Winter Bouquet for Christmas

Here is a short video showing you how to make a very simple winter bouquet for Christmas.



The two main colours are white 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.]

A Bunch for the Weekend - # 92 - Purple Limonium and Grey-Green Eucalyptus Foliage

In this week's 'A Bunch for the Weekend' I'm featuring two plants that florists mostly use as fillers in their flower arrangements. 

We are talking about Eucalyptus and Purple Limonium - two very easy and reasonably priced plants.

It's always a pleasure and lots of fun to buy a bunch of flowers for the weekend and this series of blog posts, called 'A Bunch for the Weekend, will show you how you can make quick and easy flower arrangements for your home. 

Buy the flowers where it's convenient and easy for you whether that is from a flower stall, farmers' market, the supermarket or a florist. 

Always try to buy seasonal flowers - they will last longer and they will be a lot cheaper.

Make sure you condition the flowers as soon as you get home. Remove any foliage that will end up below the waterline in the vase. Trim the ends of the stems at an angle and put in fresh water as soon as possible.

Purple Limonium is also called Statice or Sea lavender. They can last for up to two weeks - not bad going. This is a small version of the larger Statice that you often see dried and that comes in many different colours. 

Eucalyptus foliage also lasts for ages. So a win, win situation when using both plants!

Both are also strong hardy plants and straightforward to condition before making the arrangement.

Florists use filler and foliage plants in addition to the bigger, more important and often more expensive flowers that make up the flower arrangement.  

Here I wanted to show that "secondary" flowers or foliage can make beautiful flower arrangements just by themself.

I made up one large mixed arrangement and two small side arrangement. All three containers that I have used are vintage apothecary jars - clear glass and white china. 

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

Thank you for visiting 'Of Spring and Summer' - I will be back on Sunday with another Florets - a floral quote by someone passionate about flowers. 

Ingrid 

~ xoxo ~

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

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Floral Styling - Simple Flower Arrangement - # 3 - Eucalyptus and Pink Tulips

Here is another DIY arrangement that is simple and easy. This time I have used grey-green Eucalyptus leaves and pink tulips.

I had a grey and pink theme in mind when I went to my local flower stall about five minutes from my house. But mid-week and especially at this time of year I was not quite sure what I was going to find.

Eucalyptus leaves are usually readily available at flower markets, flower stalls and at the florist. Less so from a farmers' market as it is usually grown as a tree or a shrub and few farmers in the UK would grow Eucalyptus trees on their farms. It's a native of Australia and a few other countries on that side of the globe - so I presume it's easy to find "down under". 

Eucalyptus comes in a variety of different shaped leaves - some have small round leaves, others have large round leaves and you can also find one with longer narrow leaves. They can also vary a bit in colour from silver grey to light green. You can also buy them with little round berries or fruits that adds texture to the arrangement.

Tulips have started to appear on the flower stalls and I just could not resist these pretty pink ones. 

Condition the foliage and flowers as normal by removing any leaves that will end up below the waterline and also any bruised or damaged leaves. Cut the stems at an angle to expose the largest possible area for the flower to absorb water.

I started by arranging quite a few stems of the foliage in a silver-grey metal vase and it's quite fun that it has names of flowers carved onto the side around the top of the vase. I then added - an uneven number of five pink tulips - cut them shorter then the foliage so that they sit a bit lower in the vase and also towards the middle so that they are completely surrounded by leaves - it makes them stand out more.

I made a second very small arrangement using a mini vase with a lot of texture - in a grey-green colour and just added a few sprigs of Eucalyptus leaves - cut very short.

The grey-green foliage looks great against the silver and adding the five pink tulips as a contrast is just the icing on the cake. The two colours are fabulous together and it is a quick and easy arrangement that you could maybe do for the weekend. 

Have a lovely Floral Day!

See you soon again!

xoxo Ingrid