Autumn Table Wreath by Sarah Raven

Today on Floral Media I'm wanted to show you this real showstopper autumn table wreath by Sarah Raven. She has used many of my favourite colours that are around at this time of year.

I featured this video back in 2014 - but I like it so much I thought it deserves a second viewing - same video but I've written all new text this time. Enjoy!



Sarah's choice of plants are an unusual mix of scented pelargonium foliage, hydrangea flowers and seed heads, hawthorn berries and Chinese lanterns. There are also some unusual little surprises such as ornamental cucumbers and strawberry popcorn. 

In the middle are five flame coloured candles picking up all the colours in the wreath. Sarah has used an oasis base so both spent flowers and candles can be replaced which means that the whole centerpiece will last well into the holiday season. 

Floral Media - How to Make a Scented Narcissi Centrepiece by Sarah Raven

Why not make a scented floral centrepiece for a large side table in the dining room or a big table in your hall. Here in this Youtube video Sarah Raven shows you how to make a stunning arrangement for the holiday.



This is what Sarah says herself about her 'Narcissi Centrepiece': "Perfect for Christmas or winter parties and weddings, this centrepiece is one of Sarah's family traditions passed down through the years. Made from twigs of silver birch and forced indoor narcissi, this centrepiece is stunning at the entrance or on a large table."

The video is just over 7 min long and in it Sarah takes you through each step and talks about the plants she is using.

*****

Here is a little bit about Sarah in case you have missed my previous posts with her videos:

Sarah Raven is well known in the UK for presenting gardening programs on television, writing lots of books about gardening, plants and cooking, teaching floral workshops and flower arranging courses, giving talks and demonstrations and also for being an enormously successful business women running a plant, seed and gardening internet business.

I hope you'll enjoyed the short video with Sarah.

*****

Thank you for visiting 'Of Spring and Summer - I will be back on Wednesday with some more floral delights. Hope to see you then. 

Ingrid 

~ xoxo ~

[Text © Ingrid Henningsson/Of Spring and Summer.]

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 and an email will come right into your inbox.

For more floral inspiration you can follow me on:

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Floral Media - Sublime Dark Dahlia Flower Arrangement with Sarah Raven

Sarah Raven shows you how to make one of her wild and beautiful flower arrangements. She is using contrasting colours and tall fillers to give impact to the arrangement.  



The video is just over 11 min long and in it Sarah takes you through each step and talks about the flowers including the botanical names.

Here is a little bit about Sarah in case you have missed my previous posts with her videos:

Sarah Raven is well known in the UK for presenting gardening programs on television, writing lots of books about gardening and plants, teaching floral workshops and flower arranging courses, giving talks and demonstrations and also for being an enormously successful business women running a plant, seed and gardening internet business.

I hope you've enjoyed the short video with Sarah.

Thank you for visiting 'Of Spring and Summer - I will be back on Wednesday with some more floral delights. Hope to see you then. 

Ingrid 

~ xoxo ~

[Text © Ingrid Henningsson/Of Spring and Summer.]

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 and an email will come right into your inbox.

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

Floral Media - Sarah Raven's - How to Make an Autumn Wreath

Sarah Raven shows you how to make an Autumn Wreath, from start to finish. A lovely way to decorate your home in the glorious season.

Here is another brilliant video by Sarah Raven where she makes an autumn wreath that she then uses as a centerpiece with candles in the middle. She starts with a pre-made round shape that she adds autumn flowers, seed pods and foliage.

It will work for a big dining table, coffee table or hall table. She gives very good instruction on how to do it in the video - so I feel there is no need for me to repeat it in writing. 

I love sharing these videos in case you have not seen them before - so watch the video and try to make your own! 

Here is a little bit about Sarah in case you have missed my previous posts with her videos:

Sarah Raven is well known in the UK for presenting gardening programs on television, writing lots of books about gardening and plants, teaching floral workshops and flower arranging courses, giving talks and demonstrations and also for being an enormously successful business women running a plant, seed and gardening internet business.

Have a Great Floral Day and enjoy your flower arranging!

I will be back later in the week with more floral delights from Of Spring and Summer.

Ingrid

~ xoxo ~

[Text © Ingrid Henningsson/Of Spring and Summer.]

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

Floral Media - Floral Spring Centrepiece by Sarah Raven

Here is another brilliant video by Sarah Raven where she is making a spring centerpiece using a grid to help the flowers stay in position in the bowl. It will work for a big dining table, coffee table or hall table. She gives very good instruction on how to do it in the video - so I feel there is no need for me to repeat by writing it all down in the blog post. 

I love sharing these videos in case you have not seen them before - so watch the video and try to make your own! 

Here is a little bit about Sarah in case you have missed my previous posts with her videos:

Sarah Raven is well known in the UK for presenting gardening programs on television, writing lots of books about gardening and plants, teaching floral workshops and flower arranging courses, giving talks and demonstrations and also for being an enormously successful business women running a plant, seed and gardening internet business.

Have a Great Floral Day and enjoy your flower arranging!

I will be back later in the week with more floral delights from Spring and Summer.

Ingrid

~ xoxo ~

You can also find me on:

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

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

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

Floral Media: Cosmos Summer Flower Arrangement with Sarah Raven

I have the pleasure to present another brilliant little video with Sarah Ravens from her vast repertoire of videos. 

This time its a summer arrangement where she's using white Cosmos 'Purity' as her main flower.

She is also using Ammi majus and Gaura 'The Bride' - amongst other favourite flower varieties. The whole arrangement has a 'just picked from the roadside' feel to it. Its big and loose - perfect for a summer lunch table.

Here is a little bit about Sarah in case you have missed my previous posts about her:

Sarah Raven is well known in the UK for presenting gardening programs on television, writing lots of books about gardening and plants, teaching floral workshops and flower arranging courses, giving talks and demonstrations and also for being an enormously successful business women running a plant, seed and gardening internet business.

Have a Great Floral Day!

I will be back next week with more floral delights.

~ xoxo ~

Ingrid

You can also find me on:

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

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

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

Floral Media - How to Make a Summer Wreath with Sarah Raven

Hello everyone! I am slowly getting back to posting on my blog even though the work on the house and garden will carry on for a while longer. You know how it is - work always takes longer than planned.

I would like to start with presenting a short video with Sarah Raven creating a fabulous giant summer wreath. If you don't have room for such a large wreath you can make a smaller one using the same flowers.

Sarah Raven shows us how to make a huge summer wreath using a large ring of floral foam and an abundance of summer flowers.

Sarah Raven is well known in the UK for presenting gardening programs on television, writing lots of books about gardening and plants, teaching floral workshops and flower arranging courses, giving talks and demonstrations and also for being an enormously successful business women running a plant, seed and gardening internet business.

Have a Great Floral Day!

I will be back next week with more floral delights.

~ xoxo ~

Ingrid

You can also find me on:

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

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

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

A Bunch for the Weekend - # 45 - Little Pretty Spring Tulips

This week on 'A Bunch for the Weekend' - I'm featuring an unusual little tulips. I think they are Tulipa 'Carnaval de Nice' - but I'm not absolutely sure. These are quite small and usually 'Carnaval de Nice' look the same but are twice the size. So it is an educated guess! 

You'll need:

- 10 stems of tulips

- 10 small twigs of Pittosporum foliage

- two clear glass containers - I have used a recycled jar and a small low glass bowl

- a small amount of raffia

- green and white baker's twine, three light green vintage jugs and some black beads

For conditioning the flowers - you'll also need:

- a pair of florists scissors

- a florist bucket filled with fresh water

Condition the flowers by removing any leaves that would end up below the water line in the vase. This is to reduce any growth of bacteria from deteriorating leaves. Also remove any broken or bruised leaves.

Cut the stems at an angle - this is to increase water absorption.  

Put in a clean container with fresh water and leave in a cool, dark place over night or at least for a few hours, to let the flowers absorb the maximum of water, before making the final arrangement.

You might have to re-cut the stems while making the final arrangement to suit the size of the vase or container and to get the right proportions.

I made a very small spiralled handtied bouquet and tied some natural raffia around the stems to hold the bouquet together.

Here is a link to a video where florists Mark Welford and Stephen Wicks show you how to do a handtied bunch.

Then there is always Sarah Raven's way of doing things a little bit different - here is a link to a post where I featured her video.

It does take a little bit of practice to do a spiralled handtied - but flowers looks just as good just simply arranged in a vase - so whatever way you do it the end-result will be good.

  

Bright spring double tulips and fresh green variegated spring foliage - maybe not your most traditional or expected combination. 

The two tulips in the little bowl are two flowers that broke while making the bouquet and I didn't have the heart to just throw them away - so I made a separate little arrangement on the side. 

On the side is a roll of bakers' green and white twine and in the back are three pastel green vintage jugs - colours that are picked up in the foliage and the black beads echoes the black stamens in the tulips.

I chose to use clear glass for containers as the flowers and the foliage had enough wild variegated colours and I liked seeing the spiralled stems through the glass.

This is very much a spring bouquet and I would love to hear what you think. Love it or maybe not?   

Have a Happy Floral Saturday and Enjoy Your Weekend!

~ xoxo ~

Ingrid

[Styling and Photography © Ingrid Henningsson for Of Spring and Summer]

Sarah Raven - How to Create a Christmas Wreath Vase Centrepiece

I have featured Sarah Raven many times before - but if you have missed my previous posts - here is some background information about Sarah. 

To begin with Sarah trained as a doctor, then as a florist before becoming a gardener, a BBC Gardner's World presenter, a teacher, the writer of many both gardening and cookbooks and she also runs her own business. I have done some of her workshops and I can tell you she's also a lovely lady and lots of fun.

Here is a brand new video where Sarah is showing you how to create a Christmas wreath vase centre piece for the table. As usual she is using a few different and exciting ingredients. The wreath also has a lot of colour and will work for both Christmas and any New Year festivities.

This wreath has beautiful combinations of plants and foliage and I think its just lovely - I hope you like it too!

Have a Lovely Floral Friday and a Great Weekend!

See you next week!

~ xoxo ~

Ingrid

Sarah Raven - How to Make a Stunning Autumn Table Wreath

Sarah Raven is one of my favourite gardeners. To begin with Sarah trained as a doctor, then as a florist before becoming a gardener, a BBC Gardner's World presenter, a teacher, the writer of many both gardening and cookbooks and she runs her own business. I have done some of her workshops and I can tell you she's also a lovely lady and lots of fun.

In this brand new video Sarah is showing you how to make a wreath for the table - and she is using some new and exciting ingredients. The wreath has both a lot of colour and will work for the whole festive season - so start making plans!





I love the combination of plants and foliage in this wreath and I hope you like it too!

Have a Lovely Floral Friday and a Great Weekend!

~ xoxo ~

Ingrid

PS. I'll be back with 'A Bunch for the Weekend' next week - I'm just having a little mini break.

A Bunch for the Weekend - # 10 - Alchemilla and Astrantia

'A Bunch for the Weekend' - this week is a bunch of Alchemilla mollis and Astrantia major 'Ruby Wedding'. It's the combination of the ruby coloured Astrantia against the almost acid green small frothy Alchemilla flowers - that I find have an interesting texture and colour combination. 

I'm walking in the footsteps of Christopher Lloyd and Sarah Raven here - both fans of the 'unsafe' colour combinations. Both have written books on the subject - Sarah's The Bold and Brilliant Garden and the late Christopher Lloyd's book Colour for Adventurous Gardeners are books that explores the more unusual colour combinations. 

The flowers are from my garden and I used a vintage apothecary jar as a vase. I tied a short Jane Means gingham ribbon in green and white around the top.

There are quite a few stems - 12 stems of Alchemilla and 14 of the Astrantia. I conditioned the flowers as usual by removing all lower leaves that would end up below the waterline in the vase and cutting all stems at an angle before putting them in a clean vase with fresh water preferably over night.

The unusual colours make it look really fresh and lively - perfect for a hot summers day. 

Have a Perfect Floral Friday and a Great Weekend!

See you again on Sunday for another Floral Quote.

xoxo Ingrid

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

    

Floral Media - # 19 - Floral Links

Link to Linda Lomelino's blog - one of my favourite Swedish food bloggers and her amazing food photography. 

Floral and gardening trends and events in 2014 - some new and exciting things happening in the flower world this spring.

The French artist Aurore Janon gentle floral water colours are beautiful. She studied at  Ecole des Beaux Arts de Paris and now lives in the North of France.

A charming farmers' market in Sydney, Australia - via Minna Mercke Schmidt and her blog Blomsterverkstad.

Indoor potted plants are becoming more and more popular Erin Boyle at Gardenista asked The Sill - to give us their ten top tips on how to look after houseplants.  

The gardener, TV presenter, author of many gardening and cook books - Sarah Raven - picks her Top Ten Dahlias. 

It was Tulip Day in Sweden on the 15 January marking the beginning of of the tulips season. Have a look at this fun little video at what happened at Malmö train station in Sweden on Tulip Day.

[Styling and photography 1. © Linda Lomelino, 2. © Aurore Janon, 3. © Minna Mercke Schmidt, 4. © The Sill.]

Have a Lovely Floral Monday!

Back soon!

xoxo Ingrid

Ink Bottle Vases from Sarah Raven

I'm sure that old vintage ink bottles were the inspiration for these pretty little ink bottle vases from Sarah Raven. They come in two colours and two shapes; blue or green, rectangular or round.

I love vintage ink bottles and I have a whole collection of little blue bottles in my windowsill. I use them all the time and they look so wonderful when the light shines through them.

I've featured part of my collection many times on Of Spring and Summer. They are an old favourite of mine to use for little miniature flower arrangements. Have a look at some here & here. Here are also some green bottles of mine and these little blue ones are very cute.

Both the blue and the green colours are great and perfect for small arrangements. I made two very simple arrangements with green pompom Chrysanthemums. The stems were cut short and made into little tight domes. 

To raise them up a bit and make them a bit more of a feature I put them on two painted blocks of wood from Craftshapes and I wrapped some floral washi tape around the cubes. The brown and blue tapes are from What You Sow. The green multi patterned tape is from a company called Washi Tapes.

In the last image I added some vintage baubles - it's soon Christmas after all and some of these bottles from Sarah Raven would make perfect Christmas presents.

The little piece of fabric is a curious thing. It is a blanket sample from my grandparents country store back in Sweden.
The costumer would pick a colour and their order would be sent off.

I am part of Sarah Raven's affiliate program and make a small commission from any sales.

Thank you very much to Alissa at Sarah Raven's office for sending me the items to review.
  

Have a wonderful day!

Thanks for visiting and I'll see you back here very soon.

xoxo Ingrid

Sarah Raven - It's a Wrap

I have been a big fan of Sarah Raven ever since I did a workshop with her at The English Gardening School back in 2001. By that time she had already written two books, The Cutting Garden and The Bold & Brilliant Garden. Two books that have been part of my garden library ever since they were published.

Since then she has written several cookbooks as well as books on vegetable growing and cutting gardens. She writes a regular gardening column on Saturdays for The Daily Telegraph and was a presenter on BBC Gardeners' World for many years. 

Her latest book was called Wildflowers; all about celebrating British wild flowers.

Sarah is married to the author Adam Nicolson, grandson of novelist Vita Sackville-West, who with her husband Harold Nicolson created the stunning gardens at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent.

       

Sara lives with her family at Perch Hill Farm in East Sussex,  where she runs courses on food & cooking, floristry &  flowers, wildlife, gardening and growing vegetables.

Sarah also has an on-line shop where she sells seeds, plants, bulbs and lots of other things for the garden and the home.

This beautiful floral wrapping paper is from her shop. The stunning photography of the flowers is by Jonathan Buckley, who also does all the photography for the Sarah Raven catalogue. 

These coloured luggage tags are also from Sarah's on-line shop. They come in five different colours so you can colour coordinate your presents.

I customised the tags by adding washi tape and using rubber stamp lettering. Perfect for Christmas as it is a quick and easy way to make it individual and unique.  

The lovely flowers are very large heads of Chrysanthemums in a gorgeous dusky pink. I arranged them in a light blue 1930's vase with deep ridges on the outside.

I am part of Sarah Raven's affiliate program and make a small commission from any sales.

Thank you very much to Alissa at Sarah Raven's office for sending me the items to review. 

Have a lovely day!

Thank you for visiting and I will see you back here soon.

xo Ingrid