FABULOUS FESTIVE FLOWERS

By Joanna Walton

For a different mantlepiece/garland arrangement you can use the the husk from a Palm tree. I always keep the ones that are cut from our trees for different arrangements.

Here I have taken the boat-shaped husk and placed a square piece of bin liner and then some wet oasis foam in the middle and secured it in place.

The foliages I cut are Pine and Mata. Start the basis of the arrangement, going with the line of the base with the foliage coming up and out on the left and down and flowing on the right. Also you can add twigs with lovely Lychen moss on and some willow twigs I have sprayed silver along with some pine cones. These can also be done with gold spray, whichever matches the surrounding decorations.

Wire the cones and then wire them onto some of the foliage or push the wire into the oasis. Likewise with the silver baubles.

At the baubles in clusters interspersed in amongst the foliage and cones.

Finally I have added a few of the red felt deocorations that are around the mirror on the mantlepiece and piled up silver baubles around the ends.

Enjoy your Fabulous Festive Flowers for this week!

FABULOUS FLOWERS

By Joanna Walton

Knock with down with some Heather

Going for walks with my dogs up in the countryside surrounding me is really quite breathtaking at the moment, one of my favourite times of year here in Mallorca. The weather has cooled so that you can go for walks at whatever time of day you like, rather than having to wait until the evening (or early in the morning, which I have never been much good at). There is such an abundance of Heather along all the tracks and hillsides. The wild heather ranges from mauves through to pinks and the shrubby headrows are awash with it at the moment. Within five minutes of chopping you could have a huge basket full. This plant grows so abundantly that I never feel bad about cutting it – there are 30 seeds in a Heather flower, so all in all there are approximately 150,000 seeds in each plant.

Alongside all the lovely Heather is also wild flowering Rosemary, with small blue flowers. So to bring a bit of the beautiful countryside into your home cut a handful of the Rosemary and lots of Heather. I think that Heather looks particularly lovely in a natural basket. Here I have an oval shaped wicker moss basket. This basket I have lined with plastic to make it watertight. Soak a square of oasis in water and then secure it into the centre of the basket, lower than the edge of the basket.

The flowers should be grouped together, exactly as you would see them in the wild, so cut a few pieces of Heather and insert them firmly into the oasis, then take a clump of the whild Rosemary and put this together in a clump near the handle.

Keep working your way around the basket filling in the gaps. The Heather lends itself really well to creeping over the edge of the basket as it naturally grows and bends this way.

We are using a lot of artificial flowers at the moment for various clients and here you can see how, when they are tucked in with fresh flowers, they can work quite well. I have taken individual florets of a large bloom and placed them in amongst the shrubs, lightening it up a bit.

This would also make a lovely, inexpensive gift for a friend.

Enjoy your Fabulous Flowers for this week!

 

Wow, this year is racing past...

Wow, this year is racing past very quickly.  Have been so busy making up gorgeous blooms for weddings, yacht clients, clients staying in luxury fincas, writing my weekly column Fabulous Flowers in the Mallorca Daily Bulletin every Tuesday and more...!  Sometimes, it only hits me how much we have done when I look through all our photographs and this helps to keep a record of everything... that and the flower bill I receive monthly from my wholesalers...

This was the first bride´s bouquet of the season, back in April, which we have been asked to recreate twice more this season, with crystals for one and no jewels for the other.

Peonies were ever popular with brides in the months of May and June and many a disappointed bride when I tell them that the season for these gorgeous heavenly blooms finishes at the end of June.. perhaps that makes them a little more special?

Here a couple of bridesmaids´ posies and a simple one for a tiny flower girl

This beautiful cream Peony smelt absolutely divine and went to a lovely lady from Ireland who was marrying a man who had left the priesthood to be with her.  They came to Mallorca for two days and were married in Deia church.  A lovely couple!

 The bride for this wedding last month wanted a "shabby chic feel"- posies tied with lace.

The brides bouquet bursting with Peonies, Roses and Sweet Peas

 

Decadent balls of Peonies, Roses and Lisianthus, sat on pillars, cube vases and candles at the end of each line of chairs

Vases of white Roses on the tables



 One happy couple at the gorgeous Port Verd with a bouquet of white Peonies and purple Lisianthus

Moving away from Peonies.. a couple more of our latest designs..

Hydrangeas with Roses, Scabious, Nigella and Rosemary, one of my favourites!

The lilac coloured wedding, with an abundance of Lavender, on the napkins, on the cake and here in the bouquets, the sweet smell was intoxicating and hopefully, helped calm some nerves on the day.

Here we used all Phaleanops Orchids, a variety called Hot Lips for the bouquets, the church and the reception

 The bride making final adjustments to Dad before entering the church

Pretty in pink

This bride was mad about Gerberas...

 as I think you can see here!



Hope you enjoyed the catch up on what we have been doing the last few months here in Mallorca and will be back soon with the next installment!

Easter nests

Last year for Easter Sunday with the family I decided to make some nests for the table. First I collected some moss and a bundle of little twigs from our garden. Moss is actually protected here in Mallorca, so be careful if you go out collecting it! To hold it altogether I found some, not very nice looking, blue mesh netting. The moss was soaked in warm water to bring out the lovely green and covered the mesh, then twigs were intertwined to make a nest. To finish the nests sprigs of Rosemary, Grass, Genista and Bupluerum were added. The nests were then lined with a little bit of plastic bin bag, otherwise the mini eggs would go sticky and soggy! Hard boiled quail eggs were also mixed in with the chocolate eggs and were delicious.

Our Easter sunday brunch was a mass of chocolate with pancakes covered in melted ester eggs and little Lindt bunnies and eggs in the nests.

A few days after Easter when I was clearing the table I placed the nests in the grass outside our back door and my husband enquired why I had just left them there and I replied that, of course, I had left them there for the birds and perhaps they might like to use them... Some weeks later we realised that a bird was nesting, very precariously in one of our palm trees on a large frond that was dipping up and down in the wind. On closer inspection we saw that it was indeed one of my nests as you could see a bit of the blue mesh that I had used poking out. The mother bird had woven the nest into the frond to make it completely secure.

I wonder this year if there may be a few birds circling around looking for ready made nests once again! HAPPY EASTER.

To fake it or not too..

OK, so I´ve been a florist for 25 years and my passion is fresh flowers, I love the smell of them, the feel of them and designing them. So, over the years when I have been asked whether I can make artificial flower arrangements, I must admit I have been a bit of a snob about it and haughtily replied that I don´t. The world of artificial flowers has changed rather dramatically in my years of being a florist and I have been caught out on a couple of occasions looking at an arrangement in a restaurant or hotel and only realised on closer inspection that actually the flowers were “fake”!

My fresh flower wholesaler, here in Mallorca, now carries a very extensive range of silk flowers and when I was asked at the beginning of this year, by a yacht Chief Steward if I could make up some artificial flower arrangements for their boat, I took a big deep breath and said that I could.

After seeing the incredible, very modern, sailing yacht and taking in the smooth clean lines, black, chrome and polished wood surfaces I began to think of the style arrangements I could design to fit in with the surroundings. Working closely with the Chief Stew we can up with some modern simple designs. Here they are;

Could you possibly be fooled into thinking that they were fresh flower arrangements? The tulips have leaves identical to a natural tulip leaf, not only in shape, but incredibly in texture also. The same with the leaves of the little Rannunculus and their buds.

 

The mini Anthuriums actually had rather a rubbery texture and would certainly not bruise if touched, like the fresh ones do. This too would make them easy to keep clean with a damp cloth – something I would definitely not recommend with a real Anthuriums! They are certainly a good option for a yacht, travelling around the med in the summer and not knowing for sure where they could obtain fresh flowers at each port that may happen upon and they will not wilt in the hot summer sun.

So, all in all, I have grown as a floral designer and will now extend my portfolio into artificial flowers... They are certainly easier to handle (less likely to break) and the wired stems can be bent into place easily. Finally, of course, they will last forever and I can think of one old lady I once happened upon, who told me that she hated having fresh flowers in the house as she didn´t like seeing things die, who would be happier with this type of arrangement.

As a footnote though, as I write the above I know that, personally, I may like the design of the artificial arrangement, but in time I would get bored of the static form, that never evolved or changed as the blooms opened and, yes, faded – which just gives me another opportunity to start again with a whole new design of a fresh flower arrangement, which is different every single time.

Our new website is live!

Our new website has gone live this morning! As you know, we've worked hard during the winter season to bring you this upgraded experience on our site, www.joannawalton.com. Now you can contact us directly through the site as well as browse the brand new, interactive gallery from the comfort of your computer or mobile device. There's also a link to recommend our new site on Facebook or to Like us on our Facebook page, which you can access here. We'll also be fully available on Twitter soon.


There's an expanded services page, testimonials, and information on our newly available courses for yacht crews, all personalised and in tune with your specific needs of course, as has been our trademark throughout the years. As before you can see our work in magazines and the links to visit some of our friends.


So head on over to the site and check it out. We really hope you enjoy it. Also remember to come here often for the latest about the wonderful world of flowers and more specifically, Joanna Walton Flowers.


Thanks for visiting and for your patronage.

Our new website and blog are almost ready

We've been working hard throughout the winter season to bring to you a nicer and friendlier web experience on our site, www.joannawalton.com. We've redesigned everything to make it easier for you to reach the information you're looking for. Plus we will now have a brand new, interactive gallery so you can easily view our portfolio from the comfort of your computer or mobile device.

As you can see, our blog has also been reconstructed and rebuilt. Once finished, we hope to see you here often, reading about the wonderful world of flowers. You can also subscribe to our newsfeed or by e-mail. We've provided links on the right column for your convenience.

We hope you enjoy it all. Thank you for your visit and stay tuned for a preview and for an announcement about the web launch.