Do-It-Yourself Flower Tips and Inspiration - # 8 - Sweet William Flowers

This time 'Do-It-Yourself  Flower Tips and Inspiration' is all about Sweet William flowers.

• Sweet William is the common name - the botanical name of the flowers in Latin/Greek is Dianthus barbatus.
• It's in the Caryophyllacae family commonly called the pink or carnation family .
• The first part of the name comes from the Greek di or dios meaning god or divine - referring to the Greek gods. The second part of the name anthos means flower.

• Barbatus means bearded or hairy as a small part of the flower has tiny hairs.
• Sweet William is an old-fashioned cottage garden favourite and have been grown in Britain for hundreds of years.
• The flowers has a lovely clove-like scent.

• The Duchess of Cambridge had white Sweet William in her wedding bouquet when she got married to Prince William in 2011. Kate chose the flower as a tribute to her bridegroom.
• They come in many colours - white, pink, red, purple as well as many variegated colours.
• The flowers attracts bees and butterflies. 
• The flowers are edible and have a peppery, clove like flavour and can be used in salads. 
• Cut stems between the nodes for maximum water uptake.
• They are long-lasting - about 5-10 days - and are great value for money. 

The flowers are British and grown by the brilliant Cel Robertson at Forever Green Flower Company.

I made a little bouquet entirely made up of different light pink Sweet Williams. I made a fabric ribbon from a piece of fabric in similar pink tones and tied that around the stems and I used a vintage pink jug as my vase. 

My bright pink creation for the month of June - even though it's cold and rainy here in London.

Enjoy your flower arranging!

Have a Great Floral Day!

I will see you later in the week with more Do-It-Yourself flowers from 'Of Spring and Summer'.

~ xoxo ~

Ingrid

[Styling and Photography © Ingrid Henningsson - Of Spring and Summer]
[Flowers from Forever Green Flower Company.]

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A Bunch for the Weekend - # 22 - Pink and Yellow Dahlia

This week on 'A Bunch for the Weekend' - I'm featuring some stunning pink and yellow Dahlias. Here in the UK Dahlias are still going strong - so yet again some more of this extraordinary flower.  

You'll need:

- nine stems of Dahlia

- a vase or some kind or container that matches the colour of the Dahlias

- 10-12 strands of raffia to tie around the vase

- two decorative plates that matches or picks up the colour in the flowers and the vase. It's good if one is bigger than the other, so you can see the decoration on both plates

As always - condition the flowers by removing any leaves that would end up below the water line in the vase. In this case I removed all the leaves as I didn't want any green showing. 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.

Twist the lengths of raffia loosely and tie them around the top of the vase. In this case a vintage pink jug. I looped it through the handle and made two simple knots - leaving the ends quite long to casually trail down the sides and onto the plates and table. I just like the simple and casual look. 

Cut the stems long enough for the shortest to rest on the edge of the container - then cut the rest in the middle a bit longer to form a round dome-shaped arrangement. The flower heads should sit just next to each other - quite closely together - but you should be able to see each individual flower head.

Finally - put the vase on the two plates and you have a pretty and romantic arrangement - for your table. 

Just for fun I have thrown in some vintage wooden spools of cotton - I love the worn old labels and that some are empty and others still have some of the old cotton tread left on the spool. 

In the background I arranged some of my favourite wicker baskets - in three different sizes - adding to the romantic country look.

Have a Wonderful Floral Day!

~ xoxo ~

Ingrid

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

A Bunch for the Weekend - # 6 - Pink Peonies

A Bunch for the Weekend - this week are five huge pink peonies. I put them in a large enamelled white jug on their own and I just left a few leaves on the stems. I wanted as little as possible to distract from the beauty of the flowers - so with very little greenery and a plain background - the flowers really stands out and looking their best.

Have a lovely Floral Friday and a Creative Weekend!

I'll be back on Sunday with another floral quote from another flower lover!

xoxo Ingrid

Flowers from the Flower Market - # 3 - Bluebells and Cow Parsley

I was very pleased to see that a brand new flower stall had joined my local farmers' market. So this time my 'Flowers from the Flower Market' is from Forever Green Flower Company - run by the lovely Cel Robertson and her husband Robert.
Their farm is based in Norfolk and they grow their own flowers and sell seasonal hand-tied bouquets and posies.

I loved the combination of English bluebells and cow parsley and bought three bunches.

Their flowers were very popular - they sold all but four of their bouquets on their first day at the market. A great start for Cel and Robert and for British grown flowers and I'm pleased to say that I was one of their first costumers!

While I was conditioning the flowers I separated the bluebells and the cow parsley - as I wanted to make a few different arrangements. 

In the first one I put all the bluebells in an old vintage jug from Sweden. It has little blue bell-shaped flowers on the side. The fabric is by Lotta Jansdotter.
   

I love the frothiness and simplicity of cow parsley and put all the stems in an opaque bulb vase - in my second arrangement. 

I wanted to keep everything almost white and very simple - so placing a few small vintage glass bottles with the flowers - on a little stool worked out well.

In the last arrangement - I combined all the bluebells and the cow parsley - using again the big jug and this time - wanting to make more of a statement - I placed the jug on a selection of blue and white china plates and finishing it off with a blue and white floral fabric.

Have a Wonderful Floral Wednesday!

See you later in the week!

xoxo Ingrid

Floral Styling - A Simple Flower Arrangement - # 6 - Pink Hyacinths and Tulips

Two, well three actually, simple flower arrangements. Two are very similar and the third one is very small! 

I bought two different coloured tulips to go with the hyacinths because I wanted to do a little experiment to see which one I like the best!  

In the first one I have combined the bright pink hyacinths and the dark pink Statice with pink tulips. Statice is also called Limonium.

For a vase I used a vintage jug - it's a favourite of mine and it has become an old standby. It has a cream body with a wide pink stripe across the middle as well as some thin lines of gold decoration.  

I used six stems of hyacinths, five tulips and instead of green foliage I filled in with pink Statice.  

I put some of the short left-over Statice in another favourite vase. It's a mini bud vase - perfect for all those tiny little beauties you are reluctant to just throw away. 

Like always - I condition the flowers as soon as I get them home - by removing some of the lower leaves and trimming about 2-3 cm off the bottom of the stems - always at an angle and then put the flowers in a clean container of a water. Leave the flowers in a cool place for a couple of hours before making your final arrangement.

In the second arrangement I swapped the pink tulips for some darker ones and this time I added a few more tulips to make some more impact.

Otherwise it's the same pink hyacinths and the same Statice - as in the first one.

For this arrangement I didn't want to use the same jug with the pink stripe - instead I swapped to a more neutral vase.
This one is a new bulb vase from a charity store - opaque so you can just see the stems though the glass.

Which one do you prefer - the all pink one or the one with the darker more purple tulips? 

Have A Pretty Floral Day!

Will be back soon!

xoxo Ingrid