Simple Autumn Bouquet

Here is a short video showing you how to make a very simple autumn bouquet.

The two main colours are a beautiful dusty pink and grey green foliage.

The flowers are spray chrysanthemums, roses, limonium and single chrysanthemums and the foliage are grey-green eucalyptus and beargrass.

The bouquet is made as a handtied arrangement where all the stems are crossed. You can tie it with some raffia ready to give as a gift or simply put in a beautiful vase like they have done here.

[Video provided by Elle Decoration and design by Interflora. Florist is Nika Wahren from Skillad Floral Design and video by Johan Hedberg.]

Creative with Flowers - # 11 - Allium, Alchemilla mollis and Bear Grass

This series of blog posts - called 'Creative with Flowers' - are about using flowers in creative ways. It could be about how the flowers are combined - maybe in a little bit of an unusual way. It might be the choice of vase - maybe not a vase at all but a container that could be anything from jugs, bottles, jars, tins or teapots - vintage or new it doesn't matter. 

As usual my arrangements will be quick and easy - and there will always be lots and lots of colour!

This week on 'Creative with Flowers' I'm featuring big purple Alliums with some fluffy acid-green Alchemilla mollis and in a second container long narrow grasses called Bear grass.

The three plants have very distinctively different colour, shape and texture. The two main colours are complementary - the purple and the sharp green are almost opposite each other on the colour wheel. 

Allium is a tall architectural flower that needs a tall and heavy vase for the whole arrangement not to topple over. I have used very large glass pickling jars. 

The Alchemilla mollis is arranged as a collar around the stems of the Alliums creating great contrast and gives a lot of visual variation. 

In a second container I put two bunches of Bear grass also called Xerophyllum. It gives an additional contrasting texture with it's long linear shape.

Allium comes without any foliage, the Alchemilla mollis has very few leaves so very quick and easy to remove any that might end up below the waterline in the container and with the grass you just trim the ends. All very quick and easy!

Enjoy your flower arranging and have a fabulous and floral Wednesday!

Thank you for visiting 'Of Spring and Summer' - Titti and I will be back on Friday with another themed 'FLOWERS'.

Ingrid 

~ xoxo ~

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A Bunch for the Weekend - # 47 - Parrot Tulips, Lisianthus and Bear Grass

This week on 'A Bunch for the Weekend' - I'm featuring some parrot tulips with a gorgeous white Lisianthus and some long thin bear grass.

You'll need:

- 20 stems of white and green parrot tulips

- 12 stems of white Lisianhtus

- about 30 - 40 blades of bear grass

- a low wide white vase or container - I have used a white Alvar Alto vase 

For conditioning the flowers - you'll also need:

- a pair of florists scissors

- a florist bucket filled with fresh water

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. Also remove any broken or bruised leaves.

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

Put in a clean container with fresh 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 have to re-cut the stems while making the final arrangement to suit the size of the vase or container and to get the right proportions.

The vase I'm using has irregular sides so I decided to make the arrangement straight in the vase and not tempting to do a handtied. 

I started with the tulips placing them evenly throughout the vase - try to keep the tulip stems as long as possible - so don't cut off too much.

After the tulips I put in the Lisianthus - leaving the stems long enough to sit just above the tulips. If they come multi-stemmed cut them up into several long stems and spread them throughout the arrangement.

Last I put in the bear grass - divide them up into small bundles of three to five blades and again spread them evenly throughout and letting them stick up above the flowers to give a bit of movement.    

The white Alvar Alto Savoy vase is one I have had for a very long time and I use it all the time. The original was designed in 1937 and was exhibited at the World's Fair in Paris that same year. The vase is still being manufactured by Iittala in Finland.

I love how both flowers has this combination of fresh green and brilliant white. It's also lovely to see how the two flowers work so well together - and how the long thin blades of grass gives straight lines and creates some extra movement in the arrangement.

Green and white are the perfect colours for a spring arrangement - don't you think? 

And it looks like spring is here to stay! I'm very happy!

Have a Happy Floral Saturday!

~ xoxo ~

Ingrid

[Styling and Photography © Ingrid Henningsson for Of Spring and Summer]

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.]