GREEN SPACE
FLOWERS FOR ALL SEASONS
by Marissa R. Vicario

ven amidst the dreariest winter snowfall, Barbra Scott can still provide a touch of color with her perfect peonies and striking sunflowers, which she carefully preserves and artfully displays in custom-made arrangements. Tucked away in her cozy second-floor studio in Union Square, the former clothing designer and her small staff work full-time so that clients like Tiffany & Co. can enjoy zinnias, marigolds, and delphiniums year-round.
      Scott uses a simple flower- preservation technique she learned from her mother. "I had seen her doing it growing up, but I never paid much attention to it," says Scott. It took only a summer at home in Montreal to acquire the

skill she has used so successfully over the last ten years. Instead of air- or freeze-drying, Scott utilizes sand as a desiccant to remove moisture from flowers in an old-fashioned technique that dates back to Louis XIV. The sand sustains the flowers' natural shape and color for up to a year.        In the spring, Scott procures garden flowers by the thousands while they are in season. After nurturing each bud until it blooms, she leaves only an inch of stem and places each flower into a bucket with a one- inch base of silica gel, a fine sand. Slowly, she drizzles the gel over the flower and between the petals until it is covered with five pounds of sand.
       One to two weeks later, when the flower emerges from the airtight bucket fully preserved, Scott stores it in the 		appropriately labeled cardboard box until it is needed.
       Scott likens flower arranging to designing a dress. "All the elements of color, shape, and proportion are put into three-dimensional form," she says, to create her signature beidimier arrangements, which are both tight and full. Although fall marks her busiest time, with six house calls each week, Scott fills orders all year.
       Her arrangements can take two weeks to complete and cost between $125 and $1,500, depending on size. Scott will formulate a proposal for any arrangement, including boxwood and topiary trees, as well as work with a designer.
       Though her flowers are unique in New York and most of her clients famous, Scott is not pretentious when it comes to her customers' tastes. "My ego is not involved," she says. "If they want purple, yellow, and green, ... the customer's always right." Barbra. Scott can be reached, at 10 East 16th St., New York, NY 10003; 212- 691-0277; barbrascott.com.