As a child growing up in the Ozarks, Alex W. Crowder’s imagination came alive in the woods and fields near her home, where she’d forage for plants, assembling offerings to fairies and wildlife.
A few decades later, the same adoration for the natural world is at play with Field Studies Flora, her New York–based botanical “laboratory.” “We’re trying to invite people into new ways of seeing,” the florist explains.
Sourcing her materials from within 150 miles of her Brooklyn studio, and with the support of a crew of foragers and farmers, Crowder assembles her meticulous living sculptures—mementos of nature’s ever-changing tides (and tastes). “I often say I want to be the Alice Waters of floristry,” she says with a laugh. Oyster mushrooms, kale, and geraniums are all the foundations of her edible works, assemblages that reimagine what we think of as florals. (One of her favorite ways to surprise a client? Incorporate an edible.)
With curiosity as its compass, Field Studies Flora approaches its craft as an opportunity to bask in nature’s abundance. “I want people to broaden their horizons,” Crowder concludes. “Be intentional about what goes into your meal and your floral arrangements. Sometimes the two things can be the same.”
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