Читать книгу Slow Flowers - Debra Prinzing - Страница 17

THE IMPETUS FOR THIS BOUQUET took place during a spring visit to Peterkort Roses in Portland, Oregon. I couldn’t take my eyes off their ‘Supergreen’ hybrid tea roses. A beautiful shade of pale chartreuse, with slightly ruffled petals, these uncommon roses drew me in and I knew I had to use them in a bouquet. Thankfully, Sandra and Norman, the sister-and-brother team who run the Peterkort family rose farm, sent me home with a luscious bunch to play with.

I gathered other soft, pale green botanicals to join the roses. The silvery end of the foliage spectrum includes lamb’s ears and Dusty Miller, velvet to the touch and both quite easy to grow. Fluffy and delicate, the green-and-white variegated Star of Bethlehem surprised me as much as those chartreuse roses. Are they flowers? Are they greenery? I like that it’s hard to tell.

I started the bouquet by arranging a layer of soft foliage, which acts as a natural “frog” for holding the other flower stems erect. Here, the Dusty Miller’s deeply-cut leaves drape nicely over the edge of the basket and the lamb’s ears are more upright. Once the foliage is in place, it’s time to add the other ingredients. I stripped all the leaves from the roses and varied their stem lengths for a more naturalistic placement. Finally, several apricot spires of Verbascum added height, their tawny flowers echoing the natural rattan of my basket.

Ingredients:

15 stems Dusty Miller foliage (Centaurea cineraria), grown by Charles Little & Co.

5 stems lamb’s ears (Stachys byzantina), grown by Charles Little & Co.

15 stems ‘Supergreen’ hybrid tea roses, grown by Peterkort Roses

9 stems Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum nutans), grown by Choice Bulb Farms

6 stems Verbascum ‘Caribbean Crush’, grown by Jello Mold Farm

Vase:

7½-inch tall x 7-inch diameter woven basket with a 6-inch tall x 6½ inch wide glass insert

Eco-technique

Vase in an instant: Any container can double as a flower vase as long as you can hide a watertight vessel inside of it. This simple, budget-conscious technique instantly expands your design choices. I frequently pick up glass vases for 50-cents to a few dollars at the thrift store, which means I always have extras on hand to tuck inside boxes, baskets, tins – and even leaky watering cans.