San Francisco–based landscape  architect James A. Lord, principal of Surfacedesign won the  2012 CH+D Award for Landscape Design for the extreme makeover  of his family’s home in Palos Verdes Estates.

“Skinned knees, basketball games and lots of concrete—those are my  childhood memories of this space,” says Lord.  “My parents have always been modernists… I enjoyed the  challenge of marrying their aesthetic with their environment.”

Drought-tolerant barrel cactus, dudleya and euphorbia succulents bear  sculptural geometric shapes—hearty rosettes, spikes and stars provide a visual and textural counterpoint to the rusticated sandstone  floor.

As seen in California Home Design, Feb/Mar 2012 issue.

Gorgeous hand-tied bouquet of refreshing Spring colors.  Roses, Tulips, Narcissus, Ranunculus, Hydrangea from Menlo Park, CA member J Floral Art facebook page.

This couple found a way to combine Love and Sport! Sweet!

Brit + Drew || Sept 3. 2011 || from Clear Horizon Productions on Vimeo.

Member florist Earth Garden in Wilton, CT offers up some gorgeous examples of low lush design on their Facebook page.

Featured here is a lovely texured mixed spring arrangement of Hydrangea, Parrot Tulips, Peonies, Tweedia, Hyacinth, Lilac and Trichillium.

Delicious!

“Weddings should never feel cold, even in winter,” says Claire Marie Johnston, owner of Flowers Claire Marie in San Francisco. Her aesthetic, though modern, isn’t sterile: She favors romantic arrangements that brim with garden-fresh varietals.

Johnston is also known for surprise touches that complement her designs, such as bowls of candy and pink sea salts. “I’m big on the little things that make guests feel appreciated,” she says.

Portland member, Geranium Lake,  was featured on  KGW Newschannel 8 on Monday, February 13th with the usual “Kim & Drew” antics.

CHECK IT OUT!

Eddie Zaratzian of long time bbrooks member Tic-Tock, in Los Angeles,  CA, has recently joined forces with Restoration Hardware and is offering a lovely holiday promotion.

Floral Designer Laura Dowling’s arrangements combine a just-plucked  quality with a refined modern aesthetic.

She is fond of using various  shades of a single hue and containers wrapped in materials such as moss or leaves to heighten the drama.  She layers materials freely, incorporating unexpected elements, such as fruits or vegetables, bundled twigs, or horsetail bamboo cut into pieces and tethered with twine.

Her role as Chief Floral Designer at the White House has her innovative arrangements contributing a new brand of chic to historic rooms.

To learn more, please see www.lauradowling.com.

A bulb, when purchased, is an underground root structure in  its dormant state.  Made up of layered flesh, like an onion,  it holds a shoot inside.   Once planted, a bulb stays dormant until the Spring sun warms and softens the soil, causing the roots to grow.  The roots take in nutrients  and water from the damp Spring ground, and the shoot pushes up through the bulb’s papery top layer.  (Bulbs also contain “lateral” buds, which eventually form new plants.)  After the flower blooms and fades, the dying leaves feed the bulb, which makes the bulb strong for the next year.  When the weather tuns cold, the bulb goes dormant again.

( As seen in October 2011  issue of Real Simple magazine- written by Madaline Sparks– Illustration by Wendy Hollender)

For more information on bulb plants, including forcing different varieties, please see www.realsimple.com.

Flowers and landscapes are at the heart of Ori Gersht’s mesmerizing photographs.  …Except… he blows them up…  Quite literally!

For his 2006 series “Exploding Flowers,” the Tel Aviv–born, London-based artist worked with a florist to create elaborate bouquets inspired, he says, by Henri Fantin-Latour’s lush 19th-century still lifes. Gersht clicked the camera’s shutter as each bouquet was ignited with a small explosive. The resulting photographs are gorgeous and a little unnerving; the artist describes them as “celebratory and violent.”

Gersht’s career is exploding too. A graduate of the master’s program at London’s Royal College of Art, the photographer is on a creative tear. This past summer alone, Gersht had solo shows at CRG Gallery in New York and at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Meanwhile, he continues to travel throughout Europe and beyond to shoot new photographs and short films, including a video he made at a bullfight in Andalusia, which was part of a group exhibition organized by Ron Arad at London’s Roundhouse.

To read more please see  Elle Decor, October 2011 issue.