FLOWERS by ingrid and titti - Lovely Herbs

Titti and I are back, after a summer break, with another FLOWERS. This time it's all about herbs and other related things.

Herbs are such a pleasure to work with, to grow in the garden, to add to your cooking and to drink as herbal teas. 

Lavender is both lovely to grow as a plant in the garden but can also be added to both sweet and savory recipes. It can also be used dried in little sachets to scent your cupboards.  

We might not think of hops as a herb but it's used for making beer. I grow it in my garden, not for making beer, but for it being a great and very fast climber. 

My favourite is one called Humulus lupulus 'Aureus', I love saying that name, it kind of rolls off the tongue. It's also called Golden Hops - because of the colour of the leaves. Every season it grows several meters. so you need to give it lots of space. You cut it down every autumn and it then starts growing again in the spring. 

Dried flowers stems can be used for decorating, both as swags and for table decorations.

Here I have used the fresh stems and leaves as table decorations. They will wilt after a couple of hours depending how hot it is. I couldn't resist them - they are so pretty with lots of colour and texture. 

These stems doesn't have any flowers yet - they will come later. 

Vitis vinifera or grape vine is the plant that gives us wine - here represented by a bottle of wine and a small glass. 

There are a few vines that are very nice garden plants - Vitis vinifera 'Purpurea' and Vitis coignetiae - both vigorous climbers with colourful leaves in the autumn and both produce grapes - but unfortunately not very palatable.

The pattern on the three vintage dinner plates is called 'Vinranka', which is Swedish for 'grapevine'. The pattern was designed by Arthur Percy, a Swedish designer. It depicts grapevine leaves in different sizes as well as grapes and was first shown in 1955. 

A few books about herbs is always handy - finding out how to grow them as well as other interesting facts. I know nowadays you can find all that on the internet - I just happen to be a big book lover. There is just something special about holding a book and flipping through the pages - reading the text and looking at beautiful photographs.

Growing culinary herbs is easy and gives a lot of pleasure - especially like here lavender temporarily in a zinc container. But as soon as I'm done with using them as props I'm going to plant them out in the garden and they will give me enjoyment for years to come.

Titti Malmberg - my Swedish based collaborator - who I work alongside on FLOWERS - also has a new post on her blog HWIT BLOGG - so please follow the link and go over and see what she has created.

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 Florets - a floral quote by someone passionate about flowers.

~ xoxo ~ 

Ingrid

[Styling, text 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.]

Florets - Floral Quote by Rachel de Thame

The transient nature of dazzling autumn colour is a great part of its appeal. You cannot expect to capture something so beautiful and ephemeral, and the inescapable fact that it will never again appear quite the same is somehow reassuring. Seize the moment, look long and hard, commit the view to memory, take a photograph - for the resplendent scene you see today may be gone tomorrow.

~ Rachel de Thame ~ 

[Rachel de Thame - British gardener, author of three books, Gardener's World presenter and designer of the flowers for The Royal Barge at Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant in 2012.]

[Quote: from Rachel de Thame's Top 100 Star Plants.]

[Flowers: Dahlia 'Arabian Night', Hydrangea paniculata 'Limelight' and grapes from Vitis vinifera.]

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