I am lucky enough to work in an amazing flower shop, which means I have my pick of compost-bound blooms to play with at home (and, if I'm honest, on my break at work- 2 minutes to eat, the rest of the time to arrange flowers & snap photos. All together now: Nerd!). Though I have access to particularly gorgeous, if past-their-prime, specimens, the thing I've learned is you don't need to have a lot or spend a lot to make a lovely bouquet...
A friend of mine recently moved to rural Maine to work on a charming farm full of baby goats, winter greens, fresh-baked breads, and handmade cheese, so I made her a going-away bouquet. I've never been to Maine, but this arrangement is what I imagine it's like: plush-green rolling meadows perfect for frolicking goats, delicate woodland blossoms, and early-flowering trees, so welcome after all that snow. Did I get close? I'll just have to go see for myself, I suppose.
- The moss was shriveled and brown, but I soaked it upside-down in a bowl of water for a few hours and it perked right up. Moss that looks dead is often simply thirsty, and a daily spritz (after the initial soak) can keep it lush & emerald. Have I mentioned I love mosses?
- The almond twigs were snapped from a much-larger branch- most of the branch had already flowered and gone leafy, but there were still a few twigs ready to burst into blossom- and even if they don't, I always love the look of springy buds. If you have flowering trees on your property (or generous neighbors), you don't have to cut off entire branches to force indoors. Just snip a few likely-looking twigs and bring them into the warm house, and spring will come a bit earlier for you.
- The berries are viburnum, and one of my new obsessive loves. I have yet to capture their amazing color in a photo- they are deepest blue, silver, steel, robin's egg blue, black, and pearlescent all at once. I hear that birds love them- can you blame them? The leaves on these viburnum branches had turned brown so I plucked them all off, and though the berries had started to shrivel just the tiniest bit, I knew they had a couple good days left in them. Even after the berries dry, they're still rather handsome, a rich complex black.
- As for this white flower...I don't know what it is. Do you? I still have so, so much to learn in the world of flowers, and assume I always will have so much to learn! It's exciting. This prettiness started as a pyramid-shaped arrangement of buds which gradually opened, revealing their darling green centers. By the time I took it home, most of the flowers had bloomed and fallen off, but the remaining ones were perfect. Any delicate little spring flowers would do- I like the look of blossoms scattered across a field..
- My favorite (and only, come to think of it!) vase was a birthday gift years ago, and was made by White Bike Ceramics. It is a perfect object. I had it for three years, displayed in a place of honor, before I worked up the nerve to put water and flowers in it. Now that I have, I love it even more- the matte black gives even the sweetest posies an element of glamour, and the small opening (about 1.5-inches diameter) means that only a few flowers are needed to fill it. Perfect!
Tomorrow: Bits & Pieces Bouquet : Love Is Colorblind
Images: Tess Wilson
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Gorgeous!
The composition is really beautiful and I love the all Viburnum family. A huge family with so incredibly interesting an varied species. But for a present I'd never use second choice/well past their prime materials. Maybe is just me.
I'm from Maine and I can tell you it's not a bad representation, but it really changes depending on where in Maine you go. The coast is very different from Southern Maine which is very different from Northern Maine (aka: The County) If you added a few long-needled evergreen boughs it'd be just a bit closer to what I'm familiar with in the Central Maine region.
There's a lot of color up here. You won't regret it if you visit, but if you go any time before late-May or June and any time after October you'll have to deal with some of Maine's less pleasant weather: mud season and winter.
The white flower is Ornithogalum arabicum. At the flower shop I work for, we just call it Arabica (another version of ornithogalum or "star of bethlehem"). They're such long lasting flowers - I've gotten three weeks out of them (removing the faded blossoms at the bottom).
There's always a lot to learn with flowers - so many varieities and it can be tough to remember them year to year, when some are very seasonal and you only see them for a few weeks.
Very pretty arrangement, btw! Keep designing with the "leftovers" - it's NOT nerdy and that's such a great way to learn what works and what your style is as a designer. That's one of the ways I learned (along with designing whenever possible and stalking flower design photos and trying to recreate them). I've been a floral designer for twelve years now, and am still learning and trying out new techniques all the time. Good luck!