"Living with Flowers"

by Nico De Swert Nico de Swert's fantastic floral arrangements are anything but traditional bouquets. They are more likely to resemble the bustle of a Haute Couture evening gown, an art installation, or an abstract explosion of colors and textures. Shunning typically romantic floral design ans striving instead for gorgeous artifice, De Swert challenges the viewer to see flowers and plants in a new light as a medium, much like fabric or paint, for creating art. In "Living with Flowers" this accomplished floral designer and interior stylist offers a dazzling array of inspired floral arrangements for the home. Some are simple and elegant, such as bunches of yellow ranunculus set in wood containers, others are nothing less than extraordinary, such as sphere of tightly packed crimson roses overlaid with lemon leaves or a tower of tiny mauve and lavender blossoms rising out of a pewter vessel.