Where Flowers Meet Masterpieces: My Art in Bloom Journey

This past Spring I was honored to have participated as a floral designer in the 2025 Art in Bloom event at the St. Louis Art Museum. It was such a rewarding experience so I wanted to share what it looked like from the perspective of a designer.

Designer selection process

Believe it or not, Art in Bloom takes an entire year for the museum staff to plan. From selecting the artwork that will be featured, to selecting designers, entertainment and more. It's no small feat for the museum to put on this event each year - one that draws in over 25,000 visitors in a single weekend.

To apply for Art in Bloom, interested designers were required to submit an application in October of the prior year. In this case, 2024. We had to include information about ourselves and our history as a floral designer as well as three samples of our work. Our samples were then blindly judged by a group of event staff, which then determined if we were selected to participate.

I was shocked and elated to then receive an email in November stating that I had been selected as one of the thirty designers asked to participate. An honor!

Selecting the art piece

At orientation, the Art in Bloom director went over all of the welcome information, rules about our designs, what to expect and more. The most exciting, and nerve-wracking, part of orientation was artwork selection. You could feel the energy and excitement in the air. The challenge for us as designers was to take our selected artwork and then re-envision it in flower form.

The Art in Bloom team pre-selected the thirty pieces of artwork to be featured in the event, but it was unknown to the designers what they were. Each piece of art was printed on a piece of paper and rolled up and tied as a scroll. All thirty sat in a basket, waiting to be selected. As we walked into the room that morning, each designer had been asked to take a small piece of folded paper with a number from one to thirty. The number we drew determined the order in which we would select our artwork. It was complete luck of the draw.

Nautilus Cup

As they called each number, you could feel the level of excitement in the room as we waited to pull our selection. I had number 22 and I was eagerly awaiting my chance to head to the front.

The piece I selected was titled Nautilus Cup by David Bessmann. The sculpture features a triton rising from the waters and holding up a nautilus shell above his head. The sculpture was created from 1645-1650 in Ausburg, Germany.

Design inspiration and execution

Admittedly, I was a bit intimidated by the lack of color variety at first! Soon though, I realized that the gold tones could be found in so many flowers. The shape of the sculpture became a top focus of mine to recreate as well.

I chose to use a variety of flowers that would help emulate both the colors and shape of Nautilus Cup.

Some of the flowers I selected were roses, orchids, oriental poppies, and ranunculus. I chose flowers in shades of gold, peach and pink to reflect the gold of the sculpture while adding some dimension.

Installation and event

Designers were given the option to create the design in advance and then bring it to the museum on installation day. We had two hours to install our designs. Upon arrival, museum staff accompanied us to our gallery and assisted in affixing our designs to the podiums.

After all thirty designs were complete, a team of judges went to each one to asses the design and give out awards. Awards included Best in Show, Presenting Sponsor award, Staff Choice and People's Choice. Being able to visit and observe all of the thirty designs was incredible. There are so many inventive and intuitive designers involved and seeing how the artworks were interpreted was inspiring.

The 2025 Featured Designer was Phillip Corps. Phillip is known for being the lead floral designer for the acclaimed Netflix show, Bridgerton. The weekend's events drew thousands to the museum to witness the designs.

I truly feel so honored to have been selected to participate. To see my name in a museum wasn't something I had on my bucket list, but now that I've crossed it off, I am so grateful to have had the experience.