a flowery idea

i mean - can you believe the size of this hibiscus flower? my parents have a couple of bushes of them at the foot of their driveway and they are RIDICULOUS. they're HUGE and so perfect and gorgeous!  here is my car key next to it so you can really get a sense of their out of control size.

the sad thing about them, like many amazing and wonderful things, is that they're incredibly short-lived. they seem to wither and crumble up after just a day or so, but the upshot is that there are so many blooms always coming and going that the bushes always look full and healthy - it's just the lifespan of each tissuey, gauzy one that's short.

so my big idea? how beautiful would it be to have each dinner-plate-sized bloom atop a dinner plate at a party? imagine everyone arriving at the table, greeted by their very own hibiscus...and imagine how totally stunning that table would look. you wouldn't even need floral arrangements, and could go just with simple votives, or perhaps interesting little objects like my aunt louisa brilliantly did here. it would be amazing on a table dressed all in white linens, a wood table with no linens at all, or a cacophony of floral, striped and patterned linens. if i were doing this, i'd probably want to ditch the dinner party and just play around with options all night!

in the same way a charger is used under a plate and then removed when it's time to eat, the top plate holding the bloom would be removed, revealing the dinner plate beneath it when it's time to eat.