Photo by Carmel Brantley
Two floral designers, one vibrant muse. Between it’s fluffy petals and hot pink hue, the 2025 Flower of the Year, The Levante® Rosa Anemone, brings a new kind of beauty to the table. Anemones can be ever-changing. They grow after being cut, their buds can open up, and their colors evolve. The Levante Rosa Anemone is no different, and this poses a new and interesting challenge for any floral designer. We tapped two floral designers from our Flower of the Year panel, Lewis Miller and Sybil Sylvester, to explore this flower’s full potential in several different arrangements.
Hailing from Birmingham, AL, floral and event designer Sybil Sylvester brings a sweet southern charm to all of her work. She creates garden-inspired arrangements that burst at the seams, full of life. With her expert eye and whimsical style, Sybil makes the perfect match for the spunky notes of the Levante Rosa Anemone.
New York and Palm Beach based floral designer and founder of Flower Flash™ Lewis Miller is known for mixing elegance and maximalism to bring masterful works to life. As Lewis says, the Levante Rosa Anemone is “a kind of crazy beautiful that we haven’t seen before.” It’s unique beauty makes an interesting muse for Lewis’s polished yet playful look.
What do each of these designers notice in this flower? How do they see it working in an arrangement? See below to find out.
—Sybil Sylvester—
Photo by David Hillegas
“Working with this beautiful bloom has taught me that her colors shift as she ages—a very becoming attribute that is also important to know. I suggest giving it a trial run so you become familiar with her many faces.”
—Sybil Sylvester
Photo by David Hillegas
Sybil pairs the anemone with delphiniums, astilbe, alchemillas, roses, hellebores, and tweedia for a ladylike arrangement even a curious canine named Weezie can’t resist. Chair is covered in John Robshaw’s Mandu Lapis. Table covering is Quadrille Fabrics China Seas New Batik in French Blue Navy on Tint.
Photo by David Hillegas
Sybil adds in coral pink ‘Miss Piggy’ roses (one of her longtime favorites), as well as amaranthus, astilbe, sweet peas, and plenty of “fuzzy greens,” as she calls them. The hand-painted mural is by decorative artist Jan Roberts.
Photo by David Hillegas
Sybil Sylvester combines Levante Rosa with feverfew daisies and narcissus for a cottagey arrangement that “feels like a walk through a wildflower field.”
Photo by David Hillegas
Sybil is a master at garden-style arrangments. Here, she used ferns, moss, and lilacs to achieve that straight-from-the-garden feel.
Photo by David Hillegas
The Levante Rosa anemone makes a statement even in small, simple arrangments with just a touch of greenery and lily of the valley.
—Lewis Miller—
Photo by Carmel Brantley
“Sometimes in design meetings, I will say to a client, ‘It’s the right side of wrong.’ A design element or color can be joyfully disruptive and agitate (in a positive way) a very beautiful but expected palette or theme. The Levante Rosa Anemone behaves that way.”
—Lewis Miller
Photo by Carmel Brantley
Arrangements by Lewis Miller showcase how our Flower of the Year leans playful, formal, or casual depending on what it’s mixed with or the style of the vessel.
Photo by Carmel Brantley
“I love the frilly ‘collars’ that resemble Elizabethan collars,” says Lewis. “Anemones are shape-shifters. Once they are cut, they continue to grow.” Lewis used hot pink spray roses and white hellebores to finish out this arrangement.
Photo by Carmel Brantley
Lewis’s arrangement of Levante Rosa, bleeding heart vine, and clematis appears almost in technicolor against tone-on-tone papier-mâché botanicals from Casa Gusto.
Photo by Carmel Brantley
Dark purple and rich red scabiosa combined with maroon hellebores mix well with the Levante Rosa anemone’s hot pink petals creating a beautiful hombre effect.
Photo by Carmel Brantley
Whether through an exciting new variety like Levante Rosa or an artistic interpretation such as these tole flowers from Casa Gusto, anemones deserve a closer look.
Produced by Karen Carroll and Carrie Clay | Photography by Carmel Brantley and David Hillegas
Interiors with Sybil’s arrangements by Heather Chadduck.
Lewis Miller’s arrangments photographed at Casa Gusto, Palm Beach. Styling by Margaret Zainey Roux
MORE ABOUT THE 2025 FLOWER OF THE YEAR AND ANEMONES
- Introducing Our 2025 Flower of the Year!
- Blush Crush: We’re seeing this soft shade of pink in the Flower of the Year plus furniture and accessories.
- Video: How to Make our March/April 2025 Cover Arrangement
- Arranging Anemone Flowers
- Anemone Fun Facts and Folklore
- Video: A Study in Coral and Blush
- Anemone Varieties for the Garden
