Terrain Designer Matthew Muscarella Shares His Secrets for Unfo…

Designer Matthew Muscarella brings together elements from all corners of the botanical world to create arrangements of uncommon beauty.

Photo: Amy Batog

Matthew Muscarella was young when his interest in botanicals started. “I was a semiprofessional gardener by the age of 10,” he jokes, talking about how he grew up planting alongside his mother and earning money assisting a local gardener. That early experience proved formative. “I see beauty not just in flowers but also in the leaf of a houseplant or a branch or a weed,” he says.

His perspective has made him uniquely qualified as a designer for Terrain, the national plant and garden decor store based in the Philadelphia area. “It’s owned by a fashion company, so it’s an exciting intersection of style and botanicals,” says Matthew, who also studied landscape architecture.

Whether he’s creating a floral installation for a wedding or designing a garden for a homeowner, he aims for originality. “I try to create something new that my client hasn’t seen before, that I haven’t seen before,” he says.

His floral arrangements (often showcased on Instagram @mattymuskrat) are a little wild, often irreverent, and always surprising. A passionate collector, he has amassed a large assortment of unusual thrifted vessels over the years. He regularly forages, both in the wild and at the grocery store, for elements to tuck into displays. And he frequently clips stems from his own yard—though it’s not a traditional cutting garden. “Growing things with arrangements in mind would almost be too easy for my approach,” he says. “The hunt, the challenge of creating an arrangement from something you wouldn’t expect—that’s my dopamine.”

Amy Batog

Matthew Muscarella’s arrangements often combine cultivated and wildflowers with houseplant clippings and fruit. Here, he started with a pink weigela branch, a yellow peony, and yellow roses from the garden, then filled out the vase with citrus and a caladium leaf clipped from a houseplant. The similar tones bring the disparate elements together.

Amy Batog

When Matthew goes grocery shopping, he often has something other than dinner in mind. “I’m always thinking, What’s another life I can give my produce before I eat it?” A bowl of upside-down carrots and two cups of mushrooms bring moments of whimsy to this otherwise glamorous mantelscape. There’s order to the scene, too, with the arrangements of ranunculus, tulips, and caladium building in height across the shelf and the evenly distributed colors of pots and flowers.

As these mushrooms dry out a little, they turn pretty shades of tan, so Matthew puts them in the bowls without water.

Amy Batog

Matthew likes to contrast high and low. In this case, that takes the form of a clump of grass pulled from his yard joined with dainty garden roses and carnations. “I love the tension of what’s basically a weed paired with the most exquisite flowers,” he says. The grass is placed in a bowl with a chunk of soil holding it in place; a kenzan (a heavy, spiked flower frog) secures the blooms in low bowls.

Amy Batog

These two displays were both inspired by their low pastel vessels, but to very different effects. One includes an energetic mix of peony, allium, wild phlox, and more. The other showcases just three stems. “I like what I call ‘asymmetrical symmetry,’ Matthew says. “There’s continuity of color and shape, but nothing is perfectly matching.”

My advice is to not try to emulate something else. Look at a stem and embrace what inspires you about it instead of getting stressed out about an overall arrangement.

— Matthew Muscarella

Amy Batog

Not only do flower frogs help secure stems in many of Matthew’s arrangements, but he also considers them beautiful, display-worthy pieces in their own right. “They are so adorable and impactful individually,” says Matthew, who has around 50 flower frogs, including these ceramic pieces, from antiques and thrift shops.

The size and weight of a floral frog will determine the length of flower stems it can support.

Amy Batog

“I wanted to let each element tell its own story,” Matthew says of this arrangement, which consists of a romantic bearded iris standing above a graphic begonia leaf clipped from a houseplant plus quirky, swirly onion scapes. The strong shape of the vessel complements the spare, sculptural display.

If you don’t have a flower frog, improvise. Matthew has used coated chicken wire (which won’t scratch the vase), cut-up sticks, and tangled ivy to create a supportive nest.