Happy Christmas!

I would like to wish everybody a wonderful and very

 Happy Holiday!

God Jul!

Happy Christmas!

Season's Greetings!

All the best and lots of love!

xoxo Ingrid

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

A Bunch for the Weekend - # 87 - White Pinks, Statice and Eucalyptus

This week I'm featuring white Pinks, Statice and Eucalyptus - a lovely combination of white and purple flowers with the addition grey-green foliage.

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 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.

The bright, white Pinks are almost luminous especially in contrast with the darker purple colour of the Statice.

I would very much here like to give Cel Robertson the credit she deserves for creating this combination of flowers. She has planted and grown them on her organic flower farm in Norfolk called Forever Green Flower Company. She then combines the flowers into bouquets and sells them at farmers' markets in London and elsewhere.

All I did was to buy two bunches from her at our local farmers' market and combine them into one big bouquet. 

I also made a smaller side bouquet with the white Pinks on their own in a vintage silver plated cream jug.

I like the shape and simplicity of these scissors - but oh, my dear are they uncomfortable - if you use them a lot. They don't stay sharp however often you sharpen them and the metal  dig into your hands. I would never recommend them to be used for any frequent work with flowers. I'm just featuring them here as a prop.

I apologise for being negative and critical about a very humble pair of scissors - I'm usually not negative and critical about things I feature on my blog because I like to show things I like. 

This on the other hand is one of my favourite brands - Marimekko. I have things that I bought in Sweden as a teenager and I'm still using them - shirts, bags, cushion covers and tablecloths. Quite amazing considering that it's quite a few years ago. 

Surrounding the flowers and combining them with a few black and white props has worked well - fabrics, scissors, bowl, basket and a few pieces of jewelry.

I have used a large vintage pickling jar as a vase. These clear glass, very plain straight sided pickling jars has become one of my favourite containers to use for flowers. They just seem to go with most blooms and don't take anything away from the flowers.

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

You might wonder where I've been - I had to take a short unscheduled break last week for personal reasons - but all is well and I'm now back to my usual blogging.

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

Ingrid 

~ xoxo ~

[Styling, photography and text © Ingrid Henningsson/Of Spring and Summer.]
[All flowers and foliage from Forever Green Flower Company.]

P. S. Did you know that you can subscribe to receive a notification via email whenever I have a new blog post. Just fill in your email address at the top of my blog on the right.

For more floral inspiration you can follow me on:

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A Bunch for the Weekend - # 85 - Hydrangea and Eucalyptus

I know that I have featured a lot of Hydrangeas lately - but what's a girl to do? A major weakness for hydrangeas? Well, that might be an understatement.... so here we go again....!

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 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.

These beautifully coloured hydrangeas has a delicate mix of light pink and equally light green petals.

As a little bit of a contrast colour I added some muted grey green Eucalyptus foliage.

In the background is a small 'side vase' with a very, very delicate grass called Panicum. 

I have also made some napkin rings by simply tying a thin ribbon around a folded napkin and then stuck some sprigs of eucalyptus and hydrangea under the ribbon.

The ribbons are from Jane Means' ribbon collection. It's a narrow stitched grosgrain with pink stitching along the middle.

On the little foot stool are two Marimekko Iittala Kivi tea light holders. These two are in clear glass but they come in many different beautiful colours.

The other tealight holder is from Georg Jensen it's called Bloom and is made of stainless steel. I love the simplicity of the shape and the silver colour.

The painting in the background is by my dear and very talented sister-in-law Amy Trachtenberg.

Hydrangeas are only with us for a little bit longer - enjoy them while you can....!

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 floral quote by someone passionate about flowers. 

Ingrid 

~ xoxo ~

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

[Ribbons from Jane Means' ribbon collection. I am part of Jane Means' Ribbon Bloggers Team - who on a regular bases feature Jane's ribbons.]

P. S. Did you know that you can subscribe to receive a notification via email whenever I have a new blog post. Just fill in your email address at the top of my blog on the right.

For more floral inspiration you can follow me on:

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

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

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

A Bunch for the Weekend - # 11 - Ammi majus

'A Bunch for the Weekend' - this week is a single stem of Ammi majus. I love the white frothy look of Ammi majus - it's similar to cowparsley - but is more delicate and longer lasting. I also like the simplicity and graphic contrast with the black and white Marimekko bowl that I used as a vase.

Obviously it's extremely quick and easy to condition - remove all leaves - as they die more quickly than the flowers - cut the stem at an angle and just long enough for the umbels to rest on the edge of the bowl.

You could also create a more romantic or cottage garden look by putting the flowers in some pretty teacups and arrange them in a group on a table.

Another idea would be to make little arrangement in small jars and line them up in the middle of a dinner table as a central arrangement. Or place them at each table setting for the guests to enjoy. 

Have wonderful Floral Friday!

See you again on Sunday for the weekly floral quote.

xoxo Ingrid

FLOWERS by ingrid and titti - Romantic Roses

This week on FLOWERS Titti and I have chosen the theme Romantic Roses. This time of year it will be plenty of roses in flower. Or so we thought but the weather in Sweden has been a bit cold and Titti told me that roses were in short supply in her garden and here in London we have had quite a lot of rain. Cold and rain is not the best conditions for roses. So when I went out in my garden to see what was available - I was met by very sad, soggy and brown edged flowers that was not at all ready for the camera.......! 

In the end I did find a few - like this little beauty called Rosa 'Ferdinand Pichard'. It's a little bit of an unusual rose - no two flowers are ever alike. It's pale pink with crimson stripes and splashes all over the petals and has a wonderful strong and sweet scent.

What I also did find was plenty of peonies and I decided to mix in a few with the roses. I think they are at least as romantic as roses and they didn't seem to have minded the British weather. This one is called Peony 'Sarah Bernhardt' - named after the French stage and screen actress.

As a contrast to all the romantic flowers I have used clear glass laboratory containers, beakers, jars and measuring jugs. All vintage and the clear glass nicely shows off the stems.
    

I found two other roses on my local rounds  - this one called 'Blue Pacific' - it has a light lilac colour but no scent. It's used a lot in bridal bouquets - so it fitted right in with our romantic theme.

  

The last rose is a little white spray rose - it has tinges of green on the edges of some the petals and I think its lovely.

The painting in the background in a lot of the images is by my dear sister-in-law Amy Trachtenberg.

In contrast with the romantic theme I added a few black props - a book with a black cover, three vintage knives with black handles, a black Jane Means ribbon tied around the knives, a small metal tin, some black dice, black and white bakers' twine and a small Marimekko bowl. 

  

This last image is of one of my favourite flowers at the moment - but my favourite changes with every season - this is just common cow parsley. 

Titti over on HWIT BLOGG will also be posting about Romantic Roses so please go over and have a look at what she has done.

Here is a link to all the previous FLOWERS Titti and I have done over the last six months. 

You can also see all the images on my Pinterest.

Have a Wonderful Floral Day!

See you later in the week.

xoxo Ingrid

Florets - Floral Quote - # 66 - by Rachel Ashwell

" Farmer's markets, fields, gardens, meadows, nurseries, and flower marts in major cities are prime locations for finding quality fresh flowers. Farmer's markets are my choice, as they are so accessible and usually offer a mishmash of meadow and field flowers that look less cultivated than flowers from the other outlets. Large bunches can be purchased for anywhere from two to ten dollars. City flower marts are usually restricted to those with wholesale accounts, so unless you have a connection, they can be frustrating to use. I try to avoid hothouse flowers because they tend to look too artificial. Small imperfections and slight irregularities give flowers a more individual, natural look."

~ Rachel Ashwell ~ 

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

[Quote from: Shabby Chic by Rachel Ashwell.]

[Flowers: Pink Alstromeria, Orlaya grandiflora, white Nigella and white Phlox.]

[All flowers from: Forever Green Flower Company.]

[Vase: Vintage zinc vase.]

[Other props: 'Vintage' Marimekko fabric, French linen sheet and painted wooden board.]

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

Have a Great Floral Sunday!

See you next week!

xoxo Ingrid