Mother's Day Issue

Last month, as New York was deep in lockdown, an extraordinary thing happened on the corner of 58th Street and 10th Avenue, not far from Mount Sinai West Hospital: a towering bouquet of lilacs and cherry blossoms seemingly sprouted overnight in a beat-up trash can. The scene was straight out of a fairytale, a garden oasis in the middle of a grim and near-empty city.

Blink. Pinch. This was no mirage.

It was a Flower Flash by event designer Lewis Miller, who's known for his pop-up floral installations, using upcycled blooms, in the most curious of urban areas—from subway stations to litter bins.

“People are craving a larger-than-life symbol of hope, joy and nature,” Miller tells us. “Being able to create a Flower Flash for people to see from their apartment windows, from across the street, gives me a feeling of joy and, I think, gives other New Yorkers a feeling of hope. As long as there is life and there are flowers, there will be Flower Flashes—quarantine or not.”

If you missed the moment—or live elsewhere—we bring good news: You can have your very own Miller-curated floral spectacle, whatever your zip code. He sells special Flower Flash Boxes, each part of a limited-edition series that comes complete with how-to video instructions—that's Veronica Swanson Beard's Mother's Day box above. You can shop them here, then follow him @lewismillerdesign to track his next guerrilla-style street installation.

Above: Veronica Swanson Beard's Flower Flash Box—the before and after; below, from left: Lewis Miller's Flower Flashes on New York's Upper West Side, July 2019, and at a Midtown East installation, February 2019