WORDS: Kathryn Cronin PHOTOS: Ricky Bache
Last year, I decided I wanted a cutting garden with enough flowers and foliage to make the type of gorgeous wild garden style spring floral arrangement that even Constancy Spry would be proud of.
So began a journey of researching hundreds of varieties of bulbs and reading about those that other growers were planting. I joined Flowers From The Farm. Meeting up with this generous group of like minded flower obsessives has already taught me so much.
For any kind of floristry, you want long stems. At the same time as ordering hundreds of bulbs, I planted perennials whose foliage would condition well and would perfectly complement the spring blooms.
As I write this, vases and buckets of my own flowers and foliage sit conditioning after cutting them from the garden early yesterday morning. I have learnt about colour and chose those that shouted spring to me. Texture, style and movement are key elements of any arrangement so I focused on those shrubs and flowers that would create the garden style arrangements that I adore.
The following lists the materials used for this wild garden style spring floral arrangement:
Flowers:
- Hellebore
- Wallflowers
- Tulip La belle époque
- Tulip Verona
Foliage:
- Forsythia
- Pieris
- Wild Currant
- Euphorbia
- Flowering Pear Blossom Branches
- Viburnum Tinus Eve Price
- Sambucus – Sunny Days and Black Lace
It is important to identify the right container for your spring floral arrangement. A lesson I learnt the hard way is to create robust enough mechanics. It is a lesson in frustration and quite honestly a waste of precious time to start faffing with that once you get going.
I look to avoid using floral foam whenever I can. At the moment, I love vintage glass containers so to make sure my florals stay where I want them in this low table arrangement, I have secured a heavy metal frog to the base of the container with florists plasticine. Then I usually add a piece of chicken wire secured with florists tape. You won’t see it when its covered in foliage. This may seem a wee bit over the top but trust me, florals and foliage are heavy.
For wild garden style floristry, let the material dictate where it wants to go.
Over the years I have had the pleasure of being taught by very many florists who have been very generous with the advice they have given. The essence of this advice boils down to a few things when arranging. For wild garden style floristry, it is important to have many types of seasonal foliage in tones and textures that support the floral elements. Let the material dictate where it wants to go. If it bends one way, it is folly to attempt to force it the other. and allow it space to have its moment of glory. And the final piece of advice? Be in the right frame of mind when you are working, for my belief is floral creation is an art that reflects your mood.
Join me for a few minutes of on-screen floral curation on fierceTV and see how I have created this wild garden style spring floral arrangement.
You can read even more from Fierceblooms, this flower grower and Cheshire florist on the floristry blog.
On the site, there are also lots more articles about my evolving canalside cheshire flower cutting garden.