There’s never a more welcome time to enjoy a lush arrangement of flowers than in the dead of winter, and with Valentine’s Day around the corner, why not indulge yourself? I’ve been loving the evolution of flower arranging in the last couple of years – flower arrangements are looser, with old-fashioned and exotic blooms (or more prosaic and therefore unexpected), and things are joyously natural and free flowing. This arrangement has many different types of flowers, but only a few stems of each to keep it from becoming too formal or stuffy. You’ll notice the differentiation in height, color and texture in this photo, which gives it the feel of a Renaissance still life. It just makes me happy to look at it.

Here are the flowers we used (with thanks to Nelly Salvacion) for putting this together in about ten minutes this morning: