Welcome to Bláthanna by Appassionata Loves Flowers
Our Initial Substack - we are going in!
Well, we won’t bombard you with all the festive joy we can make for you just yet! Yep, there’s 39 days to go but there’s also so much more we can write about too!
We just don’t want to rush into it all seeing as there are so many days left to go …
FLOWERS WE LOVED TO MAKE
The last week was a busy one with lovely Chloé & Sinéad Keary events, our Festive evening in Nordic Elements that gave us all a Scandinavian glow & the general crescendo of Christmas starting to shimmer as November days start to shorten more.
Chloé - Eau de Parfum Lumineuse - Atelier Now
When our friends at Publicity Loft called about this launch, we jumped at the chance to interpret the emblematic rose theme in a contemporary style. Taking the minimal but textural surrounds of the Atelier Now space, we focused on using seasonal garden style roses as scented as could be & making them in asymmetrical formed colour blocks. Roses were reflexed and placed with an Ikebana style concentration. The idea was to have an ombré feel of the roses turning into each others colour and then that this would align with the new fragrance’s form. We then created the signifier display to meander along the starring branded wall. A garland of cut jasmine, rosehips & meandering roses from dusty to deep pinks to raspberry reds added a sensuous drama to the occasion. Oh what joy.
And our flowers used included :
Roses : Pink Floyd, Pink O'Hara, Mayra Hot Pink, Gotcha, Sweet Avalanche & Spray Rose Severiana
With the accompaniments Sanguisorba, Astilbe, Snap Dragon, Cotinus, Eucalyptus, Corylus Branches, Trailing Jasmine (Homegrown)
Sinéad Keary - Dundrum @sineadkearythelabel
Sinéad has just opened her new store in Dundrum Town Centre. We were asked to accessorise her beautifully designed store with dried arrangements. We styled blush pink with deeper winter season elements and filled the signature DBKD vessels with floral goodness to help the store sing. We dressed shelves & window spaces with lots of textures to tie in with the label look and feel. Eunji & Veronika then created a stylish arched piece with draped preserved amaranthus which we so love to use. Bravo Sinéad on your latest venture and may this new store being so much joy to all.
Tune in next week for a fabulous feature on Turas, a special September event in Sligo where we flower played in style.
HAPPENINGS
We held our first Winter Evening in Nordic Elements where we chatted all things festive & home with 40 guests. Oh what a joy to have such a meeting of minds with Helle Moyna of Nordic Elements. It is so interesting to hear how Danish homes prepare for Christmas from weeks before by adding candles, wreaths, foliages and elements as the days get darker and Christmas Day approaches. We then showed the simple steps in making a Door Swag.
Yes, the Festive Door Swag is having a moment. This stylish and informal foliage door decoration hails from Scandinavian countries. It gives a feeling of understated elegance plus it takes half the time a wreath takes to make!
We also chatted about how by choosing winter flowering plants, your favourite vessels, potting bulbs & generally using your own favourite festive style, that you can create a dinner table, a bedecked hall, the most welcoming porch in the world. The main focus of the evening was to showcase how our botanicals & the Nordic Elements vessels could be brought together to create a certain wow Christmas Story in your home very easily and most importantly without stress.
We have another evening lined up for Wednesday the 22nd which is sold out but we will fill you in once we have met our flower friends who are coming that evening for festive cheer.
Appassionata X Nordic Elements
SIOPA NEWS
WE ARE 6! Yes our Appassionata Flowers adventures have been rollercoastering for … 19 years but our Cornelscourt store deserves it’s own celebration. It’s hard to believe that 6 years have passed. We are so grateful to you all for the amazing support & flower love and we would’t have a siopa without our smiling team. So of course we posed with punky balloons and munched birthday cake as majors glimmers of joy.
We have been tiptoeing away to make our siopa feel anew for all of you our regular customers. A mindful botanical landscape from Rebel Walls & a cuckoo clock which plays tweeting birdsong on the hour now dress our back wall We found a character filled haberdashery sideboard from Joy Thorpe & now have it full of candle and planted goodness. And more to come as we start the festive lighting up of our flower store.
FOGGY NOTIONS - A HOW TO DO :
This part is for all of you who love the blooms you buy and send but really you are not totally sure what to do with them when we aren’t there…
This week is all about how to mind your bunch be it a clutch of hyacinths, a flurry of foliage or a large lipsmacking luxe bouquet of life, this start of winter season :
1-Take off all packaging - ours is sustainable, recyclable & can of course be used for wrapping up your next gift scenario.
2-Fill your favourite vase/jug/bottle with water and then cut your stems at a diagonal so all those capillaries can have a lovely drink.
3-Now, heating & fires are not friends with fresh flowers. Do keep your vase somewhere cool at night & do make sure those blooms have enough water to drink each day.
4-Like a very good flower faerie, please change the water every 2 days and give a little cut to the stems - this will allow your stems to live longer & bring so much more bright each day.
5-If you feel like drying any pieces of foliage or hydrangea, hang them upside down in a dry space and after a few days hey presto, you will have flowers forever to place in those tricky spots around the house.
THE NATURE STUDY TABLE
Yes, we were all makers of the best nature study tables when we were small but sadly, schools don’t seem to have these any more. So we thought everyone might need a weekly local nature refresher to help you become the botanical genius amongst the gang.
BIRCH - Beith - Betula pubescens
We have the most gorgeous bound native birch wreaths all the way from Kerry instore - not only can they be used for lots of seasons but the birch is so fresh so it will last forever once minded.
Niall Mac Coitir in ‘Ireland’s Trees - Myths, Legends & Folklore’ states that
Birch was used in Winter to keep away evil spirits especially during Winter Solstice. In early Irish law, birch was classified as an Aithig fedo / Commoner of the Wood.
I have mine decking my door already to give a grounding texture as I arrive home on navy evenings to get the dinner on - oh the glamour!
Also, Storm Debi might have had a blast with us all this week but it will mean fallen branches, cones, lichened twigs everywhere that every florist would love to have so why curate your winter season textures at home by looking down as you walk & find festive decorating treasures to keep.
BLÁTHANNA GRÁ - a gathering of all we loved this week
IN LIFE Lavery on Location : National Gallery of Ireland
So good we have already gone twice …
Photo Credit : National Gallery of Ireland
This exhibition is the highlight of the Gallery’s autumn programme, opening on 7 October. It's organised by the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, in collaboration with National Museums NI and National Galleries of Scotland.
Sir John Lavery was an internationally renowned Irish painter at the turn of the 20th century, and the only Irishman to receive the Freedom of both Dublin and Belfast in the inter-war period, in a divided Ireland. This major exhibition will focus on the artist’s impressions of the people and locations that he encountered during a life filled with travel, allowing visitors to take a fresh look at the work of this highly respected painter.
The use of light, colour, the landscapes and figures, 2 rainy afternoons were well spent and we wanted to immediately make flowers inspired by Lavery’s colour and textures.
IN LOVE Petria Lenehan : Iveragh
Petria Lenehan paints abstract landscapes from her studio in rural Co. Wicklow, as a way to express her deep connection to place and the natural world. She paints viscerally and each work is the result of a continuous cycle of intuitive unfolding – a repeated process of building up and softening. The works have an elusive feeling, revealing layers of past images, memories and tones that drop in and out of themselves. Her expansive gestures, sweeping movements and subtle mark making are translated through large and smaller works into an emotive visual language for the viewer to decipher. Her latest exhibition is inspired by the Iveragh peninsula, a place that lies very close to Petria’s heart. With less of a focus on the drama of the open landscape and more on details - the flora and rock formations, light and colour that combine to form the essence of the place, Petria has captured the unique energy of this expansive and ethereal landscape.
IN MUSIC Elaine Howley : To the Test
Listening to both Cillian Murphy’s BBC Sounds & then John Kelly’s Lyric FM Shows, I had to Shazam this track by Cork artist Elaine Howley which then led me to repeat all of her renditions whilst working away on the season we will talk about soon.
IN WORDS Claire Keegan : So Late in the Day
Claire Keegan can do no wrong. Her latest novella ‘So Late in the Day’ is so poignant & beautiful. Each of her books ‘Foster’, ‘Small Things Like These’ and this small book might be more miniature in stature but her themes, words, thoughtfulness make sure that each story stays with you and your meandering mind.
WALKS WITH ELLA
Our beagle Ella loves a walk and noses herself around anywhere we bring her. I love the space and time as she trundles along attempting to chase squirrels to take in podcasts by brilliant folk.
Favourite listens this week include :
Talking Gardens by Gardens Ilustrated - Nigel Slater : A favourite food writer who is a passionata home gardener - he talks about his dream garden & how he managed to get Dan Pearson & Monty Don to design his own back garden.
Changes with Annie MacManus - We are such superfans of Annie and her interviews with Dolly Alderton & Charlotte Church are just fascinating. Annie’s relaxed conversation skills make for a sweet listen & some laughs too.
The Goop Podcast - Tara Brach : Reclaiming our Humanity - A powerful conversation with insight on compassion & a RAIN meditation which we found so helpful with all the news surrounding us. This was listened to in the park as Autumn sunlight warmed our faces & gratitude felt all around.
UNTIL NEXT WEEK FRIENDS - A THOUGHT :
‘The flower cannot be herself alone. The flower has to inter-be with the sunshine, the clouds and everything in the cosmos. If we understand being in terms of inter-being then we are much closer to the truth.’
Thich Nhat Hanh