In life, as in flowers, there is a spiritual dimension that one feels the urge to explore. Increasing maturity levels in designing spaces indicate an exciting trend for the year 2017 in the world of floral design.

The coming year is the year of wild arrangements, rich in colour and texture, in which all the materials used, harmoniously blend with each other to form a unanimous whole. No individual part of the arrangement outshines the composition and yet it maintains its own character that defines its uniqueness.

I have listed below the dominant trends for the following season.

ONENESS WITH NATURE
Being a master from the Ohara school of ikebana, I feel happy that the current trend focuses on more natural looking arrangements and this year the boring structural manmade sort of floral designs will be passe. The form of the flowers should flow naturally as they would, if they were not cut, and should not be tampered with too much or twisted and turned in a way that the flowers are exhausted and look completely unnatural. Asymmetry in design and texture is in vogue!

As someone who truly, madly and deeply loves flowers, I love that this year's trend helps us to be one with nature. We can feel the connection with mother earth as we put together a bunch of carefully selected flowers and accessories together!

ACCESSORIES
Flowers are not the only stars in today's arrangements . You can play with many many accessories for your flower arrangements like fruits, herbs (like rosemary, basil, oregano or mint) to add a fragrant note, candles, ribbons, dry material, wooden barks, fabric, paper cut outs, crystals , gold painted leaves or anything else that you fancy! Create a mood with your choice of accessories and ensure that the mood complements the weather and the occasion.

COLOURS
Green is the new white in the flower world. The green palette ranging from the pistache of the anthuriums, to the olive and sea-green of eucalyptus and emerald of the chrysanthemums, refresh our mind and spirit and spell sophisticated charm. Green combined with candles and an element of glitter in gold or silver with effective lighting to highlight the decor is enough to glamorize any occasion.

Other colours this season are morroccan blue, aqua and turquoise, greys, gold, and chocolate or deep brick red. An eclectic mix of bold colours all together is also very much the fashion.

VARIATION
It is stylish to have different arrangements (but telling the same story) on every table in a party and its not necessary to have uniformity all over. In fact variety and creativity in design is appreciated.

FRAGRANCE
It is indeed a fun time for us Bangalore florist because we can set the mood for any party! Send your guests home feeling sensual with the aphrodisiac scent of ylang ylang or add calmness and tranquility with lavender. Use essential oils or scented flowers and creepers (think jasmine, tuberoses- my personal favourite and eucalyptus) or herbs (basil, rosemary, oregano) to complement your floral mood. Create a perfumer's garden by planting beautiful scented flowers or evoke a sense of happiness at your best friend's wedding. Fragrances are big this season.

VIDEOS
Apart from ambience lighting and decorative lighting, which can make or break the floral decor, videos are going to become part of ambience creation this year! I would love to experiment with a beautiful video on a water body at the next opportunity I get, or even a motion picture playing on white walls for setting the mood with my flowers! Experimenting with videos and creative lighting would be the next thing to do in my already intriguing and beautiful job!