Our Top 20 Instagram Posts of 2020

We look back at 2020 through the lens of FLOWER magazine’s top posts of the year

In 2020, @flowermagazine celebrated surpassing one hundred thousand Instagram followers. Here, we gather the posts that our followers loved most. Let the top 20 countdown begin, starting with …

20

3,298 Likes on Instagram

June 6, 2020 — Saturday flowers: wisteria and irises. Photo by Alexander Hoyle (@alexander.hoyle), an English plantsman and gardener trained at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Editor’s Note: You will see quite a few of our top 20 posts of 2020 refer to “Saturday flowers.” These are weekend moments of floral inspiration, often reposted from the Instagram profiles of some of our favorite floral designers, gardeners, and stylists. 


19

3417 Likes on Instagram

May 12, 2020 — A vision in purple. Rachel Ashwell (@rachelashwell) collaborated with floral designer/grower Toria Britten (@wildlybeautifulflowers) to bring this scene to fruition at Babington, a country house hotel in Somerset, England. The cascade of Peruvian lilies, hydrangeas, and bell flowers is actually two arrangements that have been connected visually.

Photo by Amy Neunsinger (@AmyNeunsinger), from Ashwell’s My Floral Affair: Whimsical Spaces and Beautiful Florals (CICO Books, 2018), featured in FLOWER’s Jan/Feb 2018 issue. See story.


18

3426 Likes on Instagram

October 16, 2020 — A dreamy autumn scene from Sarah Ryhanen of SAIPUA (@saipua) in upstate New York, photographed by Minh Ngoc (@minh_ngoc). Featured in FLOWER’s Sept/Oct 2016 issue, Ryhanen cultivates a floral style that celebrates the exquisite and ephemeral bounty of nature. She favors “the muddy, in-between colors,” like mauve and pale blush, and mixes blooms with wild vines and foliage that look like they’ve been picked from abandoned fields and roadsides. See story.


17

3436 Likes on Instagram

September 19, 2020 — Saturday flowers by floral designer TJ McGrath (@tjmcgrathdesign), photographed by Fine and Fleurie (@fineandfleurie) at Jardin de Buis in rural New Jersey.

In FLOWER’s Sept/Oct 2020 issue, we explored the lovely grounds of Jardin de Buis, which is stewarded by architect and landscape designer Andrea Filippone and her family (see story). In this photo, shared on Instagram by McGrath to promote his floral workshop at the estate, we enjoyed a peek inside its patinaed interiors.⁠

Sources: Hair pin frog, used as floral mechanics, from Floral Genius (@floralgeniusig). Vase from BIDKHome (@bidkhome). See more from McGrath here.


16

3495 Likes

October 11, 2020 — Mum’s the word on this NYC stoop captured by photographer Noel Y. Calingasan (@nyclovesnyc). “This townhouse with a 19th-century Queen Anne facade and a stoop decorated with blooming mums, pumpkins, and gourds is a favorite spot for fall stoop lovers in this Upper West Side neighborhood during October,” he says.


15

3517 Likes

April 14, 2020 — Delphinium + Delftware vases + a Dutch flower farm = a dream. This heavenly scene comes from Greg Campbell and Erick New, the intrepid owners of the Memphis floral design shop Garden District (@gardendistrict_memphis). Their book, Florists to the Field (Southerly Media, 2018), features specialty farms across the U.S. and abroad, including the Wigchert family farm in the Netherlands pictured here. See FLOWER’s feature story on Florists to the Field.

Photo by Sarah Bell of Sélavie Photography (@selaviephotocommercial⁠).


14

3517 Likes

December 26, 2020 — Saturday flowers by stylist and photographer Adele of Violet Organics (@violet_organics). Flower list: amaryllis, delphinium, and snapdragon.


13

3624 likes

August 30, 2020 — Sunday flowers by Christina Brockman (@huckleberry_collective), a stylist, floral designer, and recipe developer. “Talk about the ruffles and those shades of pink!” she says. “I’ve always been a fan of ‘blush and bashful’ … I’m still obsessing over these blooms from Grace Rose Farm (@gracerosefarm) from a few weeks back.”

Along with the lovely vase of garden roses, our Instagram followers told us they also loved the book placed beneath it—The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes, which won a Newbery Honor in 1945 and remains a classic today.


12

December 5, 2020 — Saturday flowers by Natasja Sadi of @cakeatelieramsterdam. Flower list: chrysanthemums, roses, and amaranthus.

See FLOWER’s feature story on Sadi, a cake designer and sugar flower artist who, as you can see above, has a talent for designing with fresh flowers, too.


11

3665 Likes on Instagram

November 7, 2020 — Saturday flowers: Floral designer Willow Crossley (@willowcrossleycreates) made us smile with her blooming wreath. For the holidays, The Floral Pantry (@the_floral_pantry) offered her design as a kit accompanied by her video tutorial.

See FLOWER’s feature story on Crossley.


10

May 18, 2020 — A look back at FLOWER’s 2019 visit to London during the Chelsea Flower Show and Chelsea In Bloom. Club Monaco in the Seven Dials district of Covent Garden put on an elaborate floral display for the occasion. ⁠See more photos from our trip and learn how the Chelsea Flower Show went virtual in 2020.

Photo by Gavin Kingcome.


9

3688 Likes on Instagram

October 3, 2020 — Saturday flowers by Pig Pen Flowers (@pigpenflowers) and captured by floral photographer/stylist Janne Ford (@jannelford). “From the Autumn Equinox [September 22] when we had the most perfect sunset here in North Yorkshire,” Ford says.


8

3706 LIkes on Instagram

August 18, 2020 — Summer in a vase in Northern Ireland. Photo by floral photographer and blogger Elizabeth of Blowy in the Wind (@blowyinthewind).


7

September 12, 2020 — Saturday flowers by Floweriize (@floweriize), a bespoke floral designer and flower grower in Mexico City. “Like cotton candy clouds. These are some of my favourite dahlias,” she says.


6

4334 Likes on Instagram

October 7, 2020 — Relishing the last days of dahlia season. Photo by Floret (@floretflower).

See more from Erin Benzakein, founder of Floret, a flower farm in Washington’s Skagit Valley, here and here.


5

5268 Likes on Instagram

November 21, 2020 — Saturday flowers by Christin Geall (@cultivatedbychristin); title: “Spring Two.”

Geall’s book, Cultivated: The Elements of Floral Style (Princeton Architectural Press, 2020), made the FLOWER editors’ list of favorite books of 2020. See more book picks.


4

5,342 Likes on Instagram

December 2, 2020 — “I wanted the window arrangement to look like it was scooped up in the forest and planted right in the box,” says floral designer Sybil Sylvester (@wildflowersybil, @wildflower_designs_llc), who used ilex berries, evergreen branches, and moss to create a sylvan scene. See what else she dreamed up when decorating this home for the season in FLOWER’s Nov/Dec 2019 issue. ⁠Photo by Laurey W Glenn (@laureywglenn).


3

5,312 Likes

May 11, 2020 — Lily of the Valley and Dior (@dior), a match made in heaven!

We reposted this classic image of a May Day art installation on the Dior Building on Montaigne Avenue in Paris after spotting it on the Instagram profile of Aerin Lauder (@aerin), founder/creative director of AERIN and style/image director at Estée Lauder.


2

October 14, 2020 — Wednesday inspiration: a floral installation by ISA ISA Floral (@isaisafloral) in a space by interior designer Kelly Wearstler (@kellywearstler) from the pages of Kelly Wearstler: Evocative Style (Rizzoli, 2019).

book cover for Kelly Wearstler: Evocative Style (Rizzoli, 2019)


1

7,313 Likes on Instagram

December 16, 2020 — An arrangement of amaryllis, ilex berries, pine cones, and evergreens sits atop a circa 1800s trunk in the Maryland farmhouse belonging to Rick Davis and Christopher Vazquez. See FLOWER’s holiday feature story on the creative pair, who own the renowned floral and event design firm Amaryllis (@amaryllisinc).

Photo by Jenn Verrier (@jennverrierphoto).


Edited by Terri Robertson