Florets - Floral Quote - # 130 - by Jane Packer

"You don't need tons of flowers to dress a kitchen, and you certainly don't need showstopping arrangements. Instead, fill the kitchen with simple, unpretentious flowers that you can enjoy every day. The best thing about flowers in the kitchen is that they can be relaxed and informal; this is not a traditional spot for floral displays, so no-one has any expectations. This gives you lots of leeway to play with fruit and berries as well as flowers - think rosehips and chilli peppers, or a huge bowl of artichokes with their intriguing furry textures. You don't need to buy flowers - if you have a garden, bring in flowers, foliage or blossom-strewn boughs. Trailing lengths of ivy can be used to decorate a long table, while branches of apple blossom look striking in a tall vase."

~ Jane Packer ~

[Jane Packer: (1959-2011) British florist and founder of Jane Packer Flowers and flower school and author of thirteen books.]

[Quote from: At Home with Flowers by Jane Packer (2011).]

[Plants: Trailing ivy from my garden in London, picked in the month of November and pinecones.]

[Container: Vintage pressed glass compote bowl.]

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

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

Thank you for visiting 'Of Spring and Summer' - I will be back tomorrow Monday with another 'Floral Media'. 

Ingrid 

~ xoxo ~

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

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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.]

FLOWERS by ingrid x titti - Christmas!

Welcome to the first FLOWERS by ingrid and titti.

In my introduction to our collaboration last week I talked about that both Titti and I are Swedish - but I live in the middle of London and Titti lives on this beautiful island called Öland in the Baltic Sea on the East Coast of Sweden. 

Titti and I found each other through the blogging world - we both love working with flowers, we are both photographers and we are both very excited about our new collaboration.

I also introduced you to Titti's blog HWIT BLOGG that she has been writing since 2010 and here is her introduction to me and my blog.

The new column will have a different theme each time; this first one is Christmas and we chose to do two different arrangements.

The first arrangement is very much about colour and dramatic contrasts. I have simply used several branches of Ilex verticillata - a particular kind of holly that produces bright red berries on bare stems in the winter. The two containers I have used as vases are - a large clear glass vintage apothecary jar and a new red miniature bud vase.

To add to the festive holiday mood I have used a fabric with red dots, black and white baker's twine, some red and silver baubles in a Marimekko bowl and three traditional Danish felt Christmas tree decorations on a red ribbon.  

Round red berries against a fabric with almost the same size red dots makes a fun and interesting composition.

The second arrangement is more about using natural materials. I made a very primitive wreath from dried Clematis cuttings; I have also used moss, pine cones and dried orange slices.

Some other lovely props that I have used are some white honeycomb paper pompoms and for a touch of copper - a Swedish antique pot filled with pine cones.

I have to admit that I cheated when it comes to my little tulip arrangement. It looks like I have planted some tulips in a terracotta pot - but it is in fact three cut tulip flowers that sits in a small container of water inside the pot. I finished it off by adding some green moss around the flowers. 

Here is a link to Titti's - HWIT BLOGG - so you can go and have a look at what she has done. 

I hope you will enjoy our first FLOWERS by ingrid x titti.

Have a Wonderful Floral Day!

See you soon!

xoxo Ingrid