Netherlands-based artist Anne ten Donkelaar designs shadow-boxed collages of intricate floralscapes with roots that dangle and succulents that grow upside down. Layering natural objects and paper bits—magazine cutouts, dried flowers and leaves, pressed paper, and illustrations—she builds landscapes that float like a surrealist's garden.
Australian plants are like the ultimate self-sacrificing mother: They give and give (certain trees can reach 20 feet in just a few years and flower for six weeks or more) but ask so little in return. (Fertilizer? Rain? If you insist.) Their fantastical forms, however—including sculptural, hairy, or waxy blooms in neon colors—are anything but matronly.
Contemporary Swiss artists Gerda Steiner and Jorg Lenzlinger hung flowers, seeds, and branches in a 17th-century church in Venice as part of the 50th Venice Biennale. They called it Falling Garden, a world in which visitors lie in repose on the mausoleum floor, while "the garden thinks for them."
Rob Plattel, one of Holland's most progressive floral designers, doesn't do weddings and doesn't own a flower shop. Here's his take on a new direction of floral design.
Thistles on the fireplace, poppies atop the columns, lilies in the windows—these are the organic designs that defined the style of Chicago architect George Washington Maher (1864-1926).
Sunflowers can grow remarkably fast, and incredibly tall. Young gardeners, unwitting cultivators, and casual competitors have all planted extraordinary sunflowers—here's a look at some of the tallest (and the craziest, including one with 104 flower heads!).
