Book Recommendation: A Tree in the House

Window Shopping in Hermosa Beach

I first saw this book by Annabelle Hick­son, A Tree in the House, in its sec­ond edi­tion at a local gift shop called The Gum Tree in Her­mosa Beach. This is an Aus­tralian-inspired gift shop and this book is authored by a self-taught flo­ral design­er who lives on a remote pecan farm with her hus­band and young fam­i­ly in New South Wales, Australia.

A Tree in the House caught my eye while “win­dow-shop­ping” with my daugh­ter this past sum­mer. We were on a sum­mer quest to find the best tacos in the area and after our taco lunch, we took a stroll as “home­town tourists.”

Her­mosa Beach, in the South Bay of Los Ange­les, is home to surfers, pro­fes­sion­al vol­ley­ball play­ers, pro­fes­sion­al NHL hock­ey play­ers, and lots of folks who work in the enter­tain­ment and aero­space indus­tries. Her­mosa Beach is full of fab­u­lous restau­rants, beach­es, and gift shops and is only a few miles from our stu­dio, too.

Pho­to Cred­it: A Tree in the House

Influenced by Constance Spry

When I had some free time, I found the book online and ordered it with high antic­i­pa­tion. In short, this is a love­ly book. It’s full of beau­ti­ful pho­tog­ra­phy, evoca­tive designs and a warm feel­ing of true approach­a­bil­i­ty. I espe­cial­ly love that in the begin­ning of the book, Hick­son talks about one of her flo­ral design hero­ines, Con­stance Spry.

The author, Annabelle Hick­son, of the book “A Tree In The House.”

Con­stance Spry was active in the ear­ly to mid 20th cen­tu­ry and was the “Martha Stew­art of her day.” She had a world-class flo­ral shop in New York City and in Lon­don, ran her own flower school and cook­ing schools in Eng­land and pro­vid­ed flow­ers for Britain’s roy­al fam­i­ly wed­dings and cel­e­bra­tions and was the author of many books. Spry used chick­en wire for her archi­tec­ture and intro­duced for­aged flow­ers into for­mal designs (not done by oth­er florists of her day).

Spry’s mantra was not to “arrange flow­ers” but to “do the flow­ers.” Hick­son agrees with this phi­los­o­phy and her work is a wel­come mix of for­aged foliages and flow­ers along with branch­es from her own farm and garden.

Easy-to-Understand Concepts of Design from a former Journalist

Pho­to Cred­it: A Tree in the House

Since Hick­son’s back­ground is in jour­nal­ism, her writ­ing is easy to fol­low, inter­est­ing and answers all of your ques­tions. The book is divid­ed into six sections:

• One: Flower Basics
• Two: Flow­ers at Home
• Three: Flow­ers for a Friend
• Four: Around the Table
• Five: Spe­cial Occasions
• Six: The Flower Toolkit

At over 200 pages with I high­ly rec­om­mend this hard­cov­er book to flo­ral design­ers who like nat­ur­al designs fea­tur­ing wild foliage and for­aged flow­ers, but who also love a great inspi­ra­tional “cof­fee table book,” too!

Pho­to Cred­it: A Tree in the House

I pur­chased the first edi­tion — cov­er below:

First Edi­tion cov­er art for A Tree in the House