Baby Boy works in three colours only: blue, yellow and white. Tinted blue anthurium hovers above the arrangement on fine stems, a large blue phalaenopsis orchid opens at the centre, and blue hydrangea heads pack the body of the piece. White hydrangea sits underneath to lighten the base, and a single navy chrysanthemum holds the darkest point in the composition.
Hydrangea, native to Japan and the Americas, is the flower that makes this arrangement possible. Its dense, cloud-like heads take colour beautifully and give the piece its volume without any single stem having to carry the weight. Anthurium, from the rainforests of Colombia and Ecuador, brings the opposite quality: flat, glossy, almost graphic, it reads as shape rather than mass.
The yellow is what keeps the blue from turning cold. Craspedia, native to Australia and New Zealand, punctuates the arrangement with small perfectly round buttercup heads that hold their colour and their form for weeks. Sprays of oncidium orchid scatter finer yellow across the upper half, and white narcissus opens near the base with the only real fragrance in the piece. Blue ostrich feathers and white pampas plumes lift the outline, and a broad green anthurium leaf anchors the front.
It is arranged in a brushed brass footed vase, which raises the whole composition and gives it a formal, presented quality. The obvious occasion is a new baby boy, but the palette is confident enough for graduations, congratulations and birthdays where blue is the person's colour rather than the occasion's.
