QUINCE, SPIRAEA, HELLEBORE
APRIL
Flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum 'White Icicle')
Hellebore (Helleborus 'Harvington Double Pink Speckled', 'Harvington Red' & 'Ice n' Roses')
Japanese spiraea (Spiraea japonica 'Firelight')
Ornamental quince (Chaenomeles speciosa)
Poppy anemone (Anemone coronaria 'De Caen')
Snakeshead fritillary (Fritillaria meleagris)
Snowmound spirea (Spiraea nipponica 'Snowmound')
Van Houtte's spirea (Spiraea vanhouttei)
A layered hand-tied bouquet of spindly spring branches and hellebores. I use the hand-vase technique (covered in detail in our forthcoming online course ‘Bouquets’), arranging the stems into my hand as if it were a vessel and allowing the ingredients space to breath and show off their individual curves and quirks. The branches sketch the outline shape, the leafy foliage also acting as filler for structure and support. The hellebores are the leading ladies - every flower head displaying interesting colour variation and I group these light-to-dark interspersing with the coral quince blossom. For movement and lightness the fritillaries and poppy anemone sway and dangle above the rest.
