Sometimes it seems that my true occupation is to listen to people describe their distaste for carnations, lilies and even roses.  Now, with heavily petaled garden roses being all they rage, even the rose, a classic symbol of romantic perfection, has also been shunned. You probably can’t imagine my joy when I was asked to design a debutant ball based on John Singer Sargent’s painting, Carnation, Lily, Lily Rose, but it was real. Restoring these innocent beauties to their righteous place at the top of the flower chain is a job I was born to do!

First off, we decided to create what would look like the forest on the stage, and brought in 24ft oak and maple trees forming an allée of sorts for the debutants to emerge from like the girls in the painting. Next, we created two 16ft “mossy ruins” on either side, which formed a kind hedge that obscured the big band of 20 tuxedoed musicians on the stage, they looked like they stepped out of Fantasia! The mossy ruin we sculpted in sections out of foam and covered in living moss and maiden hair fern, foxgloves and Juilet garden rose bushes tumbling over mossy rocks and lichen. We also hand-painted 300 paper lanterns, which hung from deep green glossy camellia and magnolia, giving the room a soft rosy glow…