My Favourite Flower

A couple of weeks ago, I shared some thoughts with you about the future of this blog and how I see it going forward, which is actually by going back to my original vision.  Part of that vision was some regular features and another part was including one of my passions, and that passion is flowers. Flowers have always been an important part of my life, from painstakingly copying images out of A Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady as a child, to taking cuttings with my beloved Gran in her garden.  So today, I am very pleased to introduce my first monthly column; My Favourite Flower. Each month I will be asking a fellow blogger to share their favourite flower with me here on the blog, along with the reason they love it, and a few photos to show how they like to display it in their home.  I hope that you will find it an inspiring feature, I personally can't wait to hear all about other people's floral loves.

So let's say hello to my first guest, Sara from one of my favourite blogs Me and Orla, I first discovered Sara on instagram (whereelse!), and fell in love with her photos, and when I took a look at her blog, I was equally enthralled.  Sara blogs about moments from her life with her sweet daughter Orla, along with recipes, and captivating photographs of Yorkshire around the dream home she has recently moved to. I love everything about her blog, the way she writes and her photos, I highly recommend you take a look.

Here is what Sara has to say about her favourite flower:

For all I love the seasonal blooms - daffs for spring, peonies in the summer - the flower that most often makes it's way into my bag is plain old gypsophila.  Oh, it's not as showy and fragrant as some of its rivals, but its beauty lies in its simplicity.

Pale woody stems with tiny white flowers like clusters of stars - or baby's breath, to use the common name - gypsophila is affordable, long-lasting and available year-round.  It is just as elegant with it's long stems hastily jammed into an empty wine bottle as it is carefully woven into ornate wedding arrangements. You can even dry it and keep it for months!

I'm not one for complicated arrangements, so my gypsophila is usually chopped short and stuffed into jam jars and old milk bottles around the house. I can fill our whole home this way; a little jar beside the guest bed, a cluster on a sunny windowsill upstairs.

Writing this post for Emma, inspired me to have a go at something new, too, so I made a gypsophila wreath. It was ridiculously easy - I put together a quick tutorial over on Stellar if you fancy having a go.  Mine has found a forever home on my kitchen door and I couldn't be more proud.

Sara went way beyond what I expected when I asked her to be my first guest, and even included her top tips for gypsophila:

• Check the flowers are bright white and tightly together when you buy, to get the freshest cuts.
• Be sure to remove any leaves that will sit below the water line, as these will rot in the water and make your flowers fade more quickly.
• Don't be afraid to chop the blooms off the stems and experiment! I do this with all the 'granny flowers' that get a bad rep - carnations look unrecognisable on shorter stems!
• If you find your cut stems are too short to stand up in a deeper jar, a scrunch of clear cellophane in the bottom provides invisible underwater support.
• Finally, try something different - gypsophila's shape makes it perfect for a a wreath or garland, or a simple flower crown.

Thank you so much Sara, for being my very first guest for My Favourite Flower column, I love the photos and what you have written, and I am very tempted to have a go at making my own gypsophila wreath!

You can find Sara here:

• Blog - Me_and_Orla
• Instagram - Me_and_Orla
• Steller - Me_and_Orla
• Twitter - Me_and_Orla

Have a great weekend.

Emma x