Flowers are a perennial source of inspiration for jewellers and this summer it will be hard to miss the exotic species that will be blooming on necklaces, rings, brooches and bracelets.

The latest varieties have a very modern twist: forget shrinking violets, these are floral jewels of a sensual and provocative kind.

Cartier’s beautiful Caresse d’Orchidées collection launched at the end of last year set the jewellery world thinking.

A 60-piece range of pieces fashioned into orchids of every size, liberally studded with gems including pink diamonds, star sapphires and faceted rubellites, with ruby droplets and emerald cascades.

“We wanted to use a flower with character and strength and the orchid has such a strong personality, with so many sensual and feminine connotations,” says Pierre Reniero, Cartier’s creative director. “These flowers are not something for a young girl to wear like she would a daisy or a rose.”

The pieces have been painstakingly replicated and appear realistic with asymmetrical elements to create a natural, caught-in-the-moment look, but the shapes and colours create a sense of the surreal. The flowers look mysterious and fairytale-like, but with a darker sense of danger.

“We wanted to create a mystery with this collection,” adds Mr Reniero. “That is why we used such deep stones and colours such as rubellites and emeralds, which are deep reds and greens – and in such abundance. We wanted the pieces to look luxurious, rich and tropical.”

Jewellery designer Shaun Leane felt similarly about his new collection, evocatively named Salome after the biblical seductress. A favourite of artists, Salome is often portrayed as a symbol of the erotic and dangerous woman. “I love this element of her, and I wanted to embody it in a flower,” says Mr Leane.

The pieces are based on a lily, with sculptural flowing lines and curved shapes. “The lily appears to wrap around the finger, it embraces it,” adds Mr Leane. There is more than a nod to the graceful elegance of Art Nouveau. Mr Leane was also influenced by artist Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrations for Oscar Wilde’s play Salome in 1894.

As in the Cartier collection, it is the colours and stones that accentuate the mystery and sensuality. The yellow gold version features a deep red pear-shaped Mozambique garnet emanating from the centre of the lily, surrounded by pavé-set garnets graduating from rich yellow to bright tangarine. The leaf is studded with deep brown diamonds.

“I wanted the colours to be rich and enticing, almost hypnotising like Salome was. They are not necessarily ornate, but provocative,” says Mr Leane. The playful pendant spins and moves, while the luscious ear-rings fix on both sides of the ear.

Femininity is a key word when it comes to describing these pieces, but it is femininity with an edge says Mr Leane. “There was a time when women had to power-dress to look strong, to have an identity, but that is old news. Now a woman can look beautiful and feminine and still have power.”

The newest version of Cartier’s Caresse d’Orchidées, launched this year, goes one step further. With their angular shapes, the orchids have become more stylised and abstract.

Chanel’s latest fine jewellery collection, San Marco, features a similar concept. The stones are luscious and varied in cut as well as colour – including deep yellow cabachon citrines and rich amethysts, whiter-than-white south sea pearls, aquamarines and pear-cut blue sapphires. However, the shape is only loosely based on the form of a flower.

“They are an evocation of flowers,” explains Valerie Duport, Chanel’s director of press for fine jewellery and watches.

Chanel has always used flowers in its jewellery. Its first Camellia ring, launched when the fine jewellery division started in 1993, is still a bestseller. But the San Marco collection is a more modern interpretation of the flower.

“At the beginning of the last century, floral jewellery was exact, botanically-correct copies of the perfectly symmetrical flower,”adds Ms Duport.

“Now, shapes and colours don’t need to be perfect matches. They can be more free and flexible – it doesn’t matter if they are not exactly symmetrical.”

The most abstract floral pieces you’ll find this summer are from Tiffany’s new Orchid collection. Designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry, the minimal pieces are stripped of colour, available only in sterling silver – and some with pavé-set white diamonds.

They feature organic shapes with graceful curves and Jon King, senior vice-president of merchandising with responsibility for the design department, says that out of the six collections Gehry has designed, the Orchid has surprised them by being consistently successful worldwide.

“Tiffany is known for its botanically-correct versions of flowers, but our Orchid range isn’t a literal interpretation,” says Mr King.

“We are simply revisiting and reinterpreting the flower in a very modern way.”

And for the modern woman, this type of powerful, yet sensual and feminine floral jewellery is spot-on.

It seems the innate beauty of flowers is one that will never fail to inspire – it just gets reinterpreted for the times we live in.