Nico De Swert's fantastic floral arrangements are anything but traditional bouquets. They are more likely to resemble the bustle of an haute couture evening gown, an art installation, or an abstract explosion of colors and textures. Shunning traditional romantic floral design and instead striving for gorgeous artifice, De Swert challenges the viewer to see flowers and plants in a new light: as a medium, much like fabric or paint, for creating art.

In Living with Flowers, the accomplished floral designer and interior stylist offers a dazzling collection of new ideas for extraordinary floral arrangements: a sphere of tightly packed crimson roses overlaid with perfectly flat dark green leaves, mimicking a watermelon; or a dome-shaped tower of tiny mauve and lavender blossoms rising out of a pewter bowl. With color as its organizing principle, this exquisite book provides captions listing the wide range of flowers and plants used, as well as tips on how to extend their life and show them off to best advantage. A source guide for the best flowers and materials rounds out this exceptional volume.

"Classy, vibrant and bursting with color, De Swert's floral sculptures, captured beautifully here by Webber, demonstrate that the simple elegance of nature's blooms can not only be enhanced, but elevated to the level of art. 'Floral design is much more than filling vases and containers,' De Swert writes. 'It is the study of a flower's personality through its color, size, stance, and texture.' In this volume, the Belgian-born designer, whose works have appeared in such magazines as Martha Stewart Living and O: The Oprah Magazine, presents gorgeous floral sculptures marked by clean lines, defined shapes and vivid hues. The book is broken up by color, the 'red' section featuring such striking pieces as red roses arranged in bowls of lemon leaves and the 'purple' section showcasing a seemingly oriental-inspired creation consisting of anemones and grape hyacinths in goose eggshells. There's no question that the book's 125 full-color photographs are the main course-De Swert's brief introduction is printed in small, barely readable gray lettering, and the flower arranging tips at the end occupy only one page. Most readers, however, will be more than satisfied by the visual feast contained herein." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Shunning traditional romantic floral design and instead striving for gorgeous artifice, de Swert challenges the viewer to see flowers and plants in a new light--as a medium, much like fabric or paint, for creating art.