GREAT JUGS OF FLOWERS
One of my favourite ways of displaying flowers is in jugs. They certainly suit our rustic finca and a little jug of flowers, bringing some of the outside inside, on a brunch table adds to the setting. I have an array of jugs that I have collected on my travels, and a great momento of trip, for example from a little pottery up in the Scottish Highlands, one I have from Hay-on-Wye market in Wales and of course, ones collected in Mallorca also.
To make a little jug of flowers it is best to start with a posy of a few different blooms for interest.
So here I have a few stems of cream Roses, a Chincherinche (Latin name Ornathoglium) and a stem
of Statice (Limonium). The little Chincherinche flowers are incredibly long-lasting and when they
are fresh they are quite green and then gradually every single little floret will open, over a course of
a couple of weeks until it almost turns into a ball at the end of the stem. There is also a variety of
Ornathoglium called Arabicum, which is much longer and the florets open with white outer petals
and a black centre. The Statice is an extremely good flower for drying as it retains its colour (best
to hang upside down to dry, so that the stems dry straight). Euclyptus also dries well.
So, take your foliage and cut down into shorter pieces, do this by cutting the stem right down to
where there is a leaf, so that you don´t waste any of the stem.
Start by taking one of the Roses and surrounding it with foliage, making sure that there is no foilage
below the tying point (where you are holding the posy)
Gradually starting introducing the other flowers, keeping it quite tight in your hand
until you have all the flowers in the posy
Tie the posy to keep it compact and together and then cut down to size and pop in your vase which
is lovely on a brunch table or on a bed-side table.
For one of my bigger Mallorcan vases I have simply taken three stems of Oriental Lillies and mixed
them with foliages cut from the garden. There are two main varieties of Lillies, either Oriental or
Asiatic. The Oriental Lillies are the larger headed variety, which usually come in whites and pinks
or a mix of the two, such as the Stargazer. The Oriental Lillies, along with the Longii-florum
Lillies, with the trumpet head, these ones are heavily scented. The Asiatic Lillies are the cheaper
ones that come in an array of colours – yellows, reds, oranges, pinks and whites and these ones are
smaller headed, sometimes with spots on the petals and they do not have a scent. As I always say,
beware of the pollen on the Lillies and cut this out as soon as it appears and we know how much of
a stain it can leave if it were to drop onto a table cloth! It is good to use the lip of the jug to have
the flowers almost spilling out of the vessel.
Joanna
www.joannawalton.com
0034 676 369726
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