lilies or tulips where the stems twist in a spiral.

This article appears in December 17 • 2004.

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