...OF SPRING AND SUMMER...: A Bunch for the Weekend - # 71

This week on 'A Bunch for the Weekend' I'm featuring some scented stock flowers and spray carnations.

The stock is a mix of three pink and purple colours and when you buy it it has the charming name of Rainbow Stock on the label.

The spray carnations also come as a mixed bunch of three different pink colours. I only used two in this instance - I thought the third pink clashed with the other pink as it had too much orange in it - so I left it out.

I made the bunch to bring to a dinner party - so I wanted to make a hand-tied and wrapped bouquet.

I bought the flowers the day before and after conditioning I left them outside during the day. I brought them inside at night as I didn't want to risk any frost damage.

A hand-tied bunch is a way of assembling the flowers into a bunch by holding the flowers in one hand and adding flowers with the other hand - one by one. When adding you add each flower at an angle crossing the other stems - so that the stem create a spiral and the stems at the bottom will splay out. You also need to turn the bunch every so often to make a varied and harmonious bouquet.

Once you have added all the flowers you need to tie the bunch at the binding point - the point where you crossed the stems. I like to use raffia - it's a natural product and it always looks nice.

Did that sound difficult and complicated? Well, it takes a bit of practice and like riding a bike - once you know how to do it - that's it - you are off!

As I was giving the bouquet away I wanted to wrap the flowers. I used two different coloured tissue paper - close to the colours of the flowers - and some clear cellophane with little white dots. I folded the paper at an angle so that two corners of each piece of paper created two points at the top. Place all the different layers of paper - with the tissue paper inside the cellophane on a table and place the bouquet in the middle. From the binding-point start wrapping all the layers of paper around the bouquet - a bit of scrunching is necessary and secure with adhesive tape.

As a finishing touch add a pretty ribbon and you are ready to go!