Garden to Vase: Iris, fennel and a gifted peony

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Join me in the vid above to be taken through each plant I scavenged from my garden plus tips on how to build an arrangement (from an amateur FOR fellow enthusiastic amateurs!).

I think the outcome is super quirky but that’s all part of the easy going creativity of playing around with your own flowers for your own home. The fun part of this was introducing a glorious, NZ grown peony, something I am totally unsuccessful in growing. Mixing bought flowers with your own is incredibly enjoyable and if anything, might inspire you to increase the diversity of your own planting.

I also relished the chance to nibble some short branches of that incredibly plump flowering kowhai with this interesting mix of shapes in a vase made by Felicity Donaldson Smith of Wundaire, one

RECIPE

For this crazy arrangement I used…

A beautiful, export quality peony as part of a delivery sent to me by Feel Good with Flowers - a promotional body working with flower growers and florists in New Zealand.

Bearded iris
Fennel flowers
Geum
Mini chrysanthemums (self seeded)
Aquilegia foliage and flowers
Kowhai flowers

Lovely vase made by Wundaire
Curled length of coated chicken wire pushed deeply into vase to fit snugly. Not too squashed though as need to space to thread stems through.
 
All but the peony are what I have in my late spring garden. A strange mix that has made for a playful result. Just go out and cut what you can, and try mixing with a bought bunch.

Vase by Wundaire - Studio Home Gardening

GUIDE:

  • Plunge all stems immediately into a jug of water as soon as possible after picking. Important to keep them hydrated.

  • Prepare or “condition” your stems by trimming off all leaves or branches that will be below the water line in the vase. This promotes cleaner water for longer vase life.

  • Before placing each stem into the arrangement, I do a quick re-snip of the ends again.

  • I used a piece of chicken wire, 1.5 ish times larger than my vessel, curled it then pushed to fit snugly below the rim of the vase. Due to using “lightweight” plants and the snug fit of the wire in the vase, I didn’t use florists “pot tape” to grid over the rim for support. If wire was lose I would as the plants do often pull it out and over!
    If you are into using wide necked vases you can order florists “pot tape” easily online. It’s handy!

  • I began building the the arrangement with the foliage first (aquilegia - aka granny bonnet). I threaded them into the wire, roughing out an outline and setting my height. Some pieces shorter and swopping low and away from the vase at the ends, with a taller, off centre piece to create the horizon.

  • As this was arrangement was to sit on a mantle piece, I built it with a “flat” back, keeping attention and depth from the front and sides.

  • Then I began adding foliage to “backfill” the lower areas of the arrangement and deciding on an off centre position to highlight the heroine; peony. I supported her by trying to scatter the fennel flowers around her.

  • When adding the limited, garden picked flowers I have, I aim to either trianglulate them if I have only 3 or create an “across the arrangement” criss cross if only 2.

  • I added my one off tall piece of the iris kind of just where it wanted to go! Keeping it long as a quirky feature but attempting to balance the other side of the arrangement with the hefty fennel flower.

  • Don’t be afraid to pull out and reshuffle as your progress. Ultimately my aim is always for a slightly wild, “just picked” vibe which is much easier to achieve for us amateurs!

  • Once happy I took inside and topped it up right to the rim with water.

Julia Atkinson-Dunn - Studio Home Gardening - playing with flowers

CARE:

Top up your arrangement daily to keep things as fresh as possible. A lot of these flowers will fade before the foliage does, so consider re-using it in another arrangement.

As always, all imagery and video is created by me at home in Christchurch, New Zealand with my homegrown flowers.