My local Farmers Market was selling these gorgeous pink Dahlias and I just had to have them. The colour made me think of spring and I thought: "Maybe I can make an arrangement and pretend it is spring!" Not because I don't like autumn because I do, I like the autumn very much. It is a wonderful season in the UK and London has it's own micro climate. The weather is very mild with a lot of clear bright blue skies and many flowers are still in bloom and leaves stays longer on the trees.
Dahlias are one of my favourite flowers and it is most definitely not a spring flower, so my dreams of spring did not last for very long. I did the arrangement as a hand-tied bunch which simply means holding the bunch in one hand and adding to it with the other. It makes a more densely packed arrangement and you have more control over the shape. When you are finished you cut the stems and tie it with raffia or string; or if you use a vase that is not too wide you can put the bunch straight in the vase. In this case I used a vintage metal milk pail from Sweden.
In a small pail I made a separate arrangement using variegated Pittosporum. The little vintage pail was probably originally for cream and is also from Sweden.
The cut branches of Pittosporum comes from my neighbours garden, but I have just bought one for my own garden from Crocus. I like the variegation as well as the slightly wavy edges of the leaves and the contrasting dark coloured stems.
As cut branches for flower arranging it is perfect and lasts for ages, a must for anybody who likes arranging flowers.
The old metal milk pail is from the 1950's and made by a Swedish company called Skultuna. The company is 400 years old and is still designing and producing mainly brass products.
I had fun painting some small wooden blocks with different colours. I was picking up the pink in the Dahlias and the grey in the pails and as I often do I used Farrow & Ball colours. The grey is Elephant's Breath and the pink is Cinder Rose, they are both beautiful chalky matt colours.
I buy the wooden cubes from a company called Craftshapes.
I love all the textures, contrasting sizes and different materials; hard & soft, small & large, glass, wood and metal as well as the colours in the plant material mixed with the softer greys.
This very large glass funnel is a vintage apothecary funnel from Sweden. It is clearly marked as made in Germany and it has some rather unusual ridges on the inside - I am not sure why.
I stuck a cut branch of Pittosporum in the narrow end of the funnel. It will obviously not last for very long without water so I did it was just for fun. I thought it made lots of interesting angles and lines in the image.
Have a lovely day!
xoxo Ingrid
(text/styling/photography: ingrid henningsson)