palette.
Using clean, well-sharpened pruners, cut each lilac branch at a 45-degree angle, stripping leaves that would be under water.
Arrange the flowers slightly asymmetrically, so their pendulous blooms drape farther over the left side of the vase. Next, gather small bunches of the green-hued hellebores and insert them as if they were a single stem. With this technique, smaller flowers have more impact. Finally, since the plum-and-yellow fritillary blooms are so delicate, add them like ribbons on a package, allowing them to naturally fall into place, cascading above and over the other flowers.
Ingredients:
10 stems purple lilacs (Syringa vulgaris), grown by Oregon Coastal Flowers
10 stems garden hellebores (Helleborus orientalis), grown by Jello Mold Farm
10 stems Fritillaria assyriaca, a spring-flowering bulb, grown by Choice Bulb Farms
Vase:
17-inch tall x 7-inch diameter cream urn
From the Farmer
Hellebore how-to: Anyone who grows hellebores in their garden knows how frustrating it is to cut a few blooms and bring them inside, only to watch them wilt in a vase of water. Now I enjoy success when I use hellebores in my bouquets, thanks to an important lesson shared by Diane Szukovathy, co-owner of Jello Mold Farm. “Harvest hellebores after they have matured past the flower stage and the seed pods are beginning to form,” she advises. “By then, the petals have started to leather up and those hellebores will be rock solid in an arrangement for ten days.”
SPRING | WEEK 7
JEWEL TONES
THIS INDIGO-BLUE VASE is a favorite of mine. It has beautiful surface details, including rows of raised, button-like dots that resemble embossing. When I tried to include it in a magazine photo shoot, however, the art director told me it competed with the flowers, so we couldn’t use it. This time around, there’s no one to say “no.”
What says “yes” to this vase is the floral palette of fuchsia anemones, periwinkle bachelor’s buttons (Centaurea cyanus), a handful of plump white tulips and several snowy-white flowering stems of pearlbush (Exochorda racemosa), a deciduous shrub with flowers resembling a delicate string of pearls. These pure, cool-toned flowers hold their own against the vivid blue glaze.
To create the bouquet, I started by filling the vase opening with varying lengths of anemone stems. Notice how some of the flowers are upright, clustered near the center, while others spill over the rim. Next, I added the pearlbush branches. At this time of the year, the flowers range from tiny, pearl-like buds to fully developed cup-shaped blooms that echo the soft form of the white tulips. The final touch of color comes from bachelor’s buttons, which grow from a single stand in my garden. They are long-lasting when cut and the bloom has an attractive starburst form.
Ingredients:
12 stems fuchsia anemones (Anemone coronaria ‘Galilee Pink’), grown by Everyday Flowers
8 stems pearlbush (Exochorda racemosa), grown by J. Foss Garden Flowers
6 stems bachelor’s buttons (Centaurea cyanus), harvested from my garden
7 stems white tulips, grown by Alm Hill Gardens
Vase:
8-inch tall x 6-inch diameter round vase with 5-inch opening
Design 101
Color wheel lesson: The flowers and vase combination illustrate an analogous color palette. Analogous colors are adjacent to one another on the color wheel (see page 132). Fuchsia, purple and indigo are pleasing when viewed together because they each share varying quantities of the primary color blue. White floral accents offset the black centers of the anemones, adding a graphic punch to this composition.
SPRING | WEEK 8
STILL LIFE WITH FLOWERS
TWO BUNCHES OF MY FAVORITE SPRING FLOWERS are all that’s needed to fill this charming vintage vase. The pale mint pottery plays nicely with the ranunculus’s green foliage, stems and buds. And a bit of green peeks out from the lilac tips. The joyous shades of apricot, coral and pink in the mixed bunch of ranunculus put a smile on my face.
Even though this vase is relatively small, its 5 x 5-inch opening accommodated one of my smaller vintage flower frogs, which anchors the lilac stems. I cut them fairly short, leaving only 3-4 inches of stem, which ensures that the white clusters drape gracefully over the rim of the vase.
The lilacs are snugly arranged, yet there’s still plenty of space between their fragrant blossoms to accommodate the ranunculus. Grown from a tiny tuber, the ranunculus produces fern-like green foliage, fleshy stems and tightly packed round buds that open to reveal layer upon layer of soft, curved petals. Placed in a random pattern, with the stem lengths varied for interest, they convey the new, hopeful spirit of the season.
When photographing the arrangement, I played around with different display ideas. Here, a wooden wine crate doubles as a shadow box, while a green-stained Ikea planter (turned upside down) is the perfect pedestal. Together, they make an alluring stage for my floral still life.
Ingredients:
10 stems lilac (Syringa vulgaris), grown by Oregon Coastal Flowers
12 stems Ranunculus asiaticus, including ‘La Belle’ and ‘Super Green’ varieties, grown by Everyday Flowers
Vase:
5-inch tall x 5-inch wide x 3-inch deep vase (overall height is 5½ inches)
From the Farmer
Extending the vase life: For decades, it’s been the conventional wisdom of florists that woody shrubs, such as lilacs and hydrangeas, benefit from a second cut, a vertical slice up the center of the stem, to increase the surface area that can absorb water. But according to professors Lane Greer and John M. Dole, authors of Woody Cut Stems for Growers and Florists, a research-based reference, the practice “has never been proven to extend vase life.” The best thing you can do is to use clean, sharp pruners and refresh the vase water every day or so.
SPRING | WEEK 9
FIRST PEONIES OF THE SEASON
THE INTENSE RUBY-RED PALETTE IS SHARED by these ruffled peonies and my art glass vase. I love the interplay of the two textures, hard and soft in balance; so naturally, the other ingredients needed to feel lighter in color and texture. I chose two types of ornamental alliums
