Don't you just want to leave winter behind
and go loll under a nice palm tree on a sandy beach?

If you're like me and can't, the next best thing may be to surround yourself with some tropical flora.

I was lucky to be gifted these lush Philodendron bipinnatifidum leaves, roses and snapdragons from Mel. The lichen/moss-covered branches I foraged from the swampy woods of Virginia. The antique Japanese bamboo vase is a gift from my dad.

Now, all I need is a Mai-Tai and hammock!

With this arrangement I hoped to capture the blustery feeling of the big Nor'easter that's blown into NY, closing schools and roads, knocking down trees and power lines, and rendering most of us snowbound, once again.

These are red Siberian dogwood branches I'd saved from Christmastime. I was delighted to find them starting to bloom. And still quite flexible, I was able to bend and twist them. While doing so, tiny white petals came fluttering down, dusting my hair! Here I was, cozily indoors yet feeling... totally windswept.

Chinese New Year flowers @ Eagle Warehouse Lobby, Bkln

Cremola mums, Mandarin oranges, Camellia and Forsythia branches in a Chinese Lantern-style ceramic vase

Not your typical Chinese New Year flower arrangement, what without the usual riot of red and gold all over, right? But it does feature bright yellow (surrogate for gold=wealth)
and lots of oranges. Why oranges? Because they're trad-
itional symbols of fertility (containing lots of seeds), as well as the fact that the Chinese word for orange, "jweh dz", is a homonym for "bearing sons"---something so, so terribly valued in old China's patriarchal culture .
Funny that such traditions continue to endure wherever Chinese New Year is celebrated (which is pretty much everywhere in the world because there are so many Chinese people ;-) ---all in spite of global concerns of overpopulation and strides in feminist equality.
Whatever. These oranges are sweet, aren't they?

Look what I found: this is a picture I dug up today of an arrangement I made about 6 months before the one below. Yes, these are the actual, exact same birds nest leaves and kiwi vines---only they were totally fresh here! Even though they are different compositions, isn't it interesting to compare the overall feeling each conveys?

I like both of them equally, but as the creator of both, I am biased ;-)

Which do you relate more to?

Gallery Exhibit

[photo by Carol Dronsfield]
Last summer I visited my 94-year old dad, who lives in a Chinese senior home. I learned many, many life lessons during my stay there. One of them was "Age has its own Beauty". It was a remark gently whispered to me by one of the residents, upon observing my attempt to "refresh" a 2-day old flower arrangement of mine. It changed my mind about removing a leaf that was beginning to yellow with age.

So, for an exhibit at Nippon Gallery in New York last fall, I chose Bird's Nest Ferns that were aged over 3- 6 months. Notice their feathery edges, fading striations and gently curling shapes.

I think they give this arrangement a unique, soulful sensibility. Do you agree?