Chlorophyll just might run through Lauren Lowman’s veins. The fifth generation of her family to work in the floral business, her instinctive feel for how a flower arrangement should look leads her to create bouquets, centerpieces, and other floral designs that pop with her own creative touch.

Great-great-grandfather Seymour Lowman started the family’s Elmira-based wholesale floral business, raising roses in fifteen greenhouses. The business was lovingly passed down to her great-grandfather, then her grandfather, and finally her father. She grew up working there herself every summer. But the North American Free Trade Agreement dealt the enterprise a death blow as it opened the door to an influx of cheap flower imports. The family business was sold, the greenhouses dismantled, and Lauren eventually studied business, kinesiology, and creative writing in college.

But part of her kept returning to flowers. Her father began a landscape design company after the business closed, and she still helps him with container designs. “I’m super into seasonal planters,” she says.

After graduation, she took a variety of jobs, including freelance floral design in New York City where she worked, among other places, for Renny & Reed, then a Park Avenue florist. Her designs included displays for the Museum of Natural History. “I started to customize designs because I learned so much from people in the big city,” she reflects.

Called back to upstate New York by her Finger Lakes roots, Lauren worked in hospitality, restaurant management, and event planning. She taught floral design, rediscovering her passion for green plants and the flowers they produce. But it was event planning that made her realize her favorite part of the job was planning the flowers, because, she says, “they could make an event so much prettier.”

For a few years, she worked for an Ithaca florist who involved her in planning and creating designs for lavish events and weddings, often for former Cornell and Ithaca College students. “She made me the designer I am,” Lauren says now. “She was an amazing mentor, and a great human.” The experience helped her develop her own signature style.

In 2022, she became focused on building her brand, LL Designs, soon to blossom into a dedicated studio where she can be her own boss while creating arrangements for weddings and other special events. At forty-one, “I’m ready to press the gas pedal,” she says.

A quintessential Lauren Lowman floral design—in seasons where fresh flowers are available—is likely to feature locally-grown dahlias and ranunculus, with lisianthus accents, maybe some snapdragons, and just a touch of distinctive greenery. These look best, she feels, in an opaque white container, because she’d rather the eye focus on the blooms than the stems. “I’m a sucker for milk glass,” she admits. Depending on the occasion and what the customer envisions, herbs and other flowers might find their way into the arrangement. Whenever possible, she works with local flower farmers. Formal or rustic? A limited color palette or a wild one? Classic or boho? Ultimately, she says, her goal is to realize her customer’s vision of what they’d want.

Clients often arrive armed with a collection of ideas gleaned from Instagram, where Lauren also posts her own favorite creations. “Waterfall” bridal bouquets are a current trend. It takes expertise, though, to balance color, texture, flowers, natural materials, and lace. Other design challenges include the “trumpet-style” bouquet, a dramatic arrangement featuring a long, narrow bundle of stems arranged in a vase much wider at the top than its base, so the flowers appear to erupt into a dramatic mass of blooms.

Last summer she was asked to create floral arrangements for the funeral of a prominent man who loved flowers and cultivated giant beds of them with his wife. For Lauren, this meant harvesting flowers he’d grown. “That’s why the floral arrangements were so special,” she says.

The tools of her trade seem simple—curved-blade floral shears and a large pocketknife with blades that are specific for floral use. They’re always with her. So is her camera. If she sees a plant or flower she really likes, she’ll take a photo for later inspiration. Each season brings its own challenges. She might be asked to create formal winter holiday centerpieces to last through the season, using greenery with a few touches of gold and cream. Centerpieces must look good from above as well as eye level. They need to be elegant, sometimes dramatic, but not block the sightlines of guests across the table from each other. In spring, the ephemeral beauty of flowers from bulbs are called for. Luckily, Lauren knows a grower of hydroponic tulips—Jenny Creek Flowers in Trumansburg.

Earlier this year, she was asked to enhance the style of a farmer’s market wedding with a looser bouquet of flowers, centerpieces, corsages, and smaller, colorful floral notes marking special areas. She’s designed a cascade of flowers for wedding cakes. She’s decorated mansions from top to bottom for the holidays, combining creations of greenery, décor, flowers, and candles. Low-maintenance tabletop succulent gardens bring greenery into several Cornell dorm rooms. “Life isn’t always dahlias,” she sighs.

Nor does she want it to be. On her bucket list of possibilities to explore in her own future studio is the use of edible flowers. Orchids, it turns out, among other unconsidered delicacies, have aesthetic uses beyond making an elegant, minimalistic statement.

Repeat client Sue Dean says, “I love her designs and the flowers she chooses!” Sue recently organized an area library’s 125th birthday. She knew she could explain the event’s color scheme, the building’s style, and then step back “with total confidence.”

“I know Lauren does really nice work,” she says.

Lauren also does deliveries. When a bouquet or other arrangement she’s created needs to finds its way to a home, office, or event, Lauren often does that herself, enjoying the positivity her flowers bring. Few people can open the door to a floral delivery without smiling.

Learn more at @laurenlowmandesign on Instagram or reach her at [email protected] and (607) 857-5381.