One of my goals for 2020 was to really invest in my blog again. The last couple of years I have explored ways to take my work more offline and experimented with a lot more local design work and freelance photography. I’m definitely a 42 year old that is still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. I TRY a lot of things. And one thing I have really discovered after dipping my toes in a lot of different waters, is that I LOVE blogging. I am almost 9 years into this, and I’m not ready to give up on Oleander + Palm yet. I know folks don’t read blogs as much as they did even 3 years ago, but I’m proud of this little corner of the internet that I’ve put so much time and energy into. So, let’s have some fun again, and I think I want to start a new series.

My goal is to share a floral arrangement every month here. I am NOT a florist and definitely don’t think I am an expert in this field at all. It’s just a medium I want to play with more. So, I thought I would take you along with my little creative experiment. Because, who doesn’t like flowers? Even if I mess it up, how can it not be pretty when you are working with flowers?

In the future, I will shoot a lot more step by step for you.

I’m going to do my best to share the “recipe” for this arrangement I put together. I used my favorite vase which has a floral frog top to it. I love this vase because I can get a full, wide arrangement without using floral oasis (which really is not great for the environment).

It’s February, so all I wanted was to add PINK to our home. I went to my local floral wholesale shop and just shopped for inspiration. The sweet peas where the first thing to catch my eye. We got married in the summer of 1998 in Alberta, Canada. For our table centerpieces at the reception, we gathered sweet peas for neighbors yards. So sweet peas feel nostalgic and familiar to me. Sweet peas are delicate and fragile without being too exotic. They are wild and untamed and that’s really how I like more flowers best. And is there really any better smell on earth than sweet peas in a garden? Once I had the pink sweet peas, I just started adding layers of colors and textures that seemed to work together. I like the idea of breaking rules, so adding a protea felt a little quirky. Poppies and sweet peas feel a lot more country garden than the tropical vibes a protea gives off. So, I went with it.

I started off by foraging boxwood stems from our yard. Most arrangements need a base of green foliage to help them look full and alive. This is the part of an arrangement where I feel like you can save some money. Greenery can often be gathered from shrubs, trees and even weeds. I added 6-8 branches of the boxwood to the vase.

Next I placed the Protea just the the right of the center. This is a very large heavy flower, so I kept it quiet low.

My florist had very long stems on the sweet peas, this not always the case, especially when you grow them yourself. But, I kept these as long as I could and placed all 10 stems and started to create the shape of the arrangement. I like one side to be a little heavier then the other.

The Astilbe is a fantastic filler and this blush adds so much color. I kept most of these stems a little shorter than the sweet peas.

Because poppies can have a fun quirk or twist to their stems, I chose to add these right at the end. I wanted them to stand out and add a little architectural interest. And then at the end, I added a few pink roses from my yard. I don’t even know if they really were necessary, but any excuse to add something that we actually grew is fun.

Here’s the flowers I used:

• White Iceland Poppies (10 stems)
• Pink Sweet Peas (10 stems)
• Boxwood (foraged from my yard)
• Protea Ice Pink (1 stem)
• Blush Astilbe (10 stems)
• Optional – Pink Roses (3 stems)

As the week has progressed, this arrangement has just gotten better with time. A lot of the poppies where still just buds when I assembled it, but they have all opened now. I’ve had this arrangement on my mantel for 6 days now and it’s still very pretty. It is out of any direct sun, so I feel like I’ve prolonged it’s life a little.

So, here’s the question, do we like this as a new series?