Читать книгу Slow Flowers - Debra Prinzing - Страница 14

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.