Lee James — Floral Design

Knowing we were working on our Classic Beauty issue, Lee James of Orlando, Florida, created these French-inspired designs for us. Check out his site at leejamesfloral.com.

“Everybody’s interpretations of design styles are different,” says James. “To many people, French means just blue hydrangeas and yellow roses. Here I used sunflowers and pincushion protea for less-conventional yellows, and added texture and dimension with curly willow and seeded eucalyptus. The chartreuse in the grapes and orchids takes the arrangement in an unexpected direction — what’s fabulous about flowers in my opinion is that they all go together. There is no right or wrong way to group flowers; it’s totally up to the designer to be innovative.”