There was a time, pre-pandemic, that Thierry Boutemy’s flowery creations graced catwalks, magazine covers and celebrity weddings.
Now, of course, the French florist — who has worked for Sofia Coppola, Lady Gaga and the fashion house Hermes — is having to weather the crisis like anyone else.
But his passion for petals has not withered.
For more than 25 years, Boutemy has run his boutique in Brussels, a cob-walled den where Italian poppies, Dutch hellebores and tulips from the south of France perfume the air.
All are imported — “Belgium doesn’t produce anything in winter,” he says — but they are all blooming, alive, from soil, free from chemicals and of verified provenance.
That attention to detail and devotion to nature means Boutemy sources most of his plants from small