Florets - Floral Quote - # 161 - by Willow Crossley

'Florets - Floral Quote' is a series of blog posts where I feature quotes by authors - mostly well known - but you will also find some obscure ones.

All the authors have written one or several books about flowers, green plants, gardening, interior styling or interior design. Many are experts in their field but what is the most important is that they are all passionate about flowers and plants.

I love books and in my ever growing library I look for quotes that I hope will be both inspiring and be useful while arranging flowers or green plants in your home.

"You often see amaryllis potted in containers or baskets or extravagant cut flowers in vases, but I prefer to grow them in old pickle jars, as shown here. I think that gives them a botanical chic, rather like turning them into a museum specimen for you to watch growing taller and taller until they flower.

Amaryllis always seem to fall over under their own weight, but these jars act as a support from every angle, which makes them practical as well as beautiful. Curiously amaryllis don't really need soil - just a tiny trickle of water every so often will do, to keep the roots wet."

~ Willow Crossley ~  

[Willow Crossley: British, Oxfordshire based florist, designer, journalist, founder of online business Willow Rose Boutique and author of two books. Inspire (2014) and Flourish (2016).]

[Quote from: Inspire by Willow Crossley. Published by Cico Books.]

[Flowers: Maidenhair fern.]

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

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.]