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.

ENJOY YOUR FABULOUS FLOWERS FOR THIS WEEK!


Joanna
www.joannawalton.com
0034 676 369726

Blooming Bouganvillea

Bouganvillea grows bountifully here in Mallorca and is hardy, not affected by sea spray, hot and cold climates, which is why you see it swathed over houses, even coastal properties.  It comes in a big variety of colours now, from white, corals, pinks through to this cerise colour, which is probably the most popular.

Our Bouganvillea around the outside of house is just about finishing now and so I wanted to
use the last blooms for this week's article.  We have a couple of bushes down by the car port which have been allowed to grow freely, shooting off these lovely long tendrils.  I cut the longest, healthy ones I could find.  I have also used a couple of plants of small leafed Ivy (Hedera) which I always have in stock, as once they have been cut with a little care they will have sprouted new shoots for the next season.

The idea is to make a circular wreath of the Bouganvillea and Ivy which you can make by tying a long piece of ribbon to the stems and winding the ribbon in and out, pulling quite tightly as you start to make the circle.  Bouganvillea does have some nasty thorns along the stem, so it is a good idea to snap or cut these off before you begin to work.

Keep going around adding stems as you go, using the longer ones first and when you get back to  the beginning cut the ribbon and tie tightly.  Then cut some of the Ivy trails and start adding these, wrapping them around the wreath, leaving some shoots to spring out.  This should be a natural style arrangement, not too tight and formal.

There are then a few options of how to display this arrangement which is not very long lasting as the blooms are not in water, if you want to make it up in advance keep it in a shallow bowl of water and take out half an hour before you need it.  Ideal for a dinner party, you can either hang it on the front door to welcomed your guests when they arrive...

...or you can hang it on the wall near to the dining table...

...or you use it as the table centre piece (if you wanted to be the Hostess with the Mostest,you could of course hang it on the door and whilst your guests are sipping their aperitifs, whip it off the front door and put it on the table)!!

Place a glass vase in the centre of the wreath with a candle inside and then take five smaller candles or night-lights around the edge.  Wrap some more Ivy around the smaller candles and scatter some flowers heads on the table.

Enjoy your Fabulous Flowers for this week.

JOANNA WALTON FLOWERS
www.joannawalton.com
0034 676369726

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.