Читать книгу Slow Flowers - Debra Prinzing - Страница 10

MY FRIEND LORENE EDWARDS FORKNER arrived for lunch holding a huge tangle of olive-green branches. “I pruned my Kerria japonica,” she pronounced, not to show off her superior knowledge of botanical Latin nomenclature, but because this unusual shrub doesn’t have a common name. The branches were bare when Lorene cut them, but having grown this plant myself in the past, I knew what was to come! I found a vase tall enough to hold the stems and also added some recently-cut branches from a flowering quince shrub.

After several days indoors near a sunny window, the wintry branches woke up. Their tiny buds opened into delicate flowers, giving me more than a week’s worth of happiness. The Kerria is one of those unruly shrubs that can respond well to aggressive pruning. Its spring trimmings are an ideal floral element. The flowering quince grows much slower, but it will eventually require pruning, giving you more branches to force indoors.

As they open, I notice the similarity of the two different flowers. They resemble tiny rosebuds, which is not so surprising, since both Kerria and Chaenomeles, the quince, are in the Rosaceae plant family.

The buttercup-yellow buds and the dark coral flowers seem to dance together, supported by the wild-looking branches. Back-lit by the morning light, their dreamy quality takes my breath away.

Ingredients:

Kerria japonica ‘Variegata’, which has white-edge leaves

Flowering quince (Chaenomeles x superba), available in coral, red, pink or white

Vase:

17-inch tall x 7-inch diameter cream urn. This is my go-to vase for last-minute arrangements and it is tall enough to handle the branches, which are nearly three feet long.

From the Farmer

Jump-start spring: Many flowering shrubs and trees are suitable for indoor forcing. In addition to Kerria and quince, you can cut the bare branches of forsythia, witch hazel and numerous fruit trees. Harvest branches when their buds begin to swell, taking care to use proper pruning techniques. Re-cut the stems on a 45-degree angle and place them in a vase of clean water. Over time, the buds will respond to your home’s warmer temperature and begin to flower. Be sure to change the water as you would with any floral arrangement.