Sure, we all love an expertly curated centrepiece of expensively bought flowers, but to bring everyday cheer to your home, why run to a florist for pricey blooms? A simple arrangement of readily available seasonal flowers or backyard branches and green leaves can add just as much impact.So, we asked two houseproud ladies from different climatic belts of the country—south and north—to share their secrets of easy-to-make arrangements from foraged fare. Here they are, proving that you don’t need to be a professional florist to create a stunning display.
Maya Joseph, who has a manufacturing unit for lighting fixtures in Kochi, also spends a couple of days a week at her rubber plantation in the hills at Kanjirapally, a 100 km away. The garden of her house there is lush and green with all manner of vegetation, both cultivated and wild. So, for arrangement (1), she has used the orange peacock flower, also called Pride of Barbados (Caesalpinia pulcherrima), along with Amazon Blue/Brazilian Snapdragon (Otacanthus caeruleus). These have been put together with Shyama tulsi and assorted leaves from her various shrubs and trees.
Arrangement (2) couldn’t be simpler—Joseph has simply snipped an assortment of crotons in vivid browns, greens and yellows and paired with heliconias, all growing within her compound.On the other side of the Vindhyas, Pushpita Singh, a jewellery designer by profession but avid gardener by passion, grows every imaginable organic vegetable and fruit at her farm on the banks of the river Yamuna in Noida. Besides yielding a constant rich harvest, the farm is also Singh’s chief resource for her exceptional ikebana arrangements.So, for arrangement (3), she has created a unique vignette using the branch of a Shammi tree, a dried neem bark and a leafy Mandarin branch with some oranges still hanging on it.
We’ve all seen broccoli the vegetable, but have you seen the beautiful yellow broccoli flower? Singh has used a bunch of these along with cauliflower leaves (yes, you read right, the ones we normally throw away) for an extremely eye-catching display (see 4).