Kiana Underwood - Color Me Floral: Stunning Monochromatic Arrangements for Every Season

For my grandfather
Mohsen Mehran, who occupies the
best of my childhood memories. Text copyright 2018 by Kiana Underwood.
Photographs copyright 2018 by Nathan Underwood. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Names: Underwood, Kiana, author.
Title: Color me floral : stunning monochromatic arrangements for every season / Kiana Underwood ; photographs by Nathan Underwood.
Description: San Francisco, CA : Chronicle Books LLC, [2018] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017020489 | ISBN 9781452161174 (hc : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781452161655 (epub, mobi)
Subjects: LCSH: Flower arrangement.
Classification: LCC SB449 .U53 2017 | DDC 745.92dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017020489 Design by Jennifer Tolo Pierce Chronicle Books LLC
680 Second Street
San Francisco, California 94107
www.chroniclebooks.com

For as long as I can remember, flowers have been a huge part of my life, so much so that when I was young I completely took them for granted.

I realize today that flowers occupy a great portion of my childhood memories of growing up in my grandfathers gardens in Tehran: the mornings spent watering the gardens with my grandpa, or the long summer afternoons by his side in the greenhouse, looking for kittens as he went through the many pots of geraniums. I can still smell the aroma of soil, clay pots, and geranium leaves as though it was yesterday. When I was growing up, my mother always maintained a beautiful garden with fresh flowers in our house, so naturally I followed in her footsteps and shared her love of flowers. Today, not a single flower goes unnoticed by my eye; flowers are everything to me. But my path to becoming a full-time floral designer took many years to develop. This is a second career for me; as a young adult, I pursued my academic studies in the field of international relations and foreign policy and obtained my masters degree in the field from Johns Hopkins University.

After school, I began working at a think tank, doing research and writing; however, I didnt have much passion for what I was doing. Research tended to be mostly in support of other scholars, and I didnt have the opportunity to pursue my own viewpoints and passions. After getting married and becoming pregnant, I decided to stop working and focus on being a stay-at-home mom. Soon, I found myself at home with three little ones under the age of five, and with all the busyness that entails, thoughts of exotic places and foreign policy disappeared in the rearview mirror. As much as I loved being a mom, I realized that I needed a creative outlet, so that once my children were a bit older and more self-sufficient, I would have something for me. With the encouragement of my loving husband, I established Tulipina, my floral design business, in San Francisco in 2011.

In many ways, it was a very natural progression, as I already loved to entertain and create floral arrangements for my own tables. But once I transitioned from being a flower-loving stay-at-home mom to a professional floral designer, it truly became an obsession. The arrangement possibilities are endless, and the beauty is intoxicating and addictive. As I began to work with flowers and create designs, I realized the essential role that color plays in the beauty of a floral composition, and I began to push the boundaries of what many people consider traditional floral design. Color, in nature, is almost infinite, yet we tend to group like and complementary colors together when designing. While this is often aesthetically pleasing, there are myriad ways to combine colors, and some of the most beautifulto meare often some of the more unexpected.

While this book tends to focus on colors that many of you will be familiar with, as you go through the chapters I want you to focus on some of the nuance of shading and floral variety. As I thought about what I wanted to present to you in this book, color became the natural focus. You can do so much with color, and the monochromatic approach that Ive taken highlights how different colors can look in each season. While naturally some colors can be found more easily in certain seasons, with a little creativity you can create something truly unique in any color scheme for every time of year. This book is organized by seasons, and most of the flowers I have used are available during the particular season for which Ive developed the arrangementsregardless of geographical location. I do, however, play some favoritesranunculus are one of my favorite flowers, and youll see them throughout these designs.

They are hardy and become even more beautiful as they open after the first cut, so whenever they are available at the market, I use them. And I absolutely love poppiesthey come in an amazing variety of sizes, colors, and textures, bring beautiful movement to a design, and are just such happy flowers. Having taught classes in many different places around the world, I know that not everyone is fortunate to have ranunculus or poppies for a good portion of the year, but there is plenty of room for creativity when you work with what is available to you. During one of my workshop trips to Russia, some of my favorites were not seasonally or regionally available, so I turned to carnations and mums, and found some beautiful varieties. I also discovered that some of the locally grown flowers were just beautifullike the gorgeous campanulas that I encountered in Moscow, which were so perfect they seemed fake. Or, when I could not find poppies in Mexico, I used the bachelor buttons and local jasmine that seemed to be everywhere at the market, which also added an amazing aroma to everything.

You will notice that this book is broken down by season, with the same ten colors appearing in each. I wanted to give you a look at how I approach color throughout the year, using what is available. With modern flower farming in both hemispheres and ease of shipping, it is quite possible to get many floral varieties year-round independent of location, but I made a concerted effort to use only varieties that were in season in my location. Depending on where you are in the world, your varieties will undoubtedly differ, but the principles will apply universally. My goal is to share my design process and help you discover that it is easier than you think to create a beautiful floral arrangement.

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