A Flower Revolution
Farm to table flowers?
Yes, there’s a new movement toward gathering seasonal flowers and arranging them so the individual beauty of each flower is appreciated.
Gone are the masses of dahlias crammed together in a vase, suffocating in mid-winter after a journey on airplanes and boats from fields far away in Mexico.
Now we gather flowers as they bloom in the early spring, summer and fall. We pick just what is enough from our gardens and fields.
And remarkably we’re starting to realize what the Tea Masters of the last four hundred years have always known.
We arrange the flowers as though they were growing wild in a field. We allow each element of the flower to shine so that the shape of the leaves, the color of the blossom, the delicacy of the blooms are not hidden. In this way we are reminded of the beautiful and fleeting nature of life.
More about flowers
Tea Style Video
How to arrange flowers
How to arrange flowers in the Tea Style To begin, choose an odd number of flowers plus a grass. Each flower should be a different color and shape with a different leaf pattern. Wash and clean the leaves to remove any dirt, and re-cut the stems under water. The water...
Trillium satori
Yesterday, as I was walking through my garden with a friend, she discovered this wonderful and mysterious Trillium - a precious, native orchid. It was hidden away and I had no idea it was in the garden. Did I plant this years ago and forget about it? A Trillum is...
The last of the Camellias
Winter is over and so too are Camellias. They bloom from December into early April. Here are the last blooms from my plants which I overwinter in a cold room in my house.
Flowers of late summer
Late summer is here. Goldenrod has appeared which is always the first sign of autumn. Purple loosestrife and Queen Anne's Lace are everywhere in fields. Besides the flowers growing in my own garden, I've been out picking from the roadside. Here's what I picked from my...
Camellias
In winter a Camellia is the preferred flower in the tearoom. It blooms from October through April. Each flower may last for several days but only the bud is used with a deciduous branch from a shrub or tree such as Viburnam or Fothergilla. The structure of the branch...
Spring wish list
It"s almost February and today it"s snowing. I"m starting to put together my spring wish list.
Oh joy, oh rapture
Oh joy, oh rapture This is the name of a lily I planted a couple of years ago. I thought the name was kind of arbitrary and wonderfully poetic. I didn't get it until tonight in late July when I walked out into the night, my garden illuminated only by the full moon. I...
June flowers
The basket is in the shape of an upside down Korean gentleman"s hat. The flowers: the first lily of the season, a Penstemon, my favorite Chinese Meadowrue, a Balloon flower and a Miscanthus grass.
