Description
Coffee Table Book of: Flower Arranging is a large format book of flower arranging, printed edge to edge in colour, one picture to a page and the widest carried across two: bouquets for every season, the spare lines of ikebana, flowers dried and bound into lasting arrangements, low centrepieces, buckets of fresh stems at dawn, the gardens and fields where the flowers grow, and the tools and quiet care of the craft.
The seasons turn through the vases: white cherry blossom with narcissus and tulips, pussy willow, forsythia, lilac and magnolia in spring; peonies, delphiniums, foxgloves, sweet peas, lilies, cosmos and a loose dome of garden flowers in summer; chrysanthemums, copper beech and rose hips in autumn; holly, pine and branches crowded with red berries in winter.
Ikebana sets a single branch against open space: plum blossom leaning from a tall vase, a curving pine over yellow chrysanthemums in a low black dish, three irises rising from a hidden pin holder, a branch of red maple leaves, white camellias on a bare branch and one stem of cherry blossom at dawn.
Dried flowers fill the quieter pages: lavender, strawflowers and grasses hanging in an old drying loft, hydrangea heads faded to rose and parchment, honesty, teasels, lotus pods and poppy seed heads, statice and potpourri, and wreaths of lavender and wheat on linen, eucalyptus on an old door and green fir on a post in the snow.
Short notes run through the book, on how cut flowers are chosen, conditioned and kept fresh, how an arrangement is built and held in place, and how flowers are dried for lasting colour: a clean cut from a sharp blade lets a stem keep drinking, while a blunt blade crushes it shut, many camellias drop their flowers whole, so the heads are often floated in a shallow bowl, wire netting crumpled inside a vase holds stems where they are placed, with no foam needed, and a dried lotus pod keeps its flat top, pitted with holes where the seeds once sat.
Printed in full colour on heavy 150gsm coated paper at 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 inches), as a paperback.
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