When we choose to bring flowers into our homes and display them in our favorite vases and rooms, we are choosing to invite happiness and a sense of elegance (or whimsy) into our lives too.
The predictions for flowers this year are moving toward softness, tenderness, whimsy, and wildness.
Expert tip for bouquets and arrangements - clean off any leaves that will fall below the water line. Give a fresh cut to each stem, and place in a vase of cold water that contains a couple drops of bleach, which kills bacteria thus allowing the cut flowers to last a lot longer.
The predictions for flowers this year are moving toward softness, tenderness, whimsy, and wildness.
- Iceland Poppies - wild looking, exuberant in both size and color, and long-lasting in flower bouquets
- Poetic blossoms and Baroque flowers - peonies, voluptuous varieties of chrysanthemums and asters, and common daisies in huge bunches
- Dahlias - the bigger the better and used as 'sculptures' - either en masse or in stems of only one to three in a tall clear glass vase
- Weeds - find beauty in places previously overlooked, and incorporate a surprising element into your flower bouquets by using weeds to fill the gaps
- Wildflowers - less restrained and more natural, wildflowers are not only a way to make our gardens more healthy. Wildflowers may not have the same classical beauty as exotic flowers, but they speak to our souls in a different way and are easy to grow in our own garden
- Vines, roots, and twisted branches - sculptural shapes and unusual texture that create flower arrangements that are wild, naturalistic, and slightly undone. Who doesn't love the look of branch with small tomatoes in a bouquet of sunflowers and clematis?
Expert tip for bouquets and arrangements - clean off any leaves that will fall below the water line. Give a fresh cut to each stem, and place in a vase of cold water that contains a couple drops of bleach, which kills bacteria thus allowing the cut flowers to last a lot longer.
Expect to see less straight, thornless, mass-produced flowers imported from across the ocean and more twisted, barbed, delicate, and fragrant wildflowers from outside your kitchen window.