Florabundance: Blooming Pages and A Flower Fix

Florabundance and A Flower Fix: Perennial favorites from my flower bed of inspiration and their blooming pages!

I’m joining Jain, at a quiet life, playing with books and sharing some perennial favorites, full of florabundance!

You may have noticed I have a ‘thing’ for flowers . . .

In arrangements with the fruits of the season. . .

At the table. . .

In dishes and in jars.

 I’m sharing some perennial favorites from my flower bed of inspiration and their blooming pages!

I can’t begin do all these books justice in one post so I’m highlighting three of my favorite books. Starting with a book out this spring and full of beauty and inspiration, Charlotte Moss: Garden Inspirations.

Charlotte Moss: Garden Inspirations:

Celebrated interior designer and renowned tastemaker Charlotte Moss turns her eye to the garden as a resource for interiors, entertaining, and good living. Charlotte Moss’s greatest muse is the garden, and this book shows the myriad ways the garden provides inspiration every day—indoors and outdoors.

Touring readers through her own gardens, Moss offers insights on how to bring the garden into home life—including ideas for elegant flower arrangements from the garden and the table settings and menus they inspire, garden seating for entertaining and relaxing, interior color schemes drawn from nature, and much more.

Flowers by Carolyne Roehm, a flower garden in a book! Big, beautiful and lush with large pages and over 300 photos in vivid color.

Flowers:

With a gardener’s intimate understanding and a designer’s elegant eye, Roehm shows the flowers she has cultivated for decades in and around Weatherstone, her historic Connecticut home.

While alternating dramatic close-ups with portraits of lovely arrangements and sweeping views of her land, Roehm writes with wit, emotion, and affection of what flowers have meant to her, as well as of the joys and travails of the committed gardener’s life.

“The earth laughs in flowers” –  a favorite quote for some chalkboard inspiration.

I’m a big fan of Paula Pryke, Britain’s acclaimed master floral designer and author of numerous bestselling books.

Decorating with Flowers: Classic and Contemporary Arrangements:

Paula Pryke’s floral artistry goes beyond the traditional arrangement-in-a-vase—her signature concepts include using nontraditional containers, unexpected accessories (e.g., candles or fruit), combining unusual colors, textures, and architectural forms.

Packed with ideas, skills, and techniques, this book explores the latest trends in floral design for any season and encourages readers to let their creativity and personal style flow.

I picked some flowers at the Farmers Market for flower fix. . .

 A cheery summery bouquet and guaranteed spirit lifter for the August blues that comes with a long summer of heat and humidity.

I stripped the leaves that would be below the waterline, removing the excess foliage, and damaged petals and recut the stems at a 45 degree angle for maximum water uptake.  I placed them in a clean bucket with room temperature water and some floral preservative to condition them and let them sit overnight.

 I used the “float soak” method and placed the floral foam bricks on the top of a solution of fresh water and floral preservative. You find see a diagram and directions on how to soak your wet floral foam correctly here.

I added some apples and limes with floral picks for filler and punch of green to go with the bright pinks and purples of the dahlias, asters and lisianthus to the arrangement.

I thrilled to have a surprise visitor while I was taking photos of my flowers . . .

A monarch butterfly dropped by for a little nectar sipping from the pink spikes of celosia.

I was all aflutter over a second monarch butterfly sighting in a week!

Hope you’re surviving the heat and finding a way to beat the August blues!

Thank you for your visit, sharing with:

 Metamorphosis Monday, The Scoop