Читать книгу Slow Flowers - Debra Prinzing - Страница 18

WHENEVER ICELAND POPPIES SHOW UP at the farm stand they are quickly snatched up. Why do we love them so? Perhaps it’s because of their pure, vibrant petal colors with the charming button-like centers. Or it’s their uncomplicated forms – they remind me a lot of the way I drew flowers as a child.

And then there are their buds, encased in a fuzzy shell that pops open to reveal the crinkled bright petals inside, ready to bloom.

Poppies need little competition to dazzle in the vase, so I chose only a few additional ingredients to fill my favorite pitchers. Since red and green are perfect complements on the color wheel, I thought the orange-red poppies would look beautiful in my old-fashioned mint-green pitcher. I added the blue-green Cerinthe major, an almost iridescent perennial that cascades over the container’s rim. The delicate rattlesnake grass has a hazy effect, its tiny seed heads shimmering as if in a breezy meadow.

For the arrangement in my clear glass pitcher, I chose two types of variegated cream-and-green leaves to offset the egg-yolk-yellow poppies. The bold Astrantia foliage came from my garden, while the smaller leaves are from a variegated mint. These flowers gave me days of happiness, all the more enjoyable because they were a gift from the farmer who grew them.

Ingredients:

(Green pitcher)

10 stems coral-red Icelandic poppies (Papaver nudicaule), grown by Jello Mold Farm

6 stems Cerinthe major ‘Purpurascens’, grown by Jello Mold Farm

7 stems rattlesnake grass (Briza media), grown by Jello Mold Farm

(Glass pitcher)

10 stems bright yellow Icelandic poppies (Papaver nudicaule), grown by Jello Mold Farm

10 stems Astrantia major ‘Sunningdale Variegated’ foliage, harvested from my garden

7 stems golden apple mint (Mentha x gracilis), grown by Charles Little & Co.

Vase:

8-inch tall x 5½-inch wide glazed ceramic pitcher

9-inch tall x 5½-inch wide Mexican glass pitcher

From the Farmer

Poppy care: Many garden books recommend that you sear the cut tips of these poppies in a flame or submerge them in a beaker of boiling water in order to extend their vase life. It has been thought that the extreme heat will soften the tougher outer stem and increase the surface area for absorbing moisture in the vase. But in fact, according to Diane Szukovathy of Jello Mold Farm, the poppy’s hairy stem collects more foreign matter that contributes to bacterial build-up in the vase than with smoother-stemmed flowers. Because of this, she says, “heating the stems ‘cooks’ them, making the flower more susceptible to colonization by bacteria.” Diane’s best tip: “Every few days, re-cut the stems and change the water.”