Petal & Pins

Tag: flower arranging

The Devil Is In The Detail

March 2019 In a Vase on Monday

I think autumn is one of my favourite months to join Cathy from Rambling In The Garden’s Monday blog post project In A Vase On Monday

There’s always an eclectic mix of colour and shapes to choose from in my garden at this time and the end result is often bolder and more considered in the way I put things together.

This morning I’ve chosen to use my glass vase that has a swirl of crimson around the top thinking it would pick up the colour of the crabapples growing in our hedge.

The ones I could reach to pick are a much more golden hue, and with a trio of pink roses I also picked  some mottled hydrangeas to tie it all together.

A stack of magazines was a practical solution as a makeshift plinth to raise the flowers for photographing but I thought the gorgeous rich image on the cover of Flowbulous magazine also created a beautiful backdrop!

I bought the magazine in Japan last year and it’s full of incredible photographs and flowers by Atsushi Taniguchi.

Flowbulous Magazine_

As I arranged my vase I began to realise I’d not picked nearly enough for such a wide necked vase and at that moment it started to pour with rain. My solution? the gum nuts sitting undercover on the verandah and some hydrangeas dried from last autumn in the palest of pink.

For Me By Dee print and vase of flowers

The gum nuts of course add a distinctive Australian touch to my vase so I decided to photograph it with Desmond the Tasmanian devil – a beautiful print from an original watercolour drawing by Melbourne artist Daniella Leo.

And that is what’s inspired this Monday’s blog post title!

Autumn Vase

autumn hydrangeas, antique silver rose bowl and cookbook

autumn hydrangeas

 

Flower Lamp

autumn style mantle by petal & pins

I’m joining Cathy from Rambling in the Garden for In A Vase On Monday albiet with one I arranged on Saturday night as it’s raining this morning.

It’s been raining on and off for the last four days – not that I’m complaining because the garden needs it and it’s the perfect excuse as the mornings get darker to pull the quilt up tighter and ignore the alarm clock for a few minutes more.

I love this time of year when summer gives way to autumn, it feels like life slows a little and reminds you to take a moment to just breathe and be still – which is funny really because as the days get shorter you would think it woud bring a sense of urgency that you have less time to do all that needs to be done!

The hydrangeas have just about finished for the season but their late season faded colours are a favourite of mine and I’ve been leaving them to dry in vases around the house.

On Saturday evening after a day of grey skies and rain I decided to add a bit of autumn style to the mantle piece by filling a large cylindrical glass vase with dried hydrangea heads intertwinded with fairy lights.

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Want to try making your own ‘Flower Lamp’ vase? This is what you’ll need.

  • glass vase or jar
  • dried hydrangeas
  • secateurs or scissors to remove the stems close to the flower heads
  •  fairy lights

I have used Down To The Woods battery operated LED string lights that are on malleable wire that can be twisted and scrunched. The small battery box can be neatly tucked out of sight behind the vase so you can easily turn it off and on when you want!

I love the soft cozy effect the twinkling vase creates and I’m now keen to try out the idea with autumn leaves.

Autumn Ikebana

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Just Out Of View

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With Valentine’s Day just around the corner we’ve been busy sending cards from our Love Letters Collection out to stockists and I’ve been having fun with some romantic styling for social media.

Designed with the lovely Cécile Brünner roses from our garden there are currently four designs in the Love Letters Collection and three are available as signed giclée prints.

I’ve written before about this pretty rose, it’s a favourite of mine, and I chose to pick sprays of them to combine with ‘Naked Ladies’ (amaryllis belladonna), snow berries and camellia leaves for a sophisticated elegance… and let’s pretend just out of view is a Schiaparelli’ pink velvet chaise longue, a gorgeous art deco ice bucket with champagne chilling and French doors with a view of the Seine.

Objet d’art

single peony and Soltice Lace book
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This beautiful porcelain vase was a gift from a friend and it’s sensuous form is deceptively simple.

There is the finest line of handpainted gold around the top of the neck and when not showing off a flower is far more objet d’art than just simply an empty vase.

The peony with its hint of pink and ruffled petals is dreamy and romantic just like the  Solstiss lace for haute couture Gaultier Paris from fall-winter 2005 -2006 featured in the book Solstiss: The seduction of lace by Ann Kraatz.

I don’t often bring these peonies inside because they are highly attractive to ants for some reason and indeed this morning I had to give this one a good shake to avoid bringing any inside.

But they won’t be flowering for long with the warm weather we’re getting and seemed the perfect pairing with this vase to share for Cathy’s In a Vase on Monday.

A Beautiful Mess

The big voluptuous blooms from the tree peony  started to slump in the cut glass vase and as the petals started to dry the colours intensified.

I left the vase sitting on the cocktail cabinet and every day  more petals gathered around the base of the vase looking like a decadently dishevelled ball gown discarded by my garden fairy.

When it became more mess than beautiful I scooped up the petals to design with – their texture like silk paper taffetta and each one uniquely shaped and coloured I almost got lost in admiring their detail.

There is beauty in decay.

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Creating Tranquility

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Peace, Joy & Dessert

Basket of garden rosesPeace Roseroses in the gardenI’ve been cutting big bunches of roses to have inside this spring and admiring ones that vie with each other for attention from behind fences when strolling down the road.

My basket is laden with  a trio of Rosa ‘Madame A. Meilland’ or Peace rose – in Italian, Gioia  – meaning joy. I don’t know the name of the pinky red one, it was already growing in my garden, planted long ago and the blooms get pinker the more open they become – any suggestions from a keen rose grower?

The peace rose in bud reminds me of that classic dessert Peach Melba with it’s raspberry coloured streaks and since my raspberry patch is looking pretty fine this season too I’ll have to put it on my summer entertaining list!

Intertwined

mid spring vase of flowers from my garden

It’s been a while since I’ve joined in on ‘In a Vase On Monday’ but this morning after a few hours of sun to dry off yesterday’s rain I decided I needed to make time before spring gives way to summer.

Cathy from Rambling In The Garden started ‘In A Vase On Monday’ to share what’s in the garden year round and invites readers to share their vase or jam jar arrangements too in the comments section of her Monday blog post! (or hashtag #inavaseonmonday to your photo on Instagram)

It’s inspiring seeing other peoples arrangements, read about their gardens and the reminder that my spring is someone else’s autumn. It’s also a lovely way to take a moment out and slow down!

For this vase I wanted to recreate the part of the garden I’d gathered from – the pink climbing rose  was a house warming present and now clambers up a verandah post and tangles with the lilac and the Chinese snowball tree all intertwined with a white clematis. Near by the apple tree is in blossom and an old cécile brünner rose bush has it’s first flush of pink buds.

vase flower detail

clematis

I’ve been designing new Spring dresses for the Garden Fairy’s Wardrobe too and you can see a special one I designed with daphne, hellebores, jonquils and plum blossom gracing the cover of the online Spring edition of OnTrend Bridal magazine!

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