Elysian is built for height. Waxy anthurium in yellow and coral hold the top line, a stem of bird of paradise breaks the silhouette sideways, and tall spires of delphinium and eremurus carry the eye upward before the arrangement settles into a dense heart of gerbera, chrysanthemum and hydrangea. A hand-finished monstera leaf anchors the base. It is a composition that reads from across a room.
The anthurium is not, botanically, a flower at all in the way most people assume. What looks like a single glossy petal is a spathe, a modified leaf, and the true flowers sit along the narrow spike at its centre. Native to the rainforests of Central and South America, it has become one of the most enduring stems in luxury floristry precisely because of that structure, holding its lacquered shape for weeks while softer blooms come and go around it.
The bird of paradise takes its name from its resemblance to a crested bird in flight, and opens one bract at a time rather than all at once. The delphinium and eremurus, both tall spike flowers, do the opposite work: they give the arrangement its vertical reach and a sense of movement, opening gradually from the bottom of the stem upward over several days.
Presented in the signature Amicis copper box with hand-folded wrapping, Elysian is a piece for occasions that want scale rather than subtlety. The photograph shows the Large size.