Before Sophia Moreno-Bunge became a boldfaced name in the floral design world and attracted a clientele that includes goop, the Proper Hotel in Santa Monica, and the most discriminating private patrons in the L.A. area, she wrote for Gardenista. We are thrilled to have her back in our fold for a short but sweet Quick Takes visit today.
Sophia is the founder of Isa Isa, the thriving floral design studio she named after her Argentine grandmothers (both named Isabel). Her arrangements, often featuring local and foraged flowers, branches, pods, and fruits, are emotive and idiosyncratic—and demand attention. (To call them pretty would be an insult.) Most impressive, no matter the size or scale of a project, Isa Isa installations always feel personal and from the heart.
Sophia lives and breathes flowers—and can’t help but bring her work home (catch a glimpse of her plant-filled apartment here). “I often buy plants to use in my work, since certain varieties are not available at the flower market, and then plant them all over my apartment building and garden in Santa Monica—from orchids, to farfugiums, roses, jasmines, and herbs,” she tells us. “At this point I have hundreds of potted plants and a rose garden, and am currently planning and starting to plant a cutting garden in Malibu!”
Read on to learn where she bought her chic tool holster, what makes her tick—and what ticks her off.
Photography courtesy of Sophia Moreno-Bunge.
Above: Sophia was florist in residence for two months at Villa Lena in Tuscany and wrote about it for our site. You can read about her experience here.
Your first garden memory:
Weeding my family’s garden with my grandmother Isabel, and the smell of herbs and blooming fruit trees coming in through my bedroom window at night.
Instagram account that inspires you:
Orca Living for their beautiful California gardens. [See Quick Takes With: Molly Sedlacek.]
Describe in three words your garden aesthetic.
Wild, seasonal, playful.
Plant that makes you swoon:
Above: A garden arrangement with brugmansia and citrus.
Currently it’s camellia, jasmine, and brugmansia—winter/spring California blooms.
Plant that makes you want to run the other way:
Poison oak.
Favorite go-to plant:
Stephanotis or jasmine vine.
Unpopular gardening opinion:
Above: Sophia has a few stapelia plants in her apartment.
I love stapelia even though they attract flies, because look at this flower!!!
Hardest gardening lesson you’ve learned:
After three to four years of slowly nursing a baby jade vine, and watching it grow a few inches each year, I killed it when I went out of town during a summer heatwave. I was heartbroken!
Favorite way to bring the outdoors in.
Above: Sophia in her apartment. Photograph by Beth Coller for Gardenista, from 10 Ways to Bring Nature Home with Sophia Moreno-Bunge.
Arrangements! And many house plants.
Favorite hardscaping material:
I love clay cobble.
Every garden needs a…
Above: Sophia grows roses in her home garden.
Lots of edibles (fruits and herbs) and a rose garden.
Go-to gardening outfit:
My old Rudy Jude pants that have lasted forever.
On your wishlist:
A greenhouse for my orchid collection.
Tool you can’t live without:
Above: The Half Moon Garden Holster by Building Block is $50 at Plant Material.
My Japanese clippers and Building Block garden holster.
Not-to-be-missed public garden/park/botanical garden:
The Huntington Gardens in winter to see the camellias in bloom and their cactus garden.
The REAL reason you garden:
It feels so good / soothes all anxiety.
Thanks so much, Sophia! (Follow Isa Isa on Instagram @isaisafloral.)
To see our full archive of Quick Takes, head here.
