FLOWERS by ingrid and titti - Happy Midsummer!

It's the longest day of the year and Titti and I would like to wish you all a Happy Midsummer!

This is a summer bouquet with all British flowers and they are all grown by the lovely Cel Robertson on her flower farm Forever Green Flower Company in Norfolk. 

I met Cel at my local farmers' market and I buy her beautiful flowers almost every week from her stall in North West London.

It's a simple mix of summer flowers put together to look like its just picked from a country garden.

Around the neck of a plain glass vase I have tied a handful of raffia as a simple decoration to go with the country theme. 

It has a combination of blue Cornflowers, large Daisies, pink Gladiolus italicus, grasses with lovely seed-heads and lime green Alchemilla mollis. 

A perfect combination to celebrate the longest day of the year and Midsummer!

Titti Malmberg - my lovely Swedish based collaborator - who I work alongside on FLOWERS - also has a new post on her blog HWIT BLOGG - so please follow the link and go over and see what she has created.

Titti and I are taking a break over the summer and we will be back with more FLOWERS in August. 

Have a Very Happy Midsummer!

I'll see you later in the week with more flowers from 
'Of Spring and Summer'. 

~ xoxo ~ 

Ingrid

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

[Flowers from Forever Green Flower Company.]

You can also find me on:

Instagram - https://instagram.com/ofspringandsummer/

Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/ofspringsummer/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ingrid.henningsson

FLOWERS by ingrid and titti - Natural Beauties

This time on 'FLOWERS by ingrid and titti' - the theme is Natural Beauties.

My inspiration for this FLOWERS came quite simply from the autumnal look of my garden and also from all the beautiful colours on trees and shrubs that I see when doing my daily walks in the park.

What nature produces at this time of year can be both subtle in colour with all its brown tones -  as well as producing lots of leaves and berries with strong, bright colours.

Throughout the year I dry a lot of flowers, grasses and leaves. I bundle things up and after putting a rubber band around the stems - I hang them upside down in what is both my cleaning cupboard and where the hot water cylinder is. It's a dark, warm and very dry place so things dries quickly.

A rubber band works well as it will keep the bundles together as the stems shrink. In the past whenever I've used string the whole bundle sometimes falls apart and everything ends up on the floor. 

Apart from all the dried flowers, grasses, pine cones and leaves - I have also added some stunning pure white Cyclamens. They are almost blindingly white and they were so irresistible that I had to stop and buy some at the farmers' market. 

Some Maidenhair ferns also came home with me from the DIY store. I love the bright green colour and they turned out to be a great contrast to all the brown - giving it all a nice and fresh look.

Maidenhair fern is a house-plant and all I've done is cut a few fronds and put them in some water.

Grasses and colourful leaves are also great to dry. I dried these very large Vitis vine-leaves by just hanging them up in my cleaning cupboard. In this case I didn't want them flat - which I could have done by putting them between sheets of newspaper and some heavy books on top. Instead I wanted them looking a bit more natural and with some twists and turns still showing.

The last image is of a favourite of mine and something that I have featured a couple of times this autumn - Crabapples. They last for months and during that time I have used them in many different ways - on the branches, on little plates, loose on a table and like here in a mortar - and the colour is still spectacular. 

And when I'm finished with them - I will put the little apples in my garden for the birds and squirrels to enjoy.

Titti Malmberg - who is the other half of FLOWERS - is based in Sweden - is also featuring some Natural Beauties over on HWIT BLOGG - please go over to her blog and see what she has done.

You can see all our FLOWERS posts HERE and on Pinterest.

Have a Lovely Floral Day!

~ xoxo ~ 

Ingrid 

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

A Bunch for the Weekend - # 27 - Autumn Flowers and Grasses

This week on 'A Bunch for the Weekend - I'm featuring some autumn flowers from my garden and some Chrysanthemums from the farmers market.

I had a few Chrysanthemums left over from a previous project - they were still going strong, looking good and not at all ready to go on the compost heap.

So I decided to try to find something in my own garden to combine them with. I found some Sedum in a dark, rich maroon colour, a few pink little flowers from the ground-cover Heuchera and some fluffy seed heads from the lovely grass Miscanthus.

You'll need: 

- 3 stems of Sedum 

- 3-5 multi-stemmed light coloured Chrysanthemums

- 3 stems of Heuchera flowers

- 6 stems of Miscanthus grass 

- a medium sized vase or container with maybe a coloured detail that picks up some colour in the arrangement - in this case I have used a vintage milk jug with a brown stripe across the middle

- a small light coloured jar or container 

- a few vintage books

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.

Start off with the larger Sedum flowers - cut the stems so that the flowers are resting on the edge of the container. Cut some of the Chrysanthemums the same length - so they also rest on the edge and others a bit longer to go in the middle of the arrangement. Then feed the thin stems of the Heuchera flowers and the grasses evenly throughout the arrangement to give a bit of height and movement.

Make up a second small arrangement in the smaller vase using the offcuts from the multi-stemmed Chrysanthemums and give the small arrangement a more prominent raised position by putting it on a few books.

A quick, easy and seasonal arrangement for no extra cost at all. Brilliant!

Have a lovely Floral Friday and a Happy Weekend!

~ xoxo ~

Ingrid

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