FLOWERS by ingrid and titti - Late Summer Colours

This weeks theme for FLOWERS is - 'Late Summer Colours'.

My inspiration comes from not only one of my favourite flowers - but also a few of my favourite things that I have collected over the years. 

The gorgeous flowers are some Hydrangea macrophylla in pink and purple colours. The flowers were sold as one bunch but two stems were pink, two stems purple and the fifth stem was both pink and purple. Hydrangea macrophylla is an unusual plant in sense that the flowers change colour depending on the acidity or alkalinity in the soil.

I love the grey colour of the French vintage enamelled jug. It's not too light and not too dark - perfect colour to use with a lot of bright flowers.

The black plate with the purple flowers is bought in Mexico on one of my many trips to California while visit my husband's family.  

White and grey marble is a perfect surface to use as a background when you take photographs of both flowers and food. It's neutral but with interesting variation in colour and texture and the pink stems shows up well against the marble.

The black basket is made from telephone wires by Zulu craftsmen in South Africa and the stool is designed by the Finnish architect Alvar Alto. 

I very much enjoy the mix of things from different parts of the world and different cultures.

The off-white painted wood panel, the marble tabletop, the grey container and all the black works as an interesting background for the pink and purple colours of the late summer flowering Hydrangeas.

Please, have a look at Titti's blog HWIT BLOGG and see how she has worked around the theme of 'Late Summer Colours'. 

Enjoy your flower arranging and have a great floral day!

I will be back soon with more floral delights.

~ xoxo ~

Ingrid

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

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Take 3 Flowers! - # 7 - White Chrysanthemum, Eucalyptus and bear grass

I've put together another blog post in the series 'Take 3 Flowers!'

In this blog series I will show you how to make easy but beautiful and stylish flower arrangements - just using three different flowers. Often one or more of the three will be some kind of foliage.

Using just three flowers will sometimes be a challenge - but it will also keep the cost down. Cut flowers can be expensive but foliage on the other hand tends to be cheep. You can use lots of it to help fill out the arrangement and to provide support and structure for the other flowers.

After working with a lot of very strong colours lately - I thought it would be nice to use something a bit more neutral. So I have made an arrangement using almost all white Chrysanthemums with two foliage plants. One of them is Eucalyptus that has beautiful silver grey round leaves and the other is a very plain dark green grass called Bear grass.

  

You'll need: 

-  7 stems of white spray Chrysanthemums

-  3 stems of Eucalyptus 

- a very small hand-full of Xerophyllum - also called Bear grass

- a plain white vase - in this case I have used a white Alvar Alto vase

- 2 small plain vases to make little side arrangements

For conditioning the flowers - you'll also need:

- florists snippers or scissors

- a florist bucket

Condition the flowers by removing any leaves that would end up below the water line in the vase. This is to reduce any growth of bacteria from deteriorating leaves.

Cut the stems at an angle - to increase water absorption.  

Put in a clean container with tepid water and leave in a cool, dark place over night or at least for a few hours, to let the flowers absorb the maximum of water, before making the final arrangement.

You might also have to re-cut the stems while making the final arrangement to suit the size of the vase or container.

Start off with the Eucalyptus and arrange the branches along the edges of the container. Follow on with the Chrysanthemum also along the edges. Measure the flower stems against the side of the vase and estimate the height and where to make the final cut. Fill in with the final flowers in the middle. Last - pop in some of the grass throughout the arrangement to give it a bit of movement. 

Make two smaller arrangements with some of the left over flowers. Sometimes you have to cut the odd flower from low down on the stems and they are perfect to make small compact little arrangements to use next to the large arrangement or somewhere else in your home. 

As white is considered a neutral colour it will go with almost anything. So you can easily mix it with any green foliage - like here with silver-grey leaves; to mid green and dark green - as well as variegated leaves. If you have a garden - go out and see what you can find to use as foliage. Well, some of you might have to wait a little while if your garden is still covered with snow. Hopefully spring will soon arrive.....!

Have a Lovely Floral Monday!

See you later in the week!

~ xoxo ~

Ingrid

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

FLOWERS by ingrid and titti - Flowering Branches

It's May and time for the first of FLOWERS by ingrid and titti - and the theme is Flowering Branches. 
Here in London I was able to find quite a lot of beautiful flowering branches and it was hard to resist some of them  - so I ended up picking three. 

The first is lilacs in a beautiful dark pink colour and they also have the most stunning scent. Condition the branches by removing some or even all the leaves. Some florists say you should remove all the leaves to make the flowers last longer. If you like to have some lilac leaves- cut off a few separate branches and stick those in with the other flowering 
branches with no leaves.

When you condition branches - as well as cutting the stems at an angle you also need to make a vertical cut upwards on the stem. This is to increase the surface that can absorb

water. The advise you get today is NOT to smash the stem with a hammer - that will increases the growth of bacteria. 

I put the lilac branches in a white glass vase designed by the Finnish architect Alvar Alto. In the back is a painting by my sister-in-law Amy Trachtenberg and I also added a black Pueblo pottery bowl from New Mexico. 

The second flowering branch is called Sorbus aria or whitebeam and has silvery grey leaves. It's often used as a foliage plant by florists and at this time of year it also has small clusters of silver grey buds.

I put the branches in a vase from Habitat that I found in one of my local charity stores. Mixed in on the table are some black objects - garden twine and a small round box that I inherited from my father -  as well as some new and vintage metal objects - old keys from Sweden, a vintage Singer sewing machine oil can, a new little wire basket and a mini watering can.

I find the simplicity of just a few branches delightful and I specially like the clusters of buds and the downy underside of the soft green-grey spring leaves.

   

The last of the branches are some Viburnum opulus or guelder rose as they are also called. Viburnum opulus is a garden shrub - it has a woody stem and pompom-like heads made up of clusters of tiny very light green florets. 

This one is a little tricky - the heads tends to hang and look a bit droopy - so either go with the flow and embrace whatever the flowers wants to do. Or you will have to support the heavy flower heads either by packing them tightly together, using other sturdy stems to make a grid as support in a mixed arrangement or by cutting the stems quite short and let them rest on the sides of the vase or container. 

I call this last arrangement -  'My Grandmother arrangement' - as I have used my grandmother's old coffee tin and a handwoven rag rug that once belonged to her.

I have only used the tin as an outer container - inside is a jam jar filled with water holding the branches. Old metal tins and containers tend to rust quite easily if you leave water in them for any extended amount of time - and I don't want this tin to rust. I have cut the stems quite short and the flower heads are resting on each other as well as on the sides of the tin.

My collaborator Titti Malmberg over on HWIT BLOGG is also posting about flowering branches - so go over and have a look at what she has done.

Here is also a link to all the previous FLOWERS by Titti and I. 

Have a Wonderful Floral Day!

See you soon!

xoxo Ingrid