FLOWERS by ingrid & titti - Frilly Carnations

Carnations - are often thought of as a cheep, ordinary and out of favour flower. For years you were able to buy them at petrol stations and supermarkets - it's also often used as a funeral flower.

So that doesn't sound like a good beginning - does it? 

Well, the carnation has a rather distinguish past - Shakespeare mentions it in The Winter's Tale and painters like Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Durer often featured carnations in their paintings. Later on Dutch flower painters used them alongside highly prized flowers like tulips and roses. 

Carnations are, according to some top florists going through a revival at the moment.

On the plus side - lets mention that they are cheep, comes in all kinds of colours, are tough and easy to handle and can last for up to three weeks - not bad for such a common flower.
   
Weeks ago Titti and I had decided that we wanted to feature carnations in our next FLOWERS post.

What happened next was that I actually had some difficulty finding carnations - you wouldn't have thought so as I live in the middle of London and have access to dozens of florists and flower stalls just in my area!

The local florists and stall holders told me that they don't stock carnations for the simple reason - nobody buys them.

I'm not one to be beaten that easy - so I decided to get up at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning and head down to Covent Garden Flower Market.

Surely they will have every flower you can think of there.....  

Yes and no - there are hundreds of different flowers - but I really had to hunt around for carnations. In the end I had to ask and only three wholesale flower sellers had any - out of about thirty and then in a very limited amount of colours.

I found some pink multi-coloured carnation flowers that I packed tightly into two pastel blue vintage jugs. I think it's quite fun how the pattern on the fabric echoes the fluffy shape of the flowers.  

I also found some in a darker, richer pink that I put in some old weathered garden pots. I wanted a rough surface  to contrast with the frilly edged carnations.

As these are outdoor pots with drainage holes in the bottom of the pot - I arranged the flowers in a smaller glass container and put it inside the larger one.  

Again packed tightly in the container and again just by themselves - not mixed with any other flowers or foliage. I wanted it to be a solid block of colour to contrast with the container.

How can we have a carnation revival if they are so hard to get hold of? 

What do you think of carnations - love them or leave them?
Are they available to buy where you live? I would love to know.

The other half of FLOWERS - the multi-talented Titti Malmberg over on HWIT BLOGG is also featuring carnations on her blog today. So why not go over there and have a look at what she has created with her carnations.

Here is a link to all of Titti's and my previous FLOWERS posts. 

Have a Wonderful Floral Day! 

See you back here very soon!

xoxo Ingrid