Bring the Wild Inside

Clare Lee of botanical studio Friday's Garden wants to gift a little mystery.

- KATHLEEN ONG

There it sat, resplendent on the dining table. Forest ferns pirouetted beside palm fronds as striking celadon anthurium bracts bobbed in the foreground. It was already refreshing for a floral arrangement to be mostly foliage, playing off variations of the colour green in intriguing juxtapositions of textures and hues. But the delightful strangeness of the other botanicals radiating from the vessel aroused a fierce curiosity. What were these fuzzy jadeite leaves and those mysterious emerald berries?

The floral sculpture was the Foliage arrangement from Friday’s Garden, a botanical design studio with a loyal coterie of other customers that’s also the go-to for celebrities and luxury brands. “That’s not what we’re about,” explains founder Clare Lee. Behind her, fringed flame tulips from the Netherlands and fuzzy kangaroo paws from Australia wait in beautiful vases to be assembled into their final incarnations. “I want our plants to make you wonder.”

Lee has an infectious warmth and ready eloquence. Our conversation at Friday’s intimate botanical design studio in Midview City is powered by the force of her enthusiasm for floriculture. “Nature is crazy clever,” she proclaims. “Plants have different contours. We respect them and try not to wire recalcitrant stems. If a bloom bends a certain way, it isn’t a slouch but a ballet position.”