Some Easter Sunday floral stories for reading with your Egg/s.
Beannachtaí na Cásca daoibh go léir!
Happy Easter to you all…
Well, Easter Sunday morning is one where I exhale the longest breath, a deep contentment because it is last of our 'big weekends of Hallmark work' and now Spring can really start for my head. The daffodils and primroses are still brightening all green patches around, there are ducklings swimming in clustered lines in our park lake closely herded by their folks and the cherry blossom trees, are abundantly showing off their candyfloss flower fluffs, giving superstar glimmers everywhere we walk (well actually making us wish that we could find some broken branches to bring home for our own homes).
We are sadly past the Easter Egg garden hunt at home where chocolate for breakfast which proves that your child can find things when they really want to! However, definitely this weekend will be a potting and ready for summer garden restoration.
So with the Easter bunny bounced out of our house, we have instead filled our shop full of happy joy. Sa siopa, we have bound our bunches full of ranunculae, narcissi, forget-me-knots, marigolds & more so they radiate Spring radiance for all who receive them. We filled our display with extraordinary origami birds, bunnies, butterflies, birdhouses, all who signify rebirth, hope and renewal. We have the most stylish porcelain eggs, hens, bunnies & bulbs so you can April up your tables with aplomb. This time of renewal continues so it's always a good thing to keep your little mise-en-scenes dressed as a reminder that Spring is here even if we have been so deluged with rain the last few days.
And today, Domhnach Cásca, we florists also get to take the day. Our store is closed so that our crew can chillax after a busy season of events & Hallmark days - we are back open Easter Monday for all you who need your flower fix.
Today's floral stories are more a collection of bits and pieces for you to whizz & skim through and more as you will all be busy eating chocolate, hiding chocolate, minding chocolate & relishing the long weekend.
Wishing you all a Happy Happy Easter and a big thank you wave for all this year so far. Ruth X
SOME FLOWER STORIES -
A gathering of all we spotted this week whilst working in our store of seasonal blooms :
IN A RANUNCULA MEADOW - WES GORDON CREATES A METAPHORICAL GARDEN
“A garden is something you tend to meticulously, putting great care into every stem, every bloom,” Gordon says of the inspiration he found this season in his “favourite film,” Being There. I had this vision of the models in the collection wandering through this garden that had sprouted miraculously from the concrete—and Bureau Betak and florist Eriko Nagata were able to effortlessly bring this to life,” - Wes Gordon for Surface Magazine
Eriko Nagata, a Japanese floral designer based in New York created a 3,000 stems of ranuncula for Wes Gordon's Caroline Herrera metaphorical garden this Spring. Models crisscrossed through this field of delicate red flowering bulbs in a stark room in the Midtown Solow building. The effect of the monocolour bulbs appearing if they had burst to bloom from the concrete was spellbinding.
IN IRISH FAIRY FORTS - JO KERRIGAN FINDS OUT ALL ABOUT OUR GOOD PEOPLE
I can't wait for my new book 'Irish Fairy Forts - Portals to the Past' to arrive. Written by Jo Kerrigan & photographed by Richard Mills, this book delves into the history and traditions of these forts, these integral part of our tradition and landscape. There are over 50,000 of these circular structures. As we all know, we don't interfere with the fairy forts or fairy trees, no-one builds over, ploughs or constructs roads on them. I am so looking forward to learning more the stories and legends, the history and archaeology, the living traditions and practices connected to them. And just in case you see a lovely Hawthorn/Whitethorn tree and fancy a branch, don't be tempted to cut this 'fairy thorn' - it is considered to bring you bad luck from the fairies and this could last upto 400 years!!!
IN ASPARAGUS FERN - RUBY MARY LENNOX SCULPTS AN ITALIAN GARDEN
Working with asparagus fern en masse is no easy feat. We love to use it but each stem has sneaky thorns who love to pierce through even the thickest glove. Watching Ruby Mary Lennox and her team create a “Jardin à l’Italienne” for Laboratorio Paravicini in Milan was really a wonder. Paracivini produce delicate hand-decorated ceramics (be still my beating heart).
They were launching their new range inspired by an Italian garden for Milan Design Week so commissioned Lennox to make a metaphysical landscape to place their porcelain among. This collaboration of topiary shaping applied to fern, artisanal ceramics and immersion into oversized sculptures of green certainly elevated the asparagus fern to new forms and shapes.
IN THE GENTLEWOMAN - GARDEN PORTRAITS OF CLAIRE KEEGAN
“I don’t mind doing less and doing it well.” - Claire Keegan
The current ‘The Gentlewoman’ edition features an interview with one of my favourite authors Claire Keegan. Photographed by Linda Brownlee, styled by Aisling Farinella with Claire wearing Sphere One by Lucy Downes, The Landskein & Simone Rocha, it is an interesting interview with Claire Keegan interspersed with portraits of her full of mesmerising stillness. Bravo.
IN SUBSTACKS - 3 GEMS FROM THIS WEEK
I am going to make these healthy caramel squares today. Susan Jane White & her Taking the Hell out of Healthy is a glimmer amongst the health kick crew because she makes making good food fun and full of frolics too.
Also, because I am a subscriber, Substack and Susan Jane are so lovely that I have 5 to gift so please do message me and I can send them onto you.
India Knight has a Substack called Home which is gold standard reading & I am going to indulge in her strand called ‘56 links to read in bed’ because it is a bank holiday weekend after all.
Cuán Greene creates a considered piece each week in his Ómós Digest which is about food, culture and community. He celebrates great recipes and discusses good ideas about happenings in food heritage and contemporary situations too.
UNTIL NEXT WEEK FRIENDS - OUR WEEKLY GLIMMER:
Claus Dalby is a famous Danish gardener, photographer & broadcaster and each Easter he fills the front of his home with the happiest of Spring bulb displays. Enjoy X