Color Me Floral

February 19, 2018
Underwood, who owns a floral design studio in San Francisco, schools readers on the particulars of color, shape, texture, and cut of floral arrangements in this gorgeous and effective guide. Her theme is creating arrangements by color and building her horticultural combinations from that point, using flowers, shrubs, twigs and leaves, and, in one case, bunches of grapes. The book is organized by the four seasons, which are then separated into color schemes. The color options themselves are surprising. In addition to the standard pink, yellow, red, and white, Underwood includes arrangements in peach, magenta, and black. She builds each arrangement in steps and includes photos—taken by her husband—at each stage. Using a pin frog (and eschewing floral foam), she indicates which specimen is inserted at what point, considering height, breadth, and mass. “Not a single flower goes unnoticed by my eye,” Underwood writes, and her book trains readers’ eyes to do the same. Color photos.