Welcome to Orchidae Pressed Flowers!

My name is Denyse Rattan Diem – thank you for taking the time to visit. ORCHIDAE is Latin for orchid, one of my favorite flowers to design with! I hope you experience as much joy with Orchidae’s art as I do in creating it!

From the time I was a little girl, born on the Caribbean island of Trinidad , I have been surrounded by vibrant, exquisitely shaped, and glorious colored flowers. I grew to love flowers through my mother who seemed to have a green thumb with any and everything she touched. As a child I remember pushing my entire face into fragrant peonies with their bountiful feather like petals. After my family immigrated to the US in New Jersey , my mother continued to grow flora in the most delightful colors.

I worked in the corporate sector for several years after college and followed my husband to Massachusetts for his job. We looked forward to starting our new home and planting our own garden. Unfortunately, within weeks of moving to MA, my mother suddenly passed away; the victim of a horrible car accident. The loss I felt was indescribable. I began an internal dialogue with her and tried to honor her and how she taught me to follow my dreams. On impulse, I joined my mother-in-law, an amazing gardener herself, in a class on flower pressing techniques. I was hooked!

I have since followed my dreams of creating fine art. I worked with several local area florists as well as a boutique art framing store, learning the varieties of flowers and the techniques of framing to create beautiful art. I am also a member of the World Wide Pressed Flower Guild (WWPFG) and the International Pressed Flower Art Society (IPFAS), organizations dedicated to sharing the beauty of pressed flower art. The result of this journey is Orchidae- offering distinctive note cards, matted art pieces and framed pressed flower art.

I still talk to Mom when creating and designing my pieces. Nature’s creations inspire me to want to capture its natural beauty. I hope you enjoy the artwork on this site and I hope it inspires you to your own creative expressions.