19 March 2014

FLOWERS by ingrid & titti - Frilly Carnations



Carnations - are often thought of as a cheep, ordinary and out of favour flower. For years you were able to buy them at petrol stations and supermarkets - it's also often used as a funeral flower.

So that doesn't sound like a good beginning - does it? 

Well, the carnation has a rather distinguish past - Shakespeare mentions it in The Winter's Tale and painters like Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Durer often featured carnations in their paintings. Later on Dutch flower painters used them alongside highly prized flowers like tulips and roses. 



Carnations are, according to some top florists going through a revival at the moment.

On the plus side - lets mention that they are cheep, comes in all kinds of colours, are tough and easy to handle and can last for up to three weeks - not bad for such a common flower.
   
Weeks ago Titti and I had decided that we wanted to feature carnations in our next FLOWERS post.

What happened next was that I actually had some difficulty finding carnations - you wouldn't have thought so as I live in the middle of London and have access to dozens of florists and flower stalls just in my area!



The local florists and stall holders told me that they don't stock carnations for the simple reason - nobody buys them.

I'm not one to be beaten that easy - so I decided to get up at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning and head down to Covent Garden Flower Market.

Surely they will have every flower you can think of there.....  



Yes and no - there are hundreds of different flowers - but I really had to hunt around for carnations. In the end I had to ask and only three wholesale flower sellers had any - out of about thirty and then in a very limited amount of colours.

I found some pink multi-coloured carnation flowers that I packed tightly into two pastel blue vintage jugs. I think it's quite fun how the pattern on the fabric echoes the fluffy shape of the flowers.  



I also found some in a darker, richer pink that I put in some old weathered garden pots. I wanted a rough surface  to contrast with the frilly edged carnations.

As these are outdoor pots with drainage holes in the bottom of the pot - I arranged the flowers in a smaller glass container and put it inside the larger one.  


Again packed tightly in the container and again just by themselves - not mixed with any other flowers or foliage. I wanted it to be a solid block of colour to contrast with the container.

How can we have a carnation revival if they are so hard to get hold of? 

What do you think of carnations - love them or leave them?
Are they available to buy where you live? I would love to know.



The other half of FLOWERS - the multi-talented Titti Malmberg over on HWIT BLOGG is also featuring carnations on her blog today. So why not go over there and have a look at what she has created with her carnations.

Here is a link to all of Titti's and my previous FLOWERS posts. 

Have a Wonderful Floral Day! 

See you back here very soon!

xoxo Ingrid

9 comments:

martinealison said...

Bonjour chère amie,

Je suis très heureuse de vous retrouver après mon absence éloignée de France...
Je rentre et c'est le printemps ! Le printemps également dans votre blog ! Les oeillets... ah ! Oui c'est vrai que nous n'en trouvons plus très facilement ! Elle était une fleur peu onéreuse et on la trouvait facilement sur les marchés dans toutes les déclinaisons de couleurs. Chez le fleuriste, plus gros, il était tuteurisé par un fil de fer.
J'aimais beaucoup ceux du jardin de ma grand-mère, les petits, blancs ou roses très odorants... Hum ! Des années après j'en ai conservé les senteurs !
Quel joli billet que vous nous offrez là ! Les vôtres en photo sont sublimes...
Oui j'en achèterais bien...
Gros bisous

Hjem & Glede said...

Å så nydelige bilder!
Jeg elsker nelliker og det har jeg alltid gjort;)
Herlig blomst med god holdbarhet og en deilig duft!

Spesielt vakkert med lave nelliker i vaser slik som på bildene.
Grennelliker er jo også skjønt!

Ha en herlig dag !

Gode blomsterklemmer
Camilla .

Frances said...

Ingrid, I agree with you that when carnations are used in dramatic abundance they can be quite beautiful. Your photographs illustrate this notion very well.

I particularly like the multi-colored pink and white ones in the blue jug, against the pretty fabric. Lovely!

(Of course, over here on St. Patrick's Day there were plenty of green-dyed carnations on offer. Dramatic in a totally different sort of way!)

xo

Vitt hus med svarta knutar said...

I have never liked carnations and that for all the reasons you namned in the beginning of your post...but during the few last years I discovered that carnations have developed, there are many new colours...lime, light apricot, multicoloured and also new shapes. Now you can find those with lots of flowers on each stem. Thank you for beautiful pics!
Hug,
Regina

HWIT BLOGG said...

TÄNK att du till slut hittade de mest vackra nejlikorna, vilken färg! och TÄNK att folk inte vill köpa nejlikor??!! Jättefint inlägg med så vackra bilder som vanligt
och en härlig historia runt nejlikan...ja här i Sverige fortsätter vi att frossa hejvilt i nejlikor!
Ha en fortsatt fin vecka vännen,
Titti

Vision By Mila said...

They are so pretty! I have some purple ones in the house.

Lisa Gordon said...

I really love carnations (except the green ones you see on St. Patrick's Day!), and these are really gorgeous, Ingrid. The colors are amazing.

Lisa said...

They are beautiful. We have them here all the time in each store I go too and in all colors. I love how you captured the beauty of these and that really made me look twice.

Ruth @ Camellia Rose said...

Lovely arrangements, I think the flower market must have had some nice ones even if not many! They are pretty common here in NZ, like the sad bouquets you see at petrol stations. And they are very common as bedding plants. For more unusual colours you have to grow them from seed, which I did a couple of years ago, and I now have some nice frilly pink ones, some picotee and some speckled.

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