FLOWERS by ingrid and titti - Lovely Herbs

Titti and I are back, after a summer break, with another FLOWERS. This time it's all about herbs and other related things.

Herbs are such a pleasure to work with, to grow in the garden, to add to your cooking and to drink as herbal teas. 

Lavender is both lovely to grow as a plant in the garden but can also be added to both sweet and savory recipes. It can also be used dried in little sachets to scent your cupboards.  

We might not think of hops as a herb but it's used for making beer. I grow it in my garden, not for making beer, but for it being a great and very fast climber. 

My favourite is one called Humulus lupulus 'Aureus', I love saying that name, it kind of rolls off the tongue. It's also called Golden Hops - because of the colour of the leaves. Every season it grows several meters. so you need to give it lots of space. You cut it down every autumn and it then starts growing again in the spring. 

Dried flowers stems can be used for decorating, both as swags and for table decorations.

Here I have used the fresh stems and leaves as table decorations. They will wilt after a couple of hours depending how hot it is. I couldn't resist them - they are so pretty with lots of colour and texture. 

These stems doesn't have any flowers yet - they will come later. 

Vitis vinifera or grape vine is the plant that gives us wine - here represented by a bottle of wine and a small glass. 

There are a few vines that are very nice garden plants - Vitis vinifera 'Purpurea' and Vitis coignetiae - both vigorous climbers with colourful leaves in the autumn and both produce grapes - but unfortunately not very palatable.

The pattern on the three vintage dinner plates is called 'Vinranka', which is Swedish for 'grapevine'. The pattern was designed by Arthur Percy, a Swedish designer. It depicts grapevine leaves in different sizes as well as grapes and was first shown in 1955. 

A few books about herbs is always handy - finding out how to grow them as well as other interesting facts. I know nowadays you can find all that on the internet - I just happen to be a big book lover. There is just something special about holding a book and flipping through the pages - reading the text and looking at beautiful photographs.

Growing culinary herbs is easy and gives a lot of pleasure - especially like here lavender temporarily in a zinc container. But as soon as I'm done with using them as props I'm going to plant them out in the garden and they will give me enjoyment for years to come.

Titti Malmberg - my 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.

Enjoy your flower arranging and have a fabulous and floral Friday and a great 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.

~ xoxo ~ 

Ingrid

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

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FLOWERS by ingrid and titti - Bouquets of Herbs

The theme for FLOWERS this week is Bouquets of Herbs. 

I think we all love herbs - growing them in the garden or in pots on the window sill, picking them to use in food and drinks, chopping them up and cooking with them - in general herbs are a delight and they will brighten up any dish you create in your kitchen.

Or like here using them as flowers and making lots of pretty little arrangements.

I made myself the challenge to only use herbs when making the bouquets and not using any flowers. Above are some of them all lined up.

The herbs I used in the bouquets are:
- Chives
- Dill
- Mint
- Parsley
- Rosemary
- Sage
- Thyme

In the background - and just for pleasure and not used in the bouquets - are two potted herbs - Lavender with lots of lovely flowers and Thyme.

I really liked the idea of making it all look a bit rustic and I wanted to try to re-cycle as much as possible when styling for the shoot.

So I re-used old jam jars and an old zinc pot, I planted up a weathered terracotta pot and adding some little pebbles from our garden to hide the visible soil in the pot. The garden fork with lovely patina is from the 1930's.

As background I used an old hessian coffee sack from my grandfathers country store and a rag rug woven by my great-grandmother, and I even found my aunts old school writing slate board and wrote 'HERBS' on it.

Conditioned the herbs I did more or less the same as I do with flowers - except that I left a lot of the leaves lower down on the short stems. 

I tied a short piece of different coloured ribbon around each jar but kept the colours to green and grey. The ribbons are from Jane Means ribbon collection. 

When I arranged the herbs in the jars I wanted to have as many different textures as possible - so I happily mixed large leaves with small leaves and added long chives, dill and stems of rosemary for height.

The dill flowers had such a phenomenal texture and so much grace that they got their own little vintage bottle.  

Titti over on HWIT BLOGG is also posting about herbs - so please go over there and have a look at what she is doing.


Here is a link to all the previous FLOWERS Titti and I have done so far.

You can also find all the images on my Pinterest. 

Have a Wonderful floral Day!

I hope you are having a lovely summer!

See you on Friday for 'A Bunch for the Weekend'.

xoxo Ingrid

FLOWERS by ingrid and titti - Edible Flowers

The theme for FLOWERS this week is Edible Flowers. 

I have chosen seven different flowers that are generally accepted as edible - but to be cautious I will say that you should not eat any plants unless you are absolutely certain what they are and that they are OK to eat. Even so you should always look out for any allergic reactions. Any plants or flowers should also only be consumed in small quantities.

Apart from that you can have a lot of fun and do interesting things with pretty edible flowers.

The five flowers above are from top right:

• Marigold or Pot Marigold - Calendula officinalis
• Borage - Borago officinalis
• Thyme - Thymus vulgaris
• Lavender - Lavandula 
• Pinks - Dianthus

The two flowers below are:

• Jasmine - Jasminum officinalis
• Rose - Rosa 'Gertrude Jekyll' 

Using any flowers in food you need to make sure there are no little bugs hiding among the petals - so it might be a good idea to give them a shake and/or a wash - all depending how you are going to use them.

With roses and Dianthus gently pull the petals apart from the centre and cut off any white heel at the base, it tends to be bitter. 

Rose petals have a delicate flavour and can be used in drinks and fruit dishes. You can use them to make jam and jellies. 

Dianthus make colourful garnish to soups, salads, fruit salads and the punch bowl.

Both rose petals and Dianthus petals can be crystallised and used to decorate cakes.   

Borage flowers have this amazing electric blue colour and they have a bit of a cucumber flavour. You can use them as garnish in drinks, salads, soups or desserts. Cut the stem just under the flower and they are ready to use.

Jasmine is traditionally used in jasmine tea and in Oriental rice and shellfish dishes. 

Most edible flowers are beautiful and will make wonderful bouquets - here I have made an arrangement with four of the flowers in an old French mustard pot.

Thyme is a well known culinary herb that has tiny light purple flowers. Thyme leaves can be used in stews, stuffings, marinades, omelettes or scrambled eggs and the leaves and flowers are delicious in Bloody Mary cocktails.

Lavender is another well known herb as well as a beautiful cut flower. There are many ways to use the flowers in both sweet and savoury dishes. 

You can make lavender sugar as well as adding the flowers to biscuits, sorbets, jams and jellies. In France it's often used for desserts, vinegars and in the herb blend herbes de Provence.   

Marigolds/Calendula has a little bit of a spicy or peppery taste. Because of it's colour it's also called "poor man's" saffron.

During my research I found marigold used both in sweet and savoury dishes as well as for decoration on cakes. (In the last image of this blog post is a beautifully decorated cake full of marigold petals.)

Don't confuse it with Tagetes which are also known as marigolds.

You can make really pretty flower ice cubes with all these edible flowers.

Here is one way of making flower ice cubes:

Fill the ice cube tray half full of water and add one or several flowers - they will probably float to the top - which is fine. Freeze for an hour, and then fill the tray to the top with COLD water and immediately put back in the freezer.

When you top up the water you want to use cold water and you want to do it quickly to prevent the first half to defrost - or the flower will float to the top. You want to try to have the flower in the middle of the ice cube - it just looks prettier that way.

Here are some very pretty Pinks or Dianthus as they are also called - just floating in a vintage sugar bowl. Perfect for giving some colour when decorating the table for a summer tea party.

Last year I reviewed a book called Cooking with Flowers by Miche Bacher. It's a beautiful book full of sweet and savoury recipes - all using edible flowers.

Please note - that the Hyacinths in the last image are NOT edible! 

Titti over on HWIT BLOGG is also posting about Edible Flowers - so please go over and see what she has created with her flowers.

Here is a link to all the previous FLOWERS Titti and I have done so far.

You can also find all the images on my Pinterest.

Have a Creative Floral Day!

See you later in the week.

xoxo Ingrid

The Borage flowers are very generously provided by Cel Robertson at the Forever Green Flower Company.

Disclaimer: 

Eat flowers only when you are sure that they are edible and organically grown. Eat only small quantities and be aware of any allergic reactions. Also as always with plants and flowers consider the safety of children and animals.

Florets - Floral Quote - # 57 - by Rachel Ashwell

"Options for flower containers are practically limitless, as long as they hold water. I like to assemble glass jars, cement urns, watering cans, and vintage pitchers, just for a start. I often arrange vases or bowls into interesting collections and group them by color, shape, or materials. Usually, the more stunning the container, the fewer flowers that are needed, which is especially helpful when working on a budget."

~ Rachel Ashwell ~

[Rachel Ashwell: British, based in America, interior designer, stylist, author of seven books and founder of Shabby Chic.]

[Quote from: Shabby Chic: Sumptuous Settings and Other Lovely Things by Rachel Ashwell.]

[Flowers: Blue Freesia and dried Lavender.]

[Vases: Vintage white jugs.]

[Other props: Washi tape, old postcard, vintage wooden stool, colouring pencils, painted wooden board and ribbon by Jane Means.]

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

Have a Great Floral Sunday!

See you next week!

xoxo Ingrid