Fleurs de Villes sure to thrill

This weekend is your last chance to visit Winnipeg’s biggest fresh floral experience of the year. Since Jan. 15, the third-annual Fleurs de Villes show at The Leaf in Assiniboine Park has captivated a stream of visitors with imaginative botanical displays by local floral artists at the peak of their creativity.

Founded in 2015 by Tina Barkley and Karen Marshall, Fleurs de Villes is a hugely successful Vancouver-based luxury brand which showcases awe-inspiring flower displays in cities around the world. Each exhibition has its own theme. “Wonder” is the theme of this year’s event at The Leaf.

Consider for a moment the task at hand if you were one of the florists invited to participate in this unique opportunity to showcase your skills. Using a mannequin and selecting from a list of iconic natural landmarks, diverse ecosystems, rare botanical treasures and awe-inspiring natural phenomenon, your goal would be to create a one-of-a-kind creation using the language of flowers.

How hard could it be?

Frankly, the challenges are extraordinary. Each botanical installation requires not only a high level of creativity but also live plant material that must remain fresh and vibrant for the entire duration of the event. In a floral exhibition of this calibre, there is the visual extravaganza visitors see but also the complex inner workings hidden from view. Each floral sculpture is constructed by florists with specially designed armatures to hold hundreds of flowers, leaves and other live plant materials, along with wire and water pouches.

There are also the logistics of transporting mannequins and materials to the venue, not to mention the difficulties of accessing and completing the design of a two-metre-tall display in a limited amount of time. Through it all, participating florists juggle the demands of operating small businesses.

While the storytelling and visual art created by participants at Fleurs de Villes is a memorable, immersive experience, let’s look at how one of the floral artists decided to tell her flower story.

This is the second time in three years that Winnipeg florist Angela Moisey has participated as one of the floral artists at Fleurs de Villes. The owner of Angela Moisey Creative, Moisey chose Pamukkale Terraces as the inspiration for her floral sculpture. A UNESCO World Heritage site in southwestern Turkey, Pamukkale Terraces is renowned for its white travertine terraces and mineral-rich thermal pools.

Moisey started out by carefully researching the unique landscape of the diverse landmark she selected as the theme for her mannequin. “I looked at not only the geology and history of Pamukkale Terraces but also the experiences of people who have traveled there,” she says. “When you look at photos of the terraces, they look so smooth, but what I learned is the travertine has a very rough surface. To protect the formations, you cannot wear shoes, so people must be careful to not cut their feet.”

The terraces are a natural collection of mineral pools formed over millennia by calcite-laden water from hot springs. Moisey was fascinated to learn that nearby is a thermal pool in the ancient city of Hierapolis where Cleopatra is said to have bathed.

“The thermal pools resonated with me,” says Moisey. “I grew up in British Columbia where there are many hot springs such as Ainsworth Hot Springs.” Moisey was also fascinated to learn the water in Pamukkale’s travertine terraces changes colour from a darker blue to brilliant turquoise depending on the season or temperature.

To emulate the colour, Moisey hand-painted several dozen white flowers. The headpiece she created features preserved hanging amaranthus, statice, bark pieces and tinted carnations and orchids. To evoke cascading pools, Moisey built the dress from statice, baby’s breath, larkspur and stocks. Flowing water is suggested by ferns and a cascade of orchids along with hand-painted carnations and chrysanthemums.

But Moisey also had inspiration from another source. A member of the East Kildonan Garden Club, she reached out to president Renata Cook in early December to see if some members would be interested in assisting her.

“I’ve learned a lot from so many of the members at the EKGC” says Moisey. “I know how creative they are and the eye they have for detail. Plus, they can problem-solve.”

Five members from the EKGC — Cook, France Barrette, Jan Winnik, Linda Szturm and Jan Grieg — jumped at the chance to assist Moisey.

“We studied a picture of the Pamukkale Terraces,” says Winnik, “and we could see the way the water collects and cascades down the terraces into pools. Angela had a drawing and her vision was to create pools of flowers to represent the water as it cascaded to the next level.”

Moisey envisioned the base of the mannequin’s dress would be created using bark, fresh eucalyptus leaves and preserved ferns. Each of the women were given a piece of corrugated cardboard, bark chips, peat moss and glue. They set to work immediately. Once completed, they delivered the finished pieces to Moisey who had already constructed the wooden piece to which the bark and moss-covered cardboard would be attached.

The morning of the day prior to public opening, it was all-hands-on-deck as Cook, Barrette, Winnik, Szturm and Grieg met Moisey at The Leaf.

“It was so exciting,” says Barrette. “I didn’t know what to expect but I loved every minute of it. All the florists helped one another whenever they needed anything. It was so much fun. I really felt proud to be from Winnipeg. The Leaf is spectacular and all the designs by the florists are so incredible.”

“It was a wonderful experience,” says Winnik. “I’ve been to Fleurs de Villes in previous years, but I’ve never been involved in setting up one of the displays and that was very interesting. I was blown away at seeing all the displays coming together and the different ways that the flowers were used — often the same types of flowers but used in completely different ways which gave each display a whole different meaning. Fleurs de Villes is just amazing.”

Moisey says she is so grateful for their participation. “When we were assembling the display, they saw things that needed to be fixed or altered and they just got in there and helped to make everything match. I can’t begin to thank them enough.”

If you are planning to attend Fleurs de Villes this weekend, The Leaf’s head gardener, Eugeunia Druyet Zoubareva, has a helpful suggestion. “Whenever you are in front of a mannequin and if you have your phone with you, Google the place represented by the floral design and look at a few pictures. Each of the designs interprets a specific natural landscape.”

Zoubareva loves hearing all the unique perspectives visitors share. “Everyone has a different view and perspective of each mannequin,” she says. “Some people are very interested in detail while others are reminded of a place they once visited or a place they are reminded of, while others are interested in the colour combinations, form and rhythm.”

Whatever your perspective, prepare to be captivated.

colleenizacharias@gmail.com