Читать книгу Slow Flowers - Debra Prinzing - Страница 13

SPRINGTIME IS EMBODIED in this vase, isn’t it?

You can almost smell the heady perfume associated with Syringa vulgaris, the common lilac. To me, the fragrance is associated with my lifelong relationship with flowers.

Here, I’ve played seasonal matchmaker, introducing bunches of purple, Oregon-grown lilacs to their lovely companions. Jadeite-green hellebores and fox grape fritillaries (Fritillaria assyriaca) are all that’s needed to create a sublime bouquet for my fireplace mantel. The cream-colored pottery throws more attention to this eye-catching floral 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.”