amy and i took a trip to terrain last friday to stock up on green things, so i’ve got terrariums on the brain. so i was excited to hear from lauren at litill about these beautiful terrariums they’re selling. the glass structures themselves are a wide variety of organic shapes- the perfect structures for housing tiny growing things. litill makes 9 different types of terrariums, ranging in price from $125-$375. so if you’re looking to have a tiny garden delivered to your door, click here to check out litill’s collection and place an order. [thanks, lauren!]

*click here to watch tassy from sprout home show us how to make a terrarium from the soil up!

Avoid adding to the glut of office chocolate and candy hearts this Valentine’s Day by bringing a bit of of the outside in. You don’t need to be head-over-heels in love with someone to add some sweetness and color to their day, and these bite-sized arrangements are guaranteed brighten up any cubicle.

We recycled a heart-shaped box to use as our tray (spray-painted white) and mini tins as our candy cups (we found ours in the baking section of Bed, Bath and Beyond and spray-painted them gold). Once your paint has dried, arrange the cups in your box the way that candy would sit in a candy box. Add a small amount of water to each cup, enough to keep your stems wet but not so much that they’ll spill over on the drive to work. Choose a few scoops of your favorite flowers to artfully distribute to the tiny cups. The nice thing about this project is that you can use smaller flowers that are sometimes too small and delicate to work into large arrangements. Cut short stems and sort them into the cups. We used narcissus, quince blossoms, and ranunculus but any small flowers will do fine. Add the lid and secure with a ribbon. Be careful transporting them and be sure to keep the box level (that’s why we kept the water low).

Pass out the mini-arrangements or let your coworkers choose their favorite ones. The arrangements may only last a few days, but that’s a few days more than a box of candy would last and with so fewer calories. Don’t forget to save one for your desk, too!

CLICK HERE for more lovely images after the jump!

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Six more weeks of winter, blah, blah, blah. One morning last week, New York awoke to a surprise snow storm after several heavenly days of non-freezing temperatures. It could have been a heartbreaking reminder that we’re still in the dead of winter but instead, I decided to make this F.U. winter wreath. Wreathes are a touchy subject. Evergreens are nice at the holidays, but feel out of place after the main event is over. Fake flower wreathes send terrified shivers down my spine and dried flower wreathes aren’t too much better. Yet, as winter lingers on, I feel compelled to gussy up the front door, pseudo-spring style. Wild and branchy wreathes, devoid of the terrifying “country” connotations, are a much needed reminder that winter will soon be on the way out. -amy m.

CLICK HERE for the full how-to after the jump!

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when it comes to west coast garden style, i can think of few places i admire more than flora grubb. the first time i visited this incredible san francisco nursery/shop was with heidi and i think i would have stayed all day had their not been the promise of a delicious lunch on the horizon. so i was thrilled to hear from susie nadler at flora grub about her new business venture ‘the cutting garden‘, a cut flower studio at flora grubb gardens.

susie’s husband is flora’s business partner and after talking and working with flora, they all decided that fresh flowers would be a great way to expand the services offered at flora grubb. the cutting garden designs a wide range of beautiful arrangements (made from seasonal, california-grown materials) or your home, special events, or offices, and also runs a beautiful floral blog on the flora grubb site. one of susie’s goals is to help people become comfortable with cutting from their own gardens and arranging stems themselves, so susie will be helping customers with tips and tools of the trade for keeping the look of cut flowers going in your home. i’m so excited to check out the cutting garden in person, but until then i’ll be staring at these arrangements on a regular basis. if you’re in the area, drop by flora grubb to check out the new cutting garden, or visit them on the web right here. looking for valentine’s day gifts? flora grubb has a great online v-day selection right here.

*click here and here to check out more work from the cutting garden and flora grubb! thanks, susie!

The return of one of our favorites to local farms here in California makes the cool and rainy month of January (and we’ve had some rain this week!) a bit brighter. When ranunculus come back into season their size and color variations can’t be beat. Sometimes there are flowers within one family that have such a wide range of personalities that they can play a variety of venues. The ranunculus is that flower for us. They can be as dense, intense and petal-packed as a garden rose, or as light and airy as tissue-weight poppies. Their arching buds and frilly leaves make amazing additions to any arrangement.
The ranunculus is from the same family as the buttercup and a relative of the anemone, but has a more complex petal pattern and comes in a wider variety of colors. They are a tuberous-rooted plant and the most common variety used as a cut flower is the Ranunculus Asiaticus, or Persian Buttercup. The name comes from the Latin “rana”, meaning “frog” (after the moist environments where many members of the Ranunculaceae family typically grow). We raided our image archives for some of our favorite ranunculus arrangements and to show you the wide variety of colors these beauties come in.

Ranuncs from the farmer’s market are perfect (and inexpensive) for creating easy displays around your home. A bright row of jewel toned clusters makes a beautiful centerpiece substitute- create bouquets in your hand by lining up the blossoms, cut short, and place in your favorite small cups. For a more gardeny feel leave them long and leafy and showcase individual stems in a collection of clear glass bottles.

We love that these flowers can be just as at home on the kitchen table with a few sprigs of green as they are with some more unusual pairings, such as succulents or citrus fruits. A cluster of pristine white ranunculus could easily be mistaken for garden roses upon first glance, and the multitude of petals, sometimes 25 rows deep, adds amazing depth to a bouquet. As an added bonus they usually last for a couple of weeks, and like us they get better as they age.

CLICK HERE for more lovely ranunculus images and arrangements after the jump!

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In honor of the new year we’ve decided to redouble our efforts to use locally grown flowers and produce in as many as arrangements as possible. This week was the perfect week to get started again: a little bit of rain and a little bit of warm sun meant that the fields have been pushing up new blooms all over our favorite local flower farms. Thanks to Northern California’s mild seasons and fertile soil, we’re blessed with amazing fruits and flowers throughout the year.

During the wintertime California’s citrus fruits reach their peak meaning that we have a huge assortment of bright and tasty oranges, tangerines, and clementines to add some zest to our arrangements and our plates. While shopping the market we came across an oft overlooked member of the citrus family, the kumquat, and decided to make these little guys one of the featured players in this week’s post. Alongside some farm fresh ranunculus and rosemary from our backyard, we’ve put together a few ideas that are both fanciful and fragrant.

Rosemary and citrus seem to go hand in hand. Rosemary’s pine scent compliments the clean and fresh sparkle of the citrus’ bouquet. Winding and weaving a few long switches of rosemary together makes a perfectly sweet-smelling nest to protect a few choice kumquat “eggs” on the dining table. Similarly, rosemary and kumquats are the perfect pair when added to bouquets and boutonnieres of citrus-colored ranunculus, leaving marvelously subtle smells in their wake.

Of course, there were so many lovely members of the citrus family calling out to us at the farmer’s market, we couldn’t leave anyone behind. We gathered a good armload to make some of Alethea’s Four Fruits Marmalade. The recipe is after the jump below!

CLICK HERE for the rest of studio choo’s post and the full recipe for their four fruits marmalade!

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[today i'm thrilled to share a special guest floral post from one of my favorite flower school girls, nicolette of nicolette camille! click here to see a tour of nicolette's beautiful brooklyn home]

Icelandic Poppies are one of my winter favorites; crimped, ruffled, luscious & elegant (and fuzzy)! The delicate petals unfurl like crepe paper from their fuzzy casings. Often the petals will have a slight color variation creating a pretty ombre effect. They have an unusual sweet fragrance and long wiry hairy stems.

Large and showy, these blossoms look stunning all by themselves or delicately poised in more elaborate arrangements. For a simple arrangement cut several stems at different lengths and let them show off there sinuous stems. You can peel off their bud casings to reveal the flowers for a more showy look. (start at the base of the flower, where the bud meets the stem, and gently peel the casing up slowly and gingerly as to not tear the delicate petals inside). I like to leave some of them as buds for variation.

Poppies should be cut while in bud and the stems need to be sealed to help preserve its longevity as a cut flower. When cut, the stems exude a milky sap (this can be a mild skin irritant so handle with care). You can seal the stems by dipping the tips for a few seconds in boiling water, or singe the ends with a match. These beauties are fleeting, lasting around 3-4 days as a cut flower.

While perusing a lovely book of Alphonse Mucha’s gorgeous art nouveau drawings, I was inspired by how heavily adorned all of his ladies were with flowers. I love their elaborate floral headdresses and thought these poppies would be perfect for a headdress.

CLICK HERE for 4 more beautiful poppy pictures from nicolette after the jump!

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Nicolette and I have been up to our ears teaching at the Little Flower School. Prerequisites abound. Geometry, for example; obviously REQUIRED. But we’re not talking about your average textbook Trig, we require advanced spherical trigonometry; and if you don’t know what that is, let’s just say it’s of utmost importance in the fields of astronomy, earth-surface/orbital and space navigation and floral arranging.

Got your pencil?…and excuse me, but is that gum you’re chewing?!

The average floral arrangement consists of what we describe as a string of “moments,” (clusters of 3 or 5 flowers that relate tonally or structurally and serve as general focal points) suspended – if you will – in the spacetime-floral-continuum, and illustrated in diagram 1.1. These moments can be seen from any given angle, and change as the perspective of the viewer rotates around the axis given as the center of the arrangement and are subject to infinite interpretation depending on the history and aesthetic predispositions of the onlooker [ex. 1: Carnations may remind some of a wrist corsage given at a first dance, velvet lycra, and C&C Music Factory. ex. 2: Lilly of the valley elicits memories of grandmothers in 79% of American women].

Such moments in general follow an organizational process that can be categorized simply by a theory of Triangles (as illustrated in diagram 1.0, and not to be confused with the concept of “love triangle” or with Robert Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love ), the eye generally is drawn first to the widest base angle which we’ll call a, travels up along the a-b axis, pauses at the highest point or gesture B (a flower that perhaps extends a bit beyond), and then glides down the b-c axis. As illustrated in diagram 1.2, the arc formed between the…You know what, PASS THAT NOTE UP HERE RIGHT NOW.

Summing up, we remember that flowers grouped in odd numbers are generally easier on the eye. If you’re purchasing stems at a flower shop, buy 3 or 5 stems of ranunculus. Two stems grouped together often resemble antenna, unless you cut one significantly shorter than the other, thus mimicking the way flowers tend to grow in nature.

Now go forth and triangulate!

Note: Study arrangement contained: French Anemones, Lichen covered branches, Ranunculus, Yellow Cypress, Dusty Miller, Pine cones (wired), Astrantia, Seeded Eucalyptus, and Ranunculus buds.

i’m not a big fan of new year’s resolutions (mostly because i can never keep them), but i am a big fan of setting small short-term goals each month and working towards them. so this year i’m “resolving” to make more of my short term goals plant-related. i’ve started to notice that even the teeniest bits of green in my life make me exponentially happier. so when is saw these miniature terrariums from tortoise loves donkey at etsy (around $5 each) i was inspired to indulge in my new found love for baby plants (i got 6 mini baby’s tears plants at terrain last month!) and terrariums at the same time. i’ve been scouring my kitchen this morning looking for tiny vessels (vanilla extract bottles? vintage glass pill bottles?) to fill with mini plants like these. they would be the perfect thing to surprise friends with- small enough to carry around, but cute enough to count as a “just because” gift. click here to pick up one of these from etsy, or click here to learn how to build your own terrarium from tassy of sprout home (just scale down the amounts to fit your tiny vessel).

i think my brain is already on vacation mode, so i’m starting things off today with a little floral love from two of my favorite floral girls, and d*s editors, sarah ryhanen and amy merrick* of saipua. i turn to the saipua blog each week for a little dose of gorgeousness and this post definitely didn’t disappoint. click here to check out more floral beauty at my favorite brooklyn flower shop…

*poor amy merrick’s laptop crashed this weekend so her living in column will take a break this week and return after the holiday. she will however have her diy column ready for tomorrow. until then, please send her some good hard drive recovery vibes!