Laurie Riley, the creative power behind The Garden Thief, has spent over fifteen years shaping her signature style of floral design that feels both rooted in nature and refreshingly modern. Starting in Chicago and eventually making her way to California, Laurie’s work is like a quiet rebellion—she plays with texture, color, and form in ways that play around with the organic nature of beauty while still creating visual bangs. Whether she's leading workshops or snapping photos of her latest floral masterpiece, Laurie’s passion lies in capturing and designing those fleeting, floral moments when flowers speak for themselves, telling stories based on wildness with a kind of quiet grace.
Meet Laurie Riley aka 'The Garden Thief'
Fifteen years ago, Laurie Riley's floral journey began in Chicago, but her love for flowers stretches back much further. Growing up, she was captivated by the small moments when her dad would stop the car on rural roads so they could pick wildflowers for her grandmother. The joy on her grandmother’s face, when they arrived with these handpicked bouquets, planted the first seed of what would become Laurie’s, aka 'The Garden Thief's' lifelong passion. Working with flowers felt like the perfect way to stay connected to nature while expressing creativity. And in a playful twist, she fondly jokes that’s how her 'crime spree' in gardens began—stealing beauty from the earth to share it with others.
She quotes:
"Sometimes, to move forward, you have to look back and remember what you were willing to risk everything for."
Innocent Floral Mischiefs That Led Her to Become a Flower Lover
Nowadays an impressive floral designer, Laurie would often find herself justifying her small acts of floral mischief. She’d tell herself:
“It’s just sticking out between the fence."
Believing no one would notice, with a mix of curiosity and adventure, she’d pluck a few flowers from a park or a neighbor’s yard, sneak them away to study, and then bury them in the backyard to hide the evidence of her botanical ‘debauchery.’ Inevitably, she’d be caught and marched back to the spot, where she'd offer a heartfelt apology. Grounding usually followed. Though she still occasionally daydreams about a little snip here or a trim there, Laurie now fully appreciates the effort it takes to grow a garden—and these days, she's content to admire the flowers from afar, perhaps lean in for a sniff, or simply capture them in a photo.
The essence of flowers captured by The Garden Thief
A beautiful artistic design composed of pink orchids and ranunculus
A Profound Love for Flowers and Photography
The Garden Thief often finds herself capturing flowers through photography as a way to preserve their momentary beauty without physically taking them. It's her way of holding onto something without stealing it. Just as she once quietly studied flowers as a young 'thief', Laurie now uses her camera to explore their details in a similarly intimate way. It was through this personal lens that she realized how perfectly photography and floral design were intertwined, each enhancing the other in her creative process.
As a floral designer, she finds the perfect harmony between her passions for floral design and photography by creating compositions that combine the natural beauty of flowers with the depth and drama of natural light. She prospers on the challenge of working with whatever the light provides and is fascinated by the psychology of color. Laurie's design philosophy is simple yet profound: to express her deep appreciation for nature in every image she captures. She aims to create a sense of movement and flow, even in still moments, designing with intention down to the smallest detail.
Every flower is respected, and given the space it deserves, ensuring its beauty is preserved and observed, even beyond its natural life.
Photos by @thegardenthief.
