Windfall

HELLEBORE, CRABAPPLE, RUE

An arrangement of fresh leaves and flowers combined with dried umbels and skeletal stems from the midwinter garden in a speckle-glazed Korean bowl.

JANUARY

INGREDIENTS

Abelia x grandiflora (glossy abelia)

Glechoma hederacea (creeping charlie / ground ivy)

Helleborus niger (Christmas rose / lenten rose)

Calamintha nepeta (calamint)

Hydrangea paniculata (panicled hydrangea)

Ruta graveolens (common rue)

Malus (crabapple)

VASE

Ceramic bowl (approx. 12 cm diameter)

Kenzan

NOTES

I make an asymmetric shape (one side tall, the other wide) with the leafy branches and dried stems. The flowers are placed lower, ensuring they are affixed to the kenzan and following the asymmetric shape. The shorter foliage stems are used to fill in around the base of the bowl - the rue has a gorgeously citrus-y, herbaceous scent - then a smattering of crabapples balanced on this leafy base. You can also skewer the fruit onto fine sticks and gently fix them to the kenzan to vary the height.

Tips: Cutting your hellebores when the anthers have fallen and the seedpod is mature you will find they are less prone to drooping. If you are using younger flowers with fresh anthers and pollen still evident (as I have here), searing your hellebores will help to ensure they last longer in the vase. Cut the stem end at a sharp angle and submerge the bottom couple of centimetres in just-boiled water for twenty to thirty seconds. This disperses any air bubbles blocking the stem and forces water up to the flower head. Place the stems into tepid water and leave overnight before arranging.

Physic

SLOE, SNOWDROP, MAJORCAN HELLEBORE

A silvery, seasonal arrangement inspired by a midwinter visit to Chelsea Physic Garden. Featuring muted foliage, sculptural winter skeletons, Majorcan hellebores and a sprinkling of snowdrops.

JANUARY

INGREDIENTS

Prunus spinosa (sloe)

Potentilla (cinquefoil)

Teucrium fruticans (tree germander)

Pittosporum tenuifolium ‘Variegatum’ (cheesewood)

Helleborus lividus (Majorcan hellebore)

Heuchera ‘Plum Pudding’ (coral bells)

Galanthus nivalis ‘Melvillei’ (snowdrop)

VASE

Ceramic bowl by Chloe Rosetta Bell (approx. 10cm diameter)

Kenzan

NOTES

At a time when there are very few flowers in the garden I want to celebrate the nuances in colour and variation in texture and shape in the foliage that is still available to us. I mix elegant branches of tree germander (the underbelly of the leaves are white and felty) with Heuchera ‘Plum Pudding’ and a variegated Pittosporum that combines both the silvery green and a warmer reddy brown - the leaves are margined with a dusky pink outline. The dried woody stems of Potentilla give a whiskery softness.

A few hellebores are dotted through the leaves. These are the short-stemmed lividus variety, which refers to the colour of the leaves (the direct translation is "lead-grey") and are native to Majorca. The buds and flowers are pinkish green, with a dull bloom like a grape.

A tiny drift of crisp white snowdrops to finish (the name comes from the Greek words gala meaning "milk" and anthos - "flower" and the species name nivalis means "of the snow". ) This snowdrop is believed to have been bred over one hundred years ago by David Melville, the head gardener of Dunrobin Castle. Five miles south of Brora, the castle is the most northerly of the great houses of Scotland and the largest in the Northern Highlands. It has a formal Victorian garden designed by Sir Charles Barry inspired by those at the Palace of Versailles and today arrangements are still displayed throughout the castle with ingredients cut straight from the garden.

Tips: Instead of snowdrops and hellebores you could try this with primula, crocus, aconite, cyclamen - any of the diminutive late-winter / early spring flowers.

Ice n' Roses

ALDER, SACRED BAMBOO & LENTEN ROSE FOR VALENTINE’S

A garden arrangement of flowers for Valentine’s Day, using a seasonal alternative to the ubiquitous bouquet of imported roses - the lenten rose, Christmas rose or hellebore.

FEBRUARY

INGREDIENTS

Nadina domestica (sacred bamboo)

Alnus (alder)

Hedera helix ‘Clotted Cream’ (ivy)

Galanthus nivalis (snowdrop)

Helleborus ‘Ice n’ Roses’ (lenten rose)

VASE

Brass-based ceramic bowl by Chloe Rosetta Bell (approx. 12cm diameter)

Kenzan

NOTES

I create an outline of witchy alder branches dangling with catkins and a staggered path of the pink-ringed hellebore, inserted onto a Japanese pinholder in the base. The creamy border of the variegated ivy lifts an otherwise cool display, creating a link to the hellebore stamens and the pale yellow catkins. I use the Nandina to fill and let the snowdrops nod toward the floor, as they are naturally inclined to do.

A tip: lose the wintry branches and you have a completely different look, soft and lush.

Tête à tête

DESICCATED BLACKBERRY, TETE A TETE, GOOSE GRASS

Foraged botanical treasure in a Japanese tea-bowl featuring intricate bramble stems with the desiccated, rusty berries still clinging to thorny branches.

FEBRUARY

INGREDIENTS

Rubus fruticosus (blackberry)

Hedera helix (ivy)

Primula veris (cowslip)

Narcissus 'Tête-à-tête' (dwarf daffodil)

Iris reticulata ‘Katherine’s Gold’ (netted iris)

Elymus repens (couch grass)

Galium aparine (goose grass)

Sphagnum girgensohnii (peat moss)

VASE

Japanese hand-painted tea-bowl (approx. 10cm diameter)

Kenzan

NOTES

Flower arranging in miniature - an experiment! Using the first radiant yellow flowers, their stem-length not exceeding 15 centimetres, I search the cutting garden for interesting seasonal ingredients to combine them with and find them at the periphery - wispy grasses, trails of ivy and a perfectly preserved dried blackberry bramble leftover from the autumn. Always worth a quick scan of the hedgerow.

A tip: use a small handful of moss to conceal your flower frog or chicken wire supporting the taller stems. It makes for a fragrant, textural ‘filler’.

Painting the Modern Garden

QUINCE, HONEYSUCKLE, HELLEBORE & SQUILL

An arrangement commissioned by Exhibition on Screen to celebrate the launch of ‘PAINTING THE MODERN GARDEN: MONET TO MATISSE’, a film by Seventh Art Productions.

FEBRUARY

INGREDIENTS

Chaenomeles japonica (Japanese quince)

Cynara cardunculus (cardoon)

Lonicera periclymenum (honeysuckle)

Fritillaria raddeana (Radde's fritillary)

Helleborus ‘Double Helen’, ‘Harvinton Picotee’, ‘Ice n’ Roses’ and ‘Maestro’ (Christmas rose)

Scilla mischtschenkoana (white squill)

VASE

Ceramic bowl (approx. 14cm diameter)

Kenzan

NOTES

Taking inspiration specifically from Monet’s garden at Giverny, I choose to use a palette of muted greens and drifting soft pastels interspersed by flaming pops of red from the ornamental quince (so called as it is commonly grown for its decorative flowers, rather than for the fruit which is tough and sour).

Directed by David Bickerstaff, PAINTING THE MODERN GARDEN: MONET TO MATISSE takes the audience on a magical journey from the gallery to the gardens of the world’s best loved artists. It explores the beautiful spaces that we’ve come to know through the masterpieces they inspired. Claude Monet was an avid horticulturist and arguably the most important painter of gardens in the history of art, but he was not alone. Great artists like Van Gogh, Bonnard, Sorolla, Sargent, Pissarro and Matisse all saw the garden as a powerful subject for their art. The film discovers how these artists built and cultivated their gardens to explore contemporary utopian ideas and motifs of colour and form. Guided by passionate curators, artists and garden enthusiasts, the film explores the gardens of Giverny and Seebüll, it reveals the rise of the modern garden in popular culture and the public’s enduring fascination with gardens today.

A tip: consider how the colour of your foliage will affect the composition - there are so many greens. Here I used silver and grey greens because I wanted the overall effect to be soft, cool and dream-like. Had I used a dark green the contrast would have produced a less peaceful, more dramatic effect.

Memories of Japan

PINE, LENTEN ROSE, Fern & MOKUBA RIBBON

A sprawling, textural hand-tied from the garden as winter turns to spring tied with embroidered silk ribbon.

FEBRUARY

INGREDIENTS

Nandina domestica (sacred bamboo)

Pinus contorta (lodge-pole pine)

Dryopteris (wood fern)

Helleborus x ballardiae ‘Maestro’ (lenten rose)

RIBBON

Black silk ribbon embroidered with flowers from Mokuba

NOTES

Inspired by a garden we visited in Japan - minimal selection of just four ingredients are gently balanced for a textural bouquet using the hand-vase technique. This involves creating a circle between your thumb and fore or middle finger, then layering up the stems of foliage to create a supportive network for the flowers.

This ribbon is something of a talisman and has been with us since the beginning. I remember the afternoon I bought it in the Mokuba ribbon store in New York. It was a chilly April day. That morning I had been interning for Nicolette Camille, helping to deliver some flowers from her Williamsburg studio to an event in Manhattan. I remember looking over into the backseat of Nicolette’s truck, crossing the bridge, with the soft pastel yellows and plum spring flowers gently jostling together in the morning light. After years of changing jobs I remember distinctly thinking, at that moment: ah okay, I think I’ve finally found what I want to do with my life! Every time I see this embroidered silk band slither out of the ribbon box I remember how new and exciting it all was, on the very brink of beginning. And I can honestly say it is no less new and exciting now.

A tip: make use of your prunings! I always cut back the ferns in my London courtyard by mid February and love to use them as collars for bouquets or as filler foliage in arrangements at this time of the year.

RETURN TO RECIPES

Ice blue

NETTED IRIS, SNOWDROP & ICE BLUE SILK

A delicate bouquet for Valentine’s - a clutch of tiny stems with an oversized swathe of silk taffeta ribbon in palest blue.

FEBRUARY

INGREDIENTS

Nandina domestica (sacred bamboo)

Iris reticulata ‘Alida’ and ‘Frozen Planet’ (netted iris)

Narcissus bulbicodium (petticoat daffodil)

Galanthus nivalis (snowdrop)

NOTES

A mesh of the sacred bamboo and then individual stems carefully nestled and woven through. A sweetly scented, thoughtful posy for a small vase on the table or beside the bed.

A tip: use jute / hemp twine instead of florist tape to tie your bouquet - it’s compostable.

RETURN TO RECIPES

Black hellebores

NETTED IRIS, PETTICOAT DAFFODIL & ROSE LEAF

Early blooming dwarf daffodils, layered with hellebores and iris beneath glittering plumes of woodrush.

FEBRUARY

INGREDIENTS

Lonicera periclymenum (honeysuckle)

Iris reticulata ‘Blue’ and ‘Katherine’s Gold’ (netted iris)

Helleborus x hybridus ‘Harvington Black’, ‘Harvington White Speckled’, ‘Merlin’ (Christmas rose)

Narcissus bulbicodium (petticoat daffodil)

Narcissus ‘Elka’ (daffodil)

Luzula sylvatica (greater woodrush)

VASE

Seika bowl (Aesme Studio design)

Small cap of chicken wire

NOTES

Black (or almost-black) flowers can be challenging because they can look like dark holes in an arrangement, especially in dim light. The early- blooming, pale lemon daffs and iris are a good foil - soft but also picking up the yellow stamens of the hellebores. To bridge the gap I ensure the other ingredients are muted and dusky - plum hellebores and the small grey leaves of honeysuckle which are just beginning to unfurl.

We transplanted the woodrush to our cutting garden from our parents’ old garden in Oxford and they are now thriving in the damp shade of a tree, happily ensconced among ferns.

Tips: Once you’ve finished placing flowers use up any leafy off-cut stems to fill in holes around the edges of your arrangement - waste not, want not.

RETURN TO RECIPES

Fiery fruits

HELLEBORE, ROSEHIP, EPIMEDIUM & CRABAPPLES

An autumnal concoction for spring ~ colourful foliage, pistachio hellebores, crabapples, rosehips and wisps of dried ornamental grasses.

FEBRUARY

INGREDIENTS

Rosa ‘Rambling Rector’

Rosa rugosa (Japanese rose)

Rubus fruticosus (blackberry)

Epimedium (fairy wings)

Eleagnus ebbingei (silverberry)

Nandina domestica (sacred bamboo)

Hypericum perforatum (St John's wort)

Helleborus x ballardiae ‘Candy Love’ (Christmas rose)

Malus (crab apple)

VaSE

Ceramic bowl in a textured mustard glaze (approx. 13cm diameter)

Kenzan

NOTES

I comb the garden for interesting textures - hips, berries, grasses and crabapples - and a varied selection of leaves in different shapes and colours. Using the fine stems of the rose prunings, I create a loose outline ‘V’ or ‘U’ shape, walking the flowers through the middle and interspersing with crowds of the fiery fruits.

A tip: at this time of the year we have to be creative since there is still so little in flower in the garden, especially if it has been a cold winter. It’s always a worthwhile exercise to walk outside and see what is happening with the plants as there is usually something that we can use as a jumping-off point for a design.

 

Prunings

HELLEBORE, ROSEHIP, BRAMBLE

A lush arrangement of foliage, rose prunings and hellebores in a brass footed bowl.

FEBRUARY

INGREDIENTS

Nandina domestica ‘Obsessed’ (sacred bamboo)

Trachelospermum jasminoides (star jasmine)

Hedera helix (ivy)

Helleborus ‘Ice n’Roses’, ‘Harvington Apricot’ & ‘Molly’s White’ (Christmas rose / lenten rose)

Rubus fruitcosus (blackberry)

Rosa (rose)

VASE

Brass bowl (approx. 13 cm diameter)

Kenzan

Chicken wire

NOTES

We try to utilise as much of our ‘waste’ product as possible from the garden - waste not, want not, as they say! Prunings, cutbacks, weeds - many of these natural byproducts can still have a use in our arrangements and be a beautiful nod to the season and what’s going on in the garden. This week Jess pruned all the roses which meant, for me, rosehip offcuts! We are deep into hellebore season so I chose three varieties, along with fine necklaces of ivy vine for a dishevelled ‘secret garden’ effect.