Exteriors
Flower Press
Pulled from between the leaves of the art history annals, we discover symbolism and inspiration in these seasonal blooms
Latest Stories
Candied portraits of Natasja Sadi’s floral confections
To think of cake-top flowers is to picture perfectly piped symmetry: nature neatened. This was not Natasja Sadi’s project, however, when she set about sculpting her own. Instead, the Dutch bridal-wear designer sought to capture her countless cultivars as truthfully as possible
Photographer: Ngọc Minh Ngo
An art history of snowdrops
Emerging in the depths of winter, the mournful snowdrop has long been banded with death, yet galanthophiles, lovers of the species, embrace its emergence as the first glimpse of lighter times ahead
Author: Olivia Meehan
Small Wonder: the Wild Pansy
Pulled from between the leaves of the art history annals, we discover symbolism and inspiration in this seasonal bloom
Author: Olivia Meehan
Photographer: Olivia Meehan
Polly Nicholson’s tulips are the spitting image of their oil-painted ancestors
After a trip to a botanical museum in Amsterdam, Polly Nicholson was inspired to cultivate historic tulip species whose presences were once tantamount to winning the lottery
Author: Polly Nicholson
Photographer: James Stopforth
Get inspired by The World of Interiors SUBSCRIBE NOW
The secret language of Dutch flower paintings
Is there a secret language hidden in 17th- and 18th-century Dutch still-life flower paintings? Although mostly rejected by modern scholarship, this idea is so beguiling that it refuses to go away… From the symbolic to the mundane, double meanings abound in these bouquets
Author: Sarah Hyde
Spider Chrysanthemum
Particularly in Japanese culture, the tendril-like blossoms of this unique flower have woven a tangled web of art-historical meaning. Never fear: our resident bud buff is here to give you a potted history
Author: Olivia Meehan
Cyclamen
These peculiarly animated blooms, both remedial and domestic, have become surprisingly well rooted in the artistic imagination – with Lucian Freud and Daphne du Maurier among those entranced by their bounded wildness. Our floral historian tames them into prose
Author: Olivia Meehan