Provence Almond Bloom

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.

Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.

The bloom typically begins in the second week of February and lasts about two weeks per tree, sometimes starting a week earlier in a mild winter or a week later after a cold one. The Plateau de Valensole growers watch the forecasts closely, since a single late frost can damage the year's crop.

The largest concentration is on the Plateau de Valensole in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence département, the same upland that turns violet with lavender in July. Smaller pockets surround Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in the Alpilles and along the limestone country of the Luberon.

Almonds (Prunus dulcis) evolved in the eastern Mediterranean, where winters are short and the pollination window opens before any late frost. In Provence the trees flower on bare wood, before any leaves appear, which is why the pink stands out so cleanly against the grey of a dormant orchard.

Yes. Van Gogh painted Almond Blossom in February of 1890 at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, while resident at the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole. He made it as a gift for his nephew, born that January, and worked from cut branches against a blue ground.

About two weeks for an individual tree and roughly three weeks across a plateau, with lower-elevation orchards opening first and the higher ones following. Wind and rain can shorten the window, and a hard frost can end it overnight.

White to pale pink, with the pink showing strongest on the buds before opening and on a few cultivars throughout the bloom. The flowers cover the branches before any leaves appear, so the colour reads against bare wood rather than green.

There is no single festival, though several Provence villages mark the bloom with weekend markets and almond-themed menus in mid-February. The bloom is observed more than celebrated. Locals know the week and drive the back roads quietly.

It's been a meaningful gift for many of our customers with ties to the south of France. The almond bloom is the quiet beginning of the Provençal year, before the lavender, before the markets fill, when the orchards turn pink against bare wood. A Small or Medium with a handwritten note from the studio carries well.

The pale-pink-over-grey palette settles into Provençal Modern, Japandi, and warm Minimalist rooms. It also reads well against limewashed plaster, white oak, and warm linen. The colour is restrained enough for a bedroom or a reading corner and quiet enough for a guest bath.

The slow-travel and seasonal-living movements have brought a steady interest in shoulder-season Provence, the bloom in February and the harvest in October, over the high-summer lavender tourism that crowded the plateaus in the late 2010s. The artwork sits with that wider preference for the quieter weeks.

A single Large reads as a focused, intimate piece above a console or a reading chair. A 4-tile Mural works above a sofa or a bed, and a 9-tile Mural lets the orchard rows extend across the wall.

Yes. Order the Dura Satin or Matte finish for any room with moisture or heat, including bathrooms, kitchens, showers, and backsplashes. The colour lives in the ceramic surface, so steam and splash do not affect it. Microfibre and water are enough to keep it clean.

A soft microfibre cloth with water, occasionally with a drop of mild soap if needed. The colour is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, beneath a thin glossy finish, so there is no painted layer to lift.

Yes. The piece was made by Reid Wender, the eye of the studio, in our distinctive stained-glass and alcohol-ink visual language. Every WenderVista tile is produced in-house in Knoxville, Tennessee, with no licensing and no third-party prints.