Archive for the ‘GARDENS’ Category

To the garden:

 

Blogging is so not a summer sport. Happy Sunday!

Photos via Pinterest

While in San Fran I spotted this house and I just had to take a picture… I absolutely love what they did with the hill in the front yard. Instead of leaving it all grass, or even landscaping it with various flowers, they covered the front lawn with one beautiful weedy looking purple flower. 

Isnt it so simple, sophisticated and chic? Its like the garden version of simple wildflowers in glass jars…

I totally dig. Do you?

Its peony season in NYC… the bodegas are stocked with em…

Just in time for Mother’s Day.

Today’s NYTimes Style magazine has a great article on what to do with even the humblest of flowers: the NY bodega bouquet… (you know the one your well meaning husband brings home not knowing its hideous?) I love this article because I have been meaning to do a post like this for almost a year! I once actually bought to hideous bouquets and I COULDNT master them so I never posted it!

So, not only did I learn a lot from this article, I figured I would pass it on to all of you.

The article has Brooklyn-based florists Sarah Ryhanen and Nicolette Owen, who also run the Little Flower School, shop at a local NYC bodega and give some pointers on how to create breathtaking arrangements with them.

Some of their tips:

 

1. Build 3 Tiers:

Owen and Ryhanen encourage deli-flower shoppers to buy in tiers: bulky, real-estate-hogging items like cherry blossom branches, heather and lilies to create form, structure and a foundation (first tier); showy “face” flowers like tea roses and hyacinths to give a bouquet focus (second); and a gestural, attention-getting element like anemones or tiny undeveloped carnation buds for a sense of finish (third). “The face flowers you usually want to do in clusters of two or three — don’t spread them around, but do stagger their heights,” Owen says. “In placing them you want to avoid any suggestion of eyes, headlights, ears, antennas, arms or boobs. The massing rule also applies to color: like tones together.” Above all, as Ryhanen always tells her students, resist the impulse to build a pyramid: “Asymmetry creates movement.”

2. WHEN IN DOUBT, GO MONOCHROME.

To save supermarket bouquets first ditch the dyed Eucalyptus and other un-saveable flowers, then group the remaining flowers by type and color in different vessels and cluster them together to create an arrangement.

3. EACH STEM SHOULD BE A DIFFERENT LENGTH.

Cut the stems at different lengths — some as short as a few inches, depending on the holder — and place them one by one, being sure to at least partially mask the holder’s lip.

 

Click HERE to read the full article and see more photos.

NYC is filled with secret sources for all things awesome. And by secret- I mean, totally well known to everyone but me. But I figure if I dont know about it, you may not either!

There is a flower market on 28th street in NYC, duh. If you wake up at the crack of dawn, you can get the best selection of flowers in the city, stuff that is out of season and normal florists might not have. (Its slightly intimidating, but you just have to pretend you know what you are talking about.)

Every time I buy flowers, I lament my complete lack of good flower vases. I have about a billion vases, but all of them look particularly awful with flowers in them. The mouths are all too narrow. So Erica, of Design Blahg glory, took me to Jamali Floral and Garden Supplies a few days ago…. Also known as prop stylist heaven.

They have just about EVERY SINGLE type of vase, container and garden supply that you could ever want.

And since I have a long standing obsession with all things brass, I almost squealed aloud in delight when I found these:

$20- $36$18

$10

$45

These are the ones I bought, the 6″ cylinder polished brass cylinder. I bought 2, because when in doubt- buy pairs. This is how Martha styled those babies for a wedding. I could have down without the number 2.

And here they are at my house! I had some lovely white hydrangeas in them yesterday, but those have a lifespan of about 25 minutes in my apartment, so I replaced them.

Of course, Jamali has more than just brass vases… but they literally have everything, so you really must go see for yourself. Luckily, they have a website.

JAMALI FLORAL & GARDEN SUPPLIES 149 WEST 28TH STREET (6TH AND 7TH AVES) HOURS: 6:30-5:00(M-S)

TEL 212.244.4025

FAX 212.967.8196