“Peak of Perfection”, Fall 2010 Flower issue
Duane Hampton, wife of late legendary decorator Mark Hampton, and mother of Alexa (now President and featured designer of Mark Hampton, LLC.), delights in arranging and rearranging the lasting stems. But many of her favorite bouquets don’t require as much attention. Many celebrated interior design professionals, including Michael Smith, Barbara Berry, and Mario Buatta, also increasingly use sumptuous faux arrangements and florals in houses and businesses around the world. With the technological advances and sophistication in the detail and design, stiff silk flowers are a distant memory. Today’s permanent botanicals are so high quality and realistic that they are hard to discern from live.
Floral designers have been the catalysts behind the improvement in quality and design of artificials. Ed Glenn, of New Growth Designs, along with other floral designers, came to the artificial flower manufacturing business as a trained and experienced fresh florist looking for more realistic faux flowers to extend the life of fresh arrangements. He began with lilac, which is so fragile when used fresh. He began adding faux stems alongside fresh in arrangements to solve that problem. Ed continues to blur the line between fresh and artificial, from creating a faux version of a fresh bridal bouquet, to adding a vase to his patented Wreath for All Seasons to hold fresh bouquets.
Although the best faux floral components are still being manufactured in Asia, the components that New Growth Designs imports are then carefully assembled by hand into their distinctive plants, flower arrangements, and orchids. Ed Glenn created the artificial soil- called Durt® – a signature component of his potted plants and trees- a detail so realistic his pieces are often mistaken for live plants.
New Growth Designs are available at fine gift shops, department shores and through designers world-wide. The NGD catalogue may be viewed online at www.newgrowthdesigns.com.
Download the article:
http://www.newgrowthdesigns.com/press.
Ed Glenn
