Quick Takes With: Sophia Moreno-Bunge

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!”

Today, a Quick Takes from over on Gardenista: Read on to learn where Sophia 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:

Currently it’s camellia, jasmine, and brugmansia—winter/spring California blooms.

Above: A garden arrangement with brugmansia and citrus.

Plant that makes you want to run the other way:

Poison oak.

Favorite go-to plant:

Stephanotis or jasmine vine.

Unpopular gardening opinion:

I love stapelia even though they attract flies, because look at this flower!!!

Above: Sophia has a few stapelia plants in her apartment.

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.

Arrangements! And many house plants.

Above: Sophia in her apartment. Photograph by Beth Coller for Gardenista, from 10 Ways to Bring Nature Home with Sophia Moreno-Bunge.

Favorite hardscaping material:

I love clay cobble.

Every garden needs a…

Lots of edibles (fruits and herbs) and a rose garden.

Go-to gardening outfit:

My old Rudy Jude pants that have lasted forever.

Above: The Half Moon Garden Holster by Building Block is $50 at Plant Material.

On your wishlist:

A greenhouse for my orchid collection.

Tool you can’t live without:

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.)