A Lowcountry Floral Arrangement Inspired by Friendship

Kim Epley, artistic director at The Studio at Farmer Blue, brings readers fresh inspiration using flowers from her 12-acre farm. For the Best Friends issue, she explores how the most memorable floral designs, like the strongest friendships, are built through layers of unique personalities working together.

Story by Kim Epley
Photo by Sum Kai Photography

The best friendships aren’t built because everyone is the same. They’re built because each person contributes something different. Great floral design follows the same philosophy. At Farmer Blue every arrangement begins by listening to the season, the setting and the story the landscape is already telling. Long before we choose a single flower, we ask a simple question: How do we want people to experience this place? Should guests settle in and linger over conversation? Should the table feel relaxed and organic or polished and elegant? Every decision that follows supports that experience. The flowers simply become the language that tells the story.

The arrangement

This early summer tablescape, photographed beneath the centuries-old live oaks at Honey Horn, was designed to feel as though it had always belonged there. Rather than allowing flowers to take center stage, we began with the landscape itself, building a layered foundation inspired by the Lowcountry. Glossy gardenia foliage catches the filtered afternoon light, while feathery ferns soften the composition and echo the woodland canopy overhead. Moss blurs the line between the arrangement and the forest floor, and graceful stems of Rumex weave throughout, adding movement, texture and rich shades of green.

Only after that living foundation was established did the flowers begin to emerge.

Ruby-red dahlias harvested from our fields create a visual rhythm across the table. Cheerful yellow craspedia add playful pops of color, while sculptural allium — available only briefly in early summer and sourced from a specialty grower in Greenville — provide height and architectural interest. Delicate silene, airy asters, blue cynoglossum, textural thistle and sculptural scabiosa pods each contribute their own personalities. No single flower dominates. Instead, each supports the others, creating a composition that feels rooted in its surroundings rather than simply placed upon the table.

Why it works

The most memorable arrangements aren’t created by adding more flowers. They’re created by thoughtfully combining texture, height, movement and color. A layered foundation of foliage, moss and airy greens creates depth and establishes a sense of place before the first bloom is added. From there each flower has room to shine while strengthening the composition as a whole. Like great friends around a table, every element contributes something different, and together they create something far more compelling than any could alone.

Design notes

• Let the season guide your choices before settling on a color palette.
• Begin with several varieties of greenery to establish shape, depth and movement.
• Combine glossy leaves with soft, feathery textures for natural contrast.
• Repeat accent colors throughout the arrangement instead of clustering them in one spot.
• Leave room for every bloom to breathe. Negative space is an essential design element.

Final thought

Nature has always designed in layers. Forests aren’t memorable because of a single tree, and gardens aren’t beautiful because of a single flower. Their beauty comes from relationships — leaves and branches, mosses and vines, bursts of color and open space — each playing a distinct role. The same is true in floral design. And perhaps it’s true of friendship as well. The most unforgettable gatherings happen when every personality has space to contribute, creating something richer and more beautiful together than any one element could achieve alone.