SLOW FLOWERS: Week 16

April 21st, 2013

Fresh and Fragrant

A yummy spring bouquet – straight from local farms and fields

Another closeup – I can’t resist!

Ingredients:

10 stems purple lilacs (Syringa vulgaris), grown by Oregon Coastal Flowers

10 stems garden hellebores (Helleborus orientalis), grown by Jello Mold Farm

10 stems Fritillaria assyriaca, a spring-flowering bulb, grown by Choice Bulb Farms

Vase:

17-inch tall x 7-inch diameter cream urn

From the Farmer

Hellebore how-to: Anyone who grows hellebores in their garden knows how frustrating it is to cut a few blooms and bring them inside, only to watch them wilt in a vase of water. Now I enjoy success when I use hellebores in my bouquets, thanks to an important lesson shared by Diane Szukovathy, co-owner of Jello Mold Farm. “Harvest hellebores after they have matured past the flower stage and the seed pods are beginning to form,” she advises. “By then, the petals have started to leather up and those hellebores will be rock solid in an arrangement for ten days.”

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