……garden rose, ranunculus, scented geranium leaves, chamomile, and craspedia, which were all lovely leftovers from a mock-up this weekend.

Karin and Brita with Cactus

I am better than anyone I know at neglecting houseplants.

This winter, though, I’ve successfully nurtured geraniums (helpful hint: geraniums like it dry….yellowing leaves is their cry for less water) and brought an orange thyme plant back from the brink of death.

But still my flowering cactus plant doesn’t bloom. It was given to me years ago with this advice….’it loves neglect, it doesn’t want much water, it likes to be cramped in it’s pot’. It sounded like the perfect plant! One day it may bloom in full glory. In the meantime I admire the beauties in Carl Larsson’s paintings….

And happily so. Finally we are getting our first big storm of the winter and it feels like such a relief. There have been bare spots in the fields for most of February and it has felt so strange.

The kitties are refusing to set foot outside today and I am following their lead. We are lounging by the fire and I’m subjecting them to Handel…..

Blomma Flicka Flowers is offering unique, hand-crafted arrangements for Valentine’s Day delivery.  Choose a standard size arrangement for $25 or place a custom order.

Arrangements may include poppies, ranunculus, peony, hyacinth, and helleborus.  Specific flower and color requests welcome.

Place orders by February 10 for Valentine’s Delivery.  Free delivery available in the Craftsbury, Greensboro, Albany area.

To order email Danika at info@blommaflicka.com or call 802-533-2158.

Should we be talking about flowers for your wedding or party and should I mention garden roses (”Garden roses would be lovely…..”), and then mention them again (”How about garden roses….?”) it is only because I love them so much.  You, of course, have full liberty to say you much prefer something else.

With that said, here are a few of my favorite things about these beauties……

1. Versatility.  Garden roses are so cooperative; they mix beautifully with most other flowers but are stunning alone, and they are as comfortable in casual garden arrangements as they are graceful in formal bouquets and centerpieces.

2. Fragrance.  Perhaps a poet could begin to capture their fragrance with words, but I am no poet……  If you were to imagine the sweetest natural fragrance possible and add a hint of lemon to this one, and a trace of vanilla to that one…..well, you might be close.

3. Color.  Soft shades, rich shades, bi-colors, pastels and primaries, oh my!  With new varieties developing all the time garden roses now come  in a full range of beautiful hues.  They are particularly useful as a transition between a couple or few colors.

4.  Organics.  Lucky for the environment and for us, we have found a garden rose farm that grows their roses organically.  That’s right…..beautiful roses that are completely free of pesticides, herbicides and post-harvest treatments!

The roses above are Evelyn.

photo: Corey Hendrickson

Then jump  in on Corey Hendrickson’s (www.hendricksonphotographyweddings.com) free engagement session contest at www.hpwcontest.com.  Act fast as the winner is announced February 1!

Now that the new issue of La Bella Bride is out I can share with you these pictures of the tabletop that Carrie (at www.storiedevents.com) and I did for the magazine last July.  Carrie did such a beautiful job with the whole design…..all I did was show up with flowers and a few cherry tomatoes.

There is a Little Story that goes with these photos…..

The night before the photo shoot I was in the flower shop arranging for the shoot when I found out a friend was dying.  So much for caring about how the yellow peonies looked next to the peach garden roses…….try as I might, I could not focus, I could not stop crying.  The bouquets were put together, and then taken apart.  And then put together, and taken apart.  And put together, and taken apart…..and put together, and…..

And then!!! in walked my sister and brother!!!!…..bearing hot food!!  I sat down to eat and my sister starting playing with the bouquets.  My brother simultaneously chatted, flipped through Martha Stewart Wedding magazines, and gave my sister across-the-room feedback on the bouquets.  He is a true multi-tasker.  Before long I was headed home, bouquets complete, stomach full.

These arrangements will always make me think How Lucky I Am To Have My Brothers and Sister and How Much I Miss Jan.

A true mish-mash of….yellow peonies, tulips, pansies, snapdragons, yarrow, dahlia, cherry tomatoes, garden rose, day lily, zinnia, craspedia, and begonia.

These flowers were for a 60th surprise birthday party last Saturday at the Stowehof Inn ( www.stowehofinn.com).

It was such a good day for a winter birthday…..it was crisp cold and sunny outside, the Inn was toasty warm, and the horse-drawn sleigh was giving rides.   As a little birthday bonus, the muscari and hyacinth in these arrangements smelled like a little bit of Spring.

With hydrangea, muscari, hyacinth, tulip, wax flower, ranunculus, japanese rose, nerrine lily, and lysimachia.

Happy New Year!   Is it too late to say that?   It probably is, but I’m struggling to date things ‘10 instead of ‘09, so it still feels new to me.

I am settling back in after being in NYC all of December making and selling wreaths with my sister.   Here are how things looked in Brooklyn on a Sunday morning in late December after eight inches of snow fell….