Caroline Bailly has had a professional presence in the floral industry for the last 15 years, however the ease with which she manipulates and employs the materials of her trade—whether thick bundles of vibrant stems from Manhattan’s flower market, freshly-cut globes of peonies from her own garden, or a tangle of blooms spontaneously picked from somewhere, anywhere, hints at a much deeper, more personal connection.

That connection is almost an intrinsic one. Bailly grew up in the eastern French city of Besançon, surrounded by verdant hills and fields that practically explode with colorful blankets of sprightly flowers during the warmer months. Childhood walks through the countryside with her mother, a botanist, became foundational courses in floristics and plant identification, while the story of how her grandparents first met—knee-deep, in a local field of wildflowers—has taken on a mythical-like quality. Flora has practically spun its way into her DNA.