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.