CATEGORY

"Nature is a good guide; it teaches us everything," says master floral designer Christian Tortu. It is the perfect summation of his work. Unpretentious yet stunningly beautiful, Tortu's arrangements have drawn inspiration directly from his childhood treks through the countryside of his native town of Anjou, France.

Sensational Bouquets by Christian Tortu is at once an intimate profile of the artist--who has designed floral arrangements for Dior and Chanel, as well as for the Cannes Film Festival--and a useful guide to how he creates his exciting and unique bouquets.

Tortu always looks to nature for inspiration. There, he finds freedom: of form, of color, of scent, all mixed together flawlessly, without artifice or ostentation. Paying homage to nature's inherent sense of design, Tortu creates stunning arrangements while bending all the rules of traditional flower arranging. Unexpected plants join in clever, surprising combinations to celebrate the drama of nature--of birth and death, and everything in between. Garden roses nestle in a tangle of blackberry branches much as they would in an overgrown garden. Wild thistles poke their prickly blossoms out of a bunch of softer, rounder bred thistles and speak of a miraculous harmony between wild and cultivated plants. Green almonds, lotus fruit, and poppy capsules come together in an enthralling play of yellow against green.

As if Sylvain Thomas's sumptuous photographs of Tortu's arrangements weren't inspiration enough, the text of Sensational Bouquets reads like poetry. This book will both motivate and guide readers to toss out what they've learned about flower arranging and let nature and their own unbridled intuition dictate how they assemble their next gathering of wild and/or cultivated plants. --Robin Donovan