A Bunch for the Weekend - # 26 - Ornamental Cabbage and Chrysanthemums

This week on 'A Bunch for the Weekend' - I'm featuring Ornamental Cabbage and four different Chrysanthemums.

I love the ornamental cabbages that you can find at this time of year and I wanted to use some of the green ones and combine them with white and green Chrysanthemums. I wanted to make three small, low arrangement using some old jars leaving the green and white to be the dominant colours. 

You'll need:

- 3 stems of Ornamental Cabbage - in this case the variegated green kind

- an assorted selection of white and green Chrysanthemums

- 3 neutral coloured jars - the ones I'm using are vintage cream coloured jars, but they could also be glass jam jars

- some brown wrapping paper, baking parchment and some hessian fabric

- a handful of clothing pegs and some natural twine

For conditioning the flowers - you'll also need:

- florists snippers or scissors

- a florist bucket

  

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.

You need to cut all the stems quite short as the jars are not very tall. Place one cabbage in each jar - the lower leaves should rest on the edge of the jar. If you are able to find more than one kind of Chrysanthemum - put two or three in each jar and mix them up - so that each jar is a bit different 

I tide some natural coloured twine around the neck of the jar and just made a simple double knot - leaving the long ends to trail down the side. 

I added a few textured but neutral coloured pieces of paper and fabric - for the whole arrangement to sit on. A piece of hessian also called burlap - with frayed edges.

Add extra texture with some brown wrapping paper, a few sheets of baking parchment and some clothing pegs.

Use the arrangement down the middle of a dining table - on a side or coffee table - together or separately.

This arrangement definitely says autumn by using ornamental cabbage and Chrysanthemums - being two classic autumn flowers - but it's also has a light and airy feel to it.  

Have a lovely Floral Friday and a Happy Weekend!

~ xoxo ~

Ingrid

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

Vases, Vessels and Vintage # 2: Cream Coloured Bottles and Jars

I have a collection of cream coloured bottles and jars that I often use as vases - I also often use them as props - sometimes empty sometimes filled with something interesting. 

The bottle on the left is an old sake bottle that I never had the heart to throw away and I have kept over many years.

A few of them are French honey and mustard jars bought over time and then also used as vases. Others are vintage jars and bottles bought at London antique markets for a few pounds. It's a great feeling to recycle beautiful object of really no monetary value.

Here is an antique Dundee Marmalade jar and some others that I don't know what they were used for. All have that distinctive crazing and beautiful patina that happens to old china.   

What holds the collection together is that they are all of a similar colour and I thought it would be fun to feature them in my series - Vases, Vessels and Vintage.

The cream colour is very easy to combine with all kinds of different coloured flowers. The one that I have used to make the flower arrangement in is one of the old French mustard jars. The flowers I have used are five pink tulips, five pink hyacinths and a few stems of Eucalyptus leaves.

This is the second in the series called Vases, Vessels and Vintage - the first one was called Kähler Vase and Grass.

Have a Wonderful Floral Day!

Back soon!

xoxo Ingrid