MFA’s Floral Design Class was one of the highlights of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s 50th anniversary of Art in Bloom. The celebration brought together 50 garden clubs from across Massachusetts. Each club had the opportunity to interpret works of art through floral design.
Every year, the museum is transformed by beautiful flowers and creative displays. The exhibition offers visitors a unique way to experience both art and nature. It is always exciting to see how floral designers interpret the museum’s artwork.
A Hands-On Floral Design Experience
The MFA’s Floral Design class, a special master floral workshop that allows participants to learn directly from an accomplished floral designer. This year’s class was led by Kim Lamothe of Greenlion, whose garden-rooted sensibility brings a natural yet sophisticated approach to high-end floral design.
Participants worked with a carefully considered selection of exceptional seasonal blooms and foliage. Instead of simply creating a traditional spring flower arrangement, we focused on the elements that make a floral design feel balanced, natural, and visually interesting
Kim encouraged us to think about form, movement, proportion, and natural elegance as we worked. The flowers weren’t simply placed into a vase; each stem had a purpose and helped create the overall movement and shape of the arrangement.
This was my third year taking the workshop, and I always find something new to learn. Even after several classes, I continue to discover new techniques and fresh ways to work with flowers. Each workshop brings new flowers, design ideas, and inspiration. I can then take those ideas home and use them in my own floral arrangements
Creating My Arrangement Step by Step
II took many photographs throughout the class to capture my arrangement’s progression. Watching the flowers come together felt almost as rewarding as creating the final design.
We started with the basic structure and gradually added flowers. We paid close attention to how each stem worked with the others. As we added more blooms, the arrangement developed its own shape and movement. It also began to show its own personality.
A New Technique: How to Reflex a Tulip
One of the best tips I picked up during MFA’s Floral Design Class was how to reflex a tulip.
I am very familiar with reflexing roses, but I had never realized that tulips could be treated in a similar way. Reflexing involves gently encouraging the petals to curve outward, changing the natural shape of the flower and creating a much more dramatic and sculptural bloom.
It was such a simple technique, but the result was surprisingly transformative. A reflexed tulip suddenly becomes a completely different focal point, with an almost architectural quality. Instead of standing upright in its familiar tulip shape, the flower opens outward and creates additional dimension and movement within the arrangement.
This is exactly the kind of technique I love learning in a hands-on floral design workshop. It is a small detail that can make a significant difference in the finished arrangement, and it is something I can easily use in future floral designs.
The Beauty of Learning Through Flowers
One of the reasons I continue to return to Art in Bloom and MFA’s Floral Design Class is that floral design is an ongoing learning experience. There is always another technique to try, another flower to understand, and another way to create movement and interest.
The combination of art, flowers, and hands-on instruction makes this workshop especially inspiring. Working with beautiful seasonal flowers while surrounded by the artwork at the MFA creates an experience that goes beyond simply making an arrangement.
After three years of participating, I continue to leave the class with new ideas and techniques that I am excited to try at home. This year, the reflexed tulip was definitely one of my favorite discoveries.
I hope you enjoy following along with the photographs below as I share the step-by-step progression of creating my spring floral arrangement, from the first stems to the finished design.
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