Floral Styling - A Simple Flower Arrangement - # 9 - Alstroemeria, Snapdragons and Scabiosa

Being able to find several flowers that has almost the same colour is sometimes not easy. I felt so lucky to find three different flowers of similar colour and loved being able to combine these dark pink flowers in an arrangement. 

You'll need:  

- 9 stems of Alstroemeria
- 12 stems of Scabiosa
- 3 stems of Antirrhinum also called Snapdragons
- light-coloured or neutral vase with a fairly wide opening
- dark-coloured plate or tray
- some black buttons and a black frame

As always - condition the flowers by removing any leaves that would end up below the water line in the vase - cut the stems at an angle - to increase water absorption. Put in a clean container with tepid water and leave in a cool place over night or at least a few hours before making the final arrangement.

Start by trimming the Alstroemeria so that the flowers sits about 5-6 cm above the rim of the vase. Do the same to the rest of the stems - some of the flowers will naturally hang over the edge of the vase. 

Trim the Scabiosa to similar length and dot the flowers in amongst the Alstroemeria. 

Trim the snapdragons so that they sit above the rest of the other flowers - to suggest some movement and textural interest. 

I then positioned the vase on a black metal plate - a bit off-centre and added some vintage black buttons next to the arrangement.
   

All the buttons are from my mother's and grandmother's "button collections" - I think it was a way of thinking. "Never throw away a button - they might come in useful." When sorting out my grandparents old house in Sweden - I found several cake tins full of buttons. I kept a small amount - I especially like this collection of large black buttons from the 1930's, 40's and 50's in wood and early plastic materials. 

The black empty frame in the background picks up the black theme and nicely 'frames' this dark and dramatic late summer arrangement.

The flowers are grown by Cel Robertson at Forever Green Flower Company and I bought them at my local farmers market where they have a stall every Saturday morning.

Have a Lovely and Creative Day with Flowers!

~ xoxo ~ 

Ingrid

[Styling and photography © Ingrid Henningsson for Of Spring and Summer.] 

Floral Styling - A Simple Flower Arrangement - # 8 - Stock Flowers

You know that spring has arrived when the farmers' market flower stall starts selling Stock flowers or Matthiola - which is the Latin name for them.

I love Stock flowers and I definitely could not resist these pink bunches when I saw them at the market.

You'll need:

12 stems of Stock flowers

Medium size vase - about 20-25 cm high

A pair of flower scissors

I wanted to make an arrangement with just stock flowers. Stock has a lot of texture and the petals makes an interesting contrast against the green buds and leaves.

I didn't want to mix them with any other flowers or foliage - as I think they are so beautiful just on their own.

The vase I choose is a white porcelain vase from Rosenthal's Studio-Line called 'Vase of Phases' that I have only had for a short while. I could not believe my luck when I found it in a local charity store. It has an interesting 'broken' texture on the surface - like a giant broken eggshell. 

This vase was perfect for the Stock flowers - the right size, in a neutral colour and it's slightly flared at the top so it holds the flowers together just right.

Get any colour you like or a mixture of harmonizing or contrasting colours. I bought all the same colour - but mix and match with whatever you find pleasing.

Remember to condition your flowers - if you need some advice on how to do it -  here is a link to my Top Ten Flower Arranging Tips - in the post I'll tell you exactly what to do.

I hope you will have a creative week filled with flowers!

See you on Wednesday with another FLOWERS from Titti and I.

xoxo Ingrid

Floral Styling - A Simple Flower Arrangement - # 7 - Ranunculus

Two big bunches of pink Ranunculus

Two stems of waxflowers

A square glass vase

A vintage wooden container

A few small new and vintage green glass vases 

Condition the flowers by stripping off any lower leaves that would end up below the water line. 

Cut the stems at an angle and place in a clean container of water.

Leave in a cool place over night or at least for a few hours before making the final arrangement.

I wanted to make an open and loose arrangement with the Ranunculus and adding in just a few stems of waxflowers.

Fill the inner glass vase with water and place inside the larger wooden container. Loosely arrange the Ranunculus stems - leave the stems as long as possible so that they lean over the sides of the wooden container. 

Use as many of the unopened buds as possible to give the arrangement some texture and at the end cut down the waxflowers and add randomly to the arrangement.

A particularly beautiful flower gets its very own little special vase.
    

Have a Beautiful Floral Day!

See you soon!

xoxo Ingrid

Floral Styling - A Simple Flower Arrangement - # 6 - Pink Hyacinths and Tulips

Two, well three actually, simple flower arrangements. Two are very similar and the third one is very small! 

I bought two different coloured tulips to go with the hyacinths because I wanted to do a little experiment to see which one I like the best!  

In the first one I have combined the bright pink hyacinths and the dark pink Statice with pink tulips. Statice is also called Limonium.

For a vase I used a vintage jug - it's a favourite of mine and it has become an old standby. It has a cream body with a wide pink stripe across the middle as well as some thin lines of gold decoration.  

I used six stems of hyacinths, five tulips and instead of green foliage I filled in with pink Statice.  

I put some of the short left-over Statice in another favourite vase. It's a mini bud vase - perfect for all those tiny little beauties you are reluctant to just throw away. 

Like always - I condition the flowers as soon as I get them home - by removing some of the lower leaves and trimming about 2-3 cm off the bottom of the stems - always at an angle and then put the flowers in a clean container of a water. Leave the flowers in a cool place for a couple of hours before making your final arrangement.

In the second arrangement I swapped the pink tulips for some darker ones and this time I added a few more tulips to make some more impact.

Otherwise it's the same pink hyacinths and the same Statice - as in the first one.

For this arrangement I didn't want to use the same jug with the pink stripe - instead I swapped to a more neutral vase.
This one is a new bulb vase from a charity store - opaque so you can just see the stems though the glass.

Which one do you prefer - the all pink one or the one with the darker more purple tulips? 

Have A Pretty Floral Day!

Will be back soon!

xoxo Ingrid

Floral Styling - A Simple Flower Arrangement - # 5 - Orange Tulips

Bright orange and yellow tulips might not be the easiest to combine with other colours. Instead of trying to find contrasting colours I decided to just add even more orange and a bit of brown - in the form of an orange and brown cushion, some brightly painted wooden horses and a brown glass jar.

The flowers are from my local farmers' market and after conditioning them by removing lower leaves and cutting the stems at an angle and then leaving them to stand in water for a while - I arranged them very simply in the jar.

The container that I have used as a vase is a vintage brown glass apothecary jar with an interesting enamel label with lettering and it normally has a round glass lid.

I left as many leaves as possible just to break up all the orange and yellow with a bit of green. I also cut the stems a little bit shorter than normally - tulips continue to grow in the vase - as I wanted the flowers to stand quite straight in a tight bunch and not flop over the sides of the vase. 

I want to tell you a little bit about these brightly painted horses. They are traditional Swedish Dala horses and are probably something that you would see in most Swedish homes. The name comes from the province where they are made - Dalarna. They are all hand carved and hand painted and today its a symbol of Dalarna and Sweden. Dala horses are often used by designers on fabrics, as jewellery and in knitting patterns. 

My little collection of Dala horses is a mixture of old and new collected over the years. The faded one on the right is probably from the 1950's.

If you like orange flowers here is another post that I did last year. It's called Floral Fusion - Here Comes Spring!

Have a Lovely Floral Day!

See you soon!

xoxo Ingrid

[All images © Ingrid Henningsson for Of Spring and Summer.]

Floral Styling - A Simple Flower Arrangement - # 4 - Green Tulips and Blue Hyacinths

This is the fourth instalment in my series called Floral Styling - A Simple Flower Arrangement and this time I have used some fabulous green parrot tulips and purple hyacinths. 

As soon as I got home from the farmers' market - I conditioned the flowers and left them outside in the cold to have a good drink. 

I knew I wanted to do some strong colour contrasting and started by putting together all my props - vases etc. I went for two vintage very dark blue apothecary glass bottles and a smaller lighter blue.  

In this case I knew I couldn't use the bottles as vases - the neck is too narrow and both tulips and hyacinths have thick fleshy stems - and for this occasion the two bigger bottles were also too tall. 

I like the look of the fleshy stems and in particular the colour of the stems on the hyacinths. So the vase I went for was a square clear glass vase - perfect for a short squat arrangement.   

I stripped off all the leaves on both flowers and I also cut the stems quite short. I wanted the flower heads of the hyacinths to rest on the edge of the vase. The two flowers are mixed randomly - because I didn't want it to look too arranged.

I used nine stems of hyacinths and twelve parrot tulips - just enough to make a perfect size arrangement for a table.

The contrasting colours work well together and the dark blue bottles makes a stunning backdrop.  

Here are links to the three previous posts in the series. 
Post # 1 has an introduction to the series. 

Floral Styling - A simple Flower Arrangement # 3 - Eucalyptus and Pink Tulips

Floral Styling - A simple Flower Arrangement # 2 - Ornamental Cabbage

Floral Styling - A simple Flower Arrangement # 1 - 
White Delphiniums

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Have a Wonderful Floral Day!

Back soon!

xoxo Ingrid

Floral Styling - A Simple Flower Arrangement - # 1 - White Delphiniums

What constitutes a simple flower arrangement? Well, it depends on a lot of different things.

- Who you are and what you like?
- What are your aesthetics and what does you home look like?
- Do you like simplicity or do you want lots of things around you? 
- Do you prefer just a few colours in the same tones or a whole riot of strong colours?
-Where are you going to put the arrangement?

When it comes to flower arranging there are a few other things you also need to take into consideration.


- What season is it? 
- What is available to you either from your garden or to buy? 
- How much are you willing to spend on everyday flowers?
- Do you own a lot of different kinds of vases?
- How much knowledge do you have about flowers or plants and how to look after them?

To some people a simple arrangement means just one type of flower in a vase or just one stem in several small vases. Simple could also mean a bunch of wild flowers you've just picked when you went for a walk. If you have a cutting garden what could be simpler then to go out in the garden and cut a bunch of home-grown flowers. Simple might also mean using recycled jam jars and bottles.

Well, for me it's often the Scandinavian minimalistic aesthetics that takes over but not always - I also love lots of colour and to have a warm and cosy feeling around me.
I live in England that has a cold, damp and rainy climate with low light levels for many months of the year, houses are not very well insulated and it's easy to feel cold. So it's not surprising that I also want colour and warmth in my life. Minimal colours or full of vibrant colours - both ways can be done without too much effort. 

Having easy access to buy fresh cut flowers constitutes "simple" as far as I'm concerned. I love buying my flowers from farmers' markets because it means that I know they are locally grown by the seller and that they are fresh and seasonal. I have three markets within 10 minutes from my house and I usually go twice a week to buy my flowers for very little money.  

With this rather long introduction to the first in a series called A Simple Flower Arrangement - I think we have established that a simple arrangement can be many things - depending on what your expectations are.

In this arrangement I have used white Delphiniums and they are simply arranged on their own in an Art Nouveau glass vase that picks up the specks of green in the flowers. The flowers are so beautiful on their own that there is no need to add any other flowers or foliage.

I have added three little sparkly mini vases, a mini elephant and the dark background is a three-dimensional rag rug weaving - woven by me a long time ago in a different life.  

   

Have a wonderful floral day!

xoxo Ingrid