Human Flower Project
Ready, Set, Wristlet!
For 25 florists in the SAF’s biggest design competition, it’s beauty on demand. And make it snappy.
Coby Neal (right) hoists the Sylvia Cup, September 2008,
presented by Jerome Raska (left) and Bob Williams
Photo: Adam Donohue, RedLetter Photography
With Michael Phelps back in street clothes, it was high time for the Florist Olympics. Well, the Society of American Florists calls it the Sylvia Cup, but it, too, draws on speed, concentration, training, and jaw-clenching competitiveness. (You did know that florists are competitive, right?)
The SAF springs three design challenges on twenty-five top-tier florists. Working with the same combination of materials (all kept secret ahead of time), the designers have two hours to make magic.
“You might have a bridal bouquet concept in your head and you get there and you’re not doing a bridal bouquet,” two-time winner Conrad Quijas of Lincoln, Nebraska, told the Jamestown Sun. “You may get a sympathy piece, you may get a corsage….”
This year, each florist had to turn out a hand-tied bouquet, a centerpiece for a 60” round table (yes, like archery, this is a precision sport) and “a creative wristlet adornment.”
The 2008 Sylvia Cup Design Competition winner was Austin’s own Coby Neal, of the Flower Studio.
Coby Neal’s winning trifecta—bouquet, wristlet, and centerpiece
Photo: Adam Donohue, RedLetter Photography
(As Coby accepted his trophy, a sterling silver champagne bucket, did the band strike up “The Yellow Rose of Texas”?) Neal also earned $2500 for his effort. Runners up were Elizabeth Williams of Mostly Martha’s Florist in Ridgeland, Mississippi, and Lee Burcher, from Knolls Florist in Long Beach, California. The design competition took place in Palm Beach, Florida. Not quite so venerable as the Olympics, (not yet) this is “the country’s longest-running, live floral design competition,” 40 years old.
It’s not likely that Phelps or Usain Bolt will ever need their superhuman speed in non-sporting life, but florists, of course, work constantly on deadline. They not only have to make it to the church (or funeral home or birthday party) on time, their flowers have to make it too, looking just picked though they may have been cut two weeks ago on another continent.
“It’s like a really busy day in the shop with a really fussy customer,” says Ian Prosser, winner of the Sylvia Cup last year and a judge for 2008. “We’re looking for high standards of finish and design.”
In action, Coby Neal races to beat the two-hour clock in Palm Beach
Photo: Adam Donohue, RedLetter Photography
Working fast, according to last minute specs, with the material on hand, is an everyday matter for florists. The Sylvia Cup just puts these occupational skills in the spotlight so the swiftest and finest stand out. As a spectacle of work, this event is actually less like the running-and-gunning Olympics than riding-and-roping-and bronc-busting rodeo.