Floral designer's creations to take center stage at Carnegie Museum of Art
By Patricia Sheridan, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"I just enhanced the idea of having a centerpiece and placemats and napkins that matched to adding things to it and making the whole table a pretty picture," he said. "Once colored candles and napkins and prettier candlesticks came into vogue, it went to another whole look for the top of the table. It got really big in the 1990s. It became a very hot deal."

One of the reasons for the renewed interest in floral landscapes for the table was that people were doing more entertaining at home again.
"Martha Stewart really helped that trend, and people got back into it," he recalled.
Just as trends in entertaining come and go, so does the use of flowers in tablescapes.

"People always want pretty flowers, but now they like it simple. None of that baby's breath, no more bows and the overstuffed, overcrammed look.
"They're gonna kill me, but people don't want the florist look. They want arrangements to look like they did it," he confessed.
If a florist did do it, Mr. Morgan recommends that he or she keep it simple and elegant.

"Entertaining isn't as formal as it used to be. No one has the fresh pressed linen tablecloth, you know? It is much more casual."
While grilling out has replaced grand, he said, "People still want flowers. Somehow flowers on the middle of the table makes people happy."

However, increasing interest in food and wine makes the scent of arrangements more important.
"Nobody wants the flowers to have a heavy fragrance because it interferes with the wine and the food," he said.
A flower that has had a resurgence of popularity is the hydrangea.
"It was very popular in the 1940 and '50s, and now it's making a huge comeback because they're pretty, they're big, they're showy and most important, they last," Mr. Morgan said.
Hearty bloomers, hydrangeas really aren't flowers at all. What we think are the flowers are actually bracts, extensions of the leaf, he explained. He recommends submerging the entire flower and stem in water for a few minutes to an hour and then dipping the stem in alum. That makes them much thirstier just before they're placed in a water-filled vase.
"If you do it that way they really drink and hold and can last two to three weeks," he said. "Just a big bundle of hydrangea is fabulous."

One easy way to make a statement is with a single species.
"Just a big bowl of one type of flower, all roses, all tulips, all one color of single flower in a bowl is gorgeous," he said.
Color has been a guiding principle in his work.
"Color is so important because most of our parties and entertaining happen at night under artificial light. So you need to use things that have a little more of a yellow cast or white to them so they will reflect light at night as opposed to absorbing it. Most everything in the world has a yellow or blue cast to it."
That means purples and dark reds can become just black spots on the table, he said. He went on to say that pale oranges and salmon hues, as well as the yellow flowers, look alive on the table at night.
"They really have a life of their own," he noted.

There is one trend Mr. Morgan hopes is disappearing: architectural-looking arrangements with bent and twisted wood.
"I'm not real big on tortured flowers," he said with a laugh. "It's bad enough the poor little things have suffered enough being cut from the plant and manhandled."

He does have a garden but prefers to let his flowers grow in peace, especially when he can buy already cut flowers at the market.
"It's difficult to cut my flowers especially when you worked that plant and knew how long it took to grow and the effort it took. Why cut off a year's growth?"

Mr. Morgan lives with color at home and changes the palette daily.
"I'll find a new painting and drag it home and say, 'OK, fine. I am going to do the room around this and change out the pillows and rugs,' " he said, laughing.
"It's easy though, if you have a beige background, you can throw color into a room and warm it up."

He changes the color of his environment with the seasons. In the winter he likes a lot of chocolate brown and white and accents of rust to warm it up.
"Those colors make me feel warmer. I even wear warmer colors in the winter time," he said.
In the summer, he gravitates toward pale blues and water hues.