QUINCE, SPIREA & HELLEBORE
A loose, leafy bouquet using three varieties of spirea and hellebore with dainty fritillaries
APRIL
INGREDIENTS
Spiraea vanhouttei (Van Houtte's spirea)
Spiraea nipponica 'Snowmound' (snowmound spirea)
Spiraea japonica 'Firelight' (Japanese spirea)
Chaenomeles speciosa (ornamental quince)
Ribes sanguineum 'White Icicle' (flowering currant)
Helleborus 'Harvington Double Pink Speckled', 'Harvington Red' & 'Ice n' Roses' (hellebore)
Anemone coronaria 'De Caen' (poppy anemone)
Fritillaria meleagris (snakeshead fritillary)
NOTES
A layered hand-tied bouquet of spindly spring branches and hellebores. I use the hand-vase technique (covered in detail in our forthcoming online course ‘Bouquets’), arranging the stems into my hand as if it were a vessel and allowing the ingredients space to breath and show off their individual curves and quirks. The branches sketch the outline shape, the leafy foliage also acting as filler for structure and support. The hellebores are the leading ladies - every flower head displaying interesting colour variation and I group these light-to-dark interspersing with the coral quince blossom. For movement and lightness the fritillaries and poppy anemone sway and dangle above the rest.