A Bunch for the Weekend - # 99 - Dark and Moody Flowers

I love and I get really excited when I find two different flowers in the same colour. So when I found tulips and hyacinths in exactly the same colour I was over the moon.

I know, I know - a bit "sad" as our kids would say while they roll their eyes.

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, I 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 last longer and 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.

For the large main arrangement I'm using my good old trusted Savoy vase designed by the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto. It's perfect for this kind of arrangement. It supports the bendy soft stems of both the tulips and the hyacinths.

I have kind of packed them in quite close - which means that they support each other as well.

In the main vase I have left the bulb-bit and the bottom of the stems - as you should do - there is plenty of space in the vase. But in the small side arrangement I did cut the stems as the opening was too tight. 

I also kept as much of the foliage as possible - only removing any damaged leaves. I really love the the contrast between the strong colour of the petals and the bright green pointed leaves of both flowers.

The props that I have used are two different linen clothes or fabrics, a round vintage tray from antique markets. 

The containers that I have used for the side arrangements are both vintage laboratory jars and in the background is a piece of Victorian metal railing from a reclamation yard. 

When you buy flowers next time look for two flowers in matching colour - it gives the whole arrangement a cohesive look. Nothing else was needed for this colourful spring arrangement as the tulips and hyacinths had so much textural and visual interest. 

Enjoy your flower arranging and have a fabulous and floral 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. I'll see you back here then.

Ingrid 

~ xoxo ~

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

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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.

P. S. If you are looking for more floral inspiration you can go over and have a look at my Pinterest boards. I now have just over 12 000 followers and around 200 boards all relating to flowers, flower styling and flower arranging. There are boards on individual flowers and shows how to arrange them. Other boards show different ways of using vases and containers. Simply click on the link below and it will take you straight there.

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

A Bunch for the Weekend - # 96 - Cyclamen, Pittosporum and Holly

In this week's 'A Bunch for the Weekend' I'm featuring Cyclamen, Pittosporum and Holly. It's still midwinter and cut flowers can be difficult to get hold of. So I'm not exactly featuring cut flowers but a version of such..... 

I just wanted to show that flower arrangement doesn't always have to be cut flowers in bright colours. 

 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, I 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 last longer and 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 cyclamens I got as a Christmas present. A huge pot that has been happily flowering away; opening up several flowers every day. So I decided to cut a few and put them in water - where they are still flowering.

The second plant is an unusual Pittosporum called Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Tom Thumb' - a small shrub with foliage flushed with bronze. The foliage changes colour as it matures. 

I planted it not that long ago in our front garden and I had no intention of pruning it yet. Well, we had a parcel delivery where the guy dropped one of the parcels right on top of the shrub and broke on of the stems. So I had to tidy it up and decided to use the cut stems in an arrangement instead of putting it on the compost heap.  

The third plant is some holly foliage that I got a week before Christmas and it has been sitting outside in the cold so it still looks nice and fresh.

For the four little arrangements I have used laboratory beakers and measuring jars - all bought at on of the many antique markets in London for very little money. 

The three colorful Iittala candle holder has quickly become my favourite candle holders. The knobbly surface reflects the light in such a beautiful way. Also a Christmas present. 

Adding a few little props for colour, texture and variation - a narrow brown satin ribbon, a 2 kg weight from my grandfather's shop back in Sweden and a few type letters the same colour as the ribbon.

I have used flowers and foliage that I already had in or around the house to make up a group of arrangements showing simplicity in colour but still with visual variation and interest.

Enjoy your flower arranging and have a fabulous and floral 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. I'll see you back here then.

Ingrid 

~ xoxo ~

[Styling, photography and 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.

P. S. If you are looking for more floral inspiration you can go over and have a look at my Pinterest boards. I have just over 200 boards all relating to flowers, flower styling and flower arranging. There are boards on individual flowers and shows how to arrange them. Other boards show different ways of using vases and containers. Simply click on the link below and it will take you straight there.

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

A Bunch for the Weekend - # 82 - Pink Hydrangea

It's Hydrangea season and I found some fabulous bright pink Hydrangea with very long stems. Tall flowers are not always easy to arrange. Here is what I did!

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.

I have three quite large, clear glass bottles with quite narrow necks. Tall containers with narrow necks are not always the best proportions for flowers - so they don't get used that often.

Well, here was an opportunity to try them out on my long stemmed Hydrangea.

I wanted to keep the stems as tall as possible - so these old vintage bottles turned out to be perfect. I only had five stems - so I knew I could only put one or two stems in each bottle.

Tall stems demands tall containers - but they also have to sit right in the container. If the neck is too wide you need a lot of stems and as we all know that will end up expensive. 

The heads of the hydrangeas are also rather big - but tall stems, big flower heads and tall containers with narrow necks turned out perfect. 

I will also later dry the flowers - so they will give me even more pleasure over the autumn and winter months. 

A win, win situation! 

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 a floral quote by a well known British stylist, journalist and author . 

Ingrid 

~ xoxo ~

[Styling, photography and 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

A Bunch for the Weekend - # 81 - Pink Freesia

I'm back after the summer break with another 'A Bunch for the Weekend' and this time I'm using a bunch of Freesia in a gorgeous pink colour. 

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.

Freesia is a delight to work with - it's scented, has few leaves to remove, has strong stems, comes in many different pretty colours, it's easy to remove spent flowers and it's long-lasting. 

Freesia often has lots of shorter stems full of little buds. These stems are usually positioned low down on the larger stems so you often need to remove them. 

Instead of putting them straight on the compost heap I sometimes gather them up and put them in a little container and arrange it next to the main vase. 

These buds hardly ever open up but they work as a linear and interesting contrast to the main arrangement.   

I have used a medium sized vintage laboratory jar for the large arrangement. I made a spiralled handtied arrangement this time as I thought the stem would look pretty through the glass jar.

Freesia flowers work very well on their own and you don't really need anything else mixed in with them. Just by themselves they have so much texture, colour and beauty.

Here is a trick for you! 
Freesia flowers open from the bottom and by removing some of the buds on the long arching raceme you can stimulate the opening of buds further down the stem.

I happen to like the long arching stems so I only remove buds on some of the flowers to encourage more buds to flower.   

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

Thank you for visiting 'Of Spring and Summer' - I will be back on Sunday with a new 'Florets' - this time it's a floral quote from Selina Lake's latest book called Botanical Style. It was published just a few months ago and has quickly become one of my favourite books for floral inspiration for the home.

Ingrid 

~ xoxo ~

[Images and 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