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Everything Flowery

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Favorite Flower Finds

I am always looking for unique and interesting flower-themed items. As a floral designer, you might think I would tire of it, but when I travel I am always checking out other flower shops for ideas. If I am in a large city--Montreal is one of my favorites--I visit the fancy hotels to see the flower arrangements in the lobbies. Try it when you are in your favorite big city.

Here are some of my favorite flower-themed finds: things to wear, eat, look at, read and just enjoy.

Flowers For the Home

Flowery Lights
An ultra-cool, double layer, flowery, cut-out paper, pendant light. These lights come in several colors, but I have 3 white ones hung together. When the light shines through the layers of paper it looks magical. Check out the other designs they have also. You cannot buy from this site on line, but following this I am listing a store in Boston that sells the white at their on-line store.
Flowers for Your Wall
Floral Fine Art showcases the photographic images of Gary Barsomian-Dietrich. Available as limited edition fine art prints, his innovative floral images are inspired by a passion for gardening. His photos are absolutely gorgeous.
For the Kitchen
At Meadowsweets they make individual, candied flowers.....Pansies, Johnny-Jump-Ups, Lavender, and Roses. Daisies and Cornflowers are also available in season. Sugared, preserved, edible flowers! I would never go to the trouble to do this myself. Great for a party or a wedding.
Create Your Own Large-format Flower Photo
At "Picture Frames.com", use your own favorite flower photo to create a large-format, framed wall piece. Download your digital photo, crop it if you like, select a mat and a frame as well as special effects and have it all put together and sent to your door. Its a great way to have a dramatic flower photo for one of your walls or create a whole series. Its the large format that makes it so interesting. Try using a close-up photo of the inside of a flower for even more drama.

Flowery Books

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Flowers For Your Spirit

Power of Flowers Tarot Card deck by Isha Lerner
Isha is a bright, gentle, intuitive woman: a teacher, international astrologer, tarot consultant, author, healer, and owner of the Power of Flower Essence Company. I've known her for many years. This is one of the newest of her popular decks of Tarot cards. Beautifully illustrated, they use flowers as inspiration for the life lessons that this ancient art can give.
Isha Lerner Flower Essences
Here is Isha's line of flower essences. Flower essences are not the same as aromatherapy. They do not have a scent, but rather they carry the healing essence of the flower. From Isha's site: "Flowers are our medicine for the next age." Ven. Dhyana Ywahoo, Clan Chieftaness, Cherokee Nation.

You can have fun with Isha's site by sending flower e-postcards or choosing a flower card for a mini-reading or message. She regularly offers specials.
Free On-line Reading From Isha's Cards
You can go here for an opportunity to experience what it is like to use Isha's Tarot cards, including her "Power of Flower" cards. Its free!
Bach Flower Remedies
The Bach Centre provides information about Dr. Edward Bach, developer of the original Bach Flower Remedies in England in the 1930's, as well as information on his 38 remedies which are focused on emotional health.

Flowers Worth the Trip

Lilacs on Mackinac Island

Mackinac Island Lilac Festival
The Mackinac Island Lilac Festival takes place from June 9-18, 2006. "Enjoy garden tours, wine tastings, culinary events and two great parades."

Nothing can compare to a trip to Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw) Island, Michigan, especially during lilac season. Because they have been largely undisturbed for many years, the lilacs on the island are huge. There are many varieties and when they are in bloom, it is beautiful.

Mackinac Island is in northern Michigan and can be reached by ferry from Mackinac City or St. Ignace. There are no cars allowed on the island, but you can rent a bike, a horse or a carriage. You can visit for the day, but I recommend an overnight stay. Try a week! It is magical.

If you can afford it and like to be pampered, stay at the Grand Hotel. It sits up high and overlooks the lake and the Mackinac Bridge, which connects the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan.
Mackinac (Mackinaw) Island Tourist Information
Mackinac Island Tourist Information: Lodging/Accommodations, Weddings, Attractions, Ferries, Shopping, Carriages, and more.
Another Lilac Event in Vermont
Visit the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont for Lilac Sunday which takes place every May. Check here for details.

Flowers to Wear

Blue Fish Clothing at Barclay Studio
Blue Fish Clothing is creative, hand-painted, comfortable, wearable art, in 100% organic cotton and other natural fibers. This small, boutique design studio is based in Frenchtown, New Jersey and Taos, New Mexico. Many (if not most) of the designs have a floral or nature theme. The styles are flattering, layered and fun.

Steady changes in the collections, along with frequent special sales, make it easier to add some Blue Fish to your closet. Check out the e-Bay selection too. These clothes do tend to become collector's items, as you will see from the high prices some pieces go for on e-Bay.
Blue Fish Finder
Here is a site for used (or "vintage") Blue Fish clothing. You can also read about the history of this company and Jennifer Barclay, the designer.

Blue Fish Clothing on eBay

This will show a few of the things on eBay for Blue Fish. There are always many, many more. SIZING is as follows: 00=size 2 to 6 or 8, 0=size 6 to 10 or 12, 1=size 10 to 14 or 16, 2=size 16 to 20 or 22 sometimes even larger, depending on the style.
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For Your Body

"Fresh" Soaps
Based in Boston, and developed by a Russian husband and wife team, "Fresh" started out with these wonderful scented soaps packaged so beautifully in paper, wire and crystals. My favorite is the Linden, scented with the small, lime-green flower of the Linden tree. Check out their incredible perfume scents, too. If you are lucky enough to be near one of their stores, you can test them all first.
All About Linden Tree Flowers
Years ago in rural Michigan I rented the sweetest little cabin of a house on a hill with a creek on one side and a pond on the other. The woman who owned the home had planted a Linden tree. The flowers were subtly fragrant and were such a pretty, light green, dangling in a bunch and covered with bees. It was something I had never seen before. The beekeeper who kept hives on the property must have harvested some very sweet honey!

Click on the link here for some info on Linden flowers. It tells you HOW TO MAKE LINDEN PERFUME AND TEA. I just found some Linden Tea among the Goya brand of products in the Mexican section of the supermarket. It is in a bottle much like a spice bottle, rather than in a box or in tea-bags.

For Your Palette

The thrill of flowers on your tongue

Do you like jasmine flower tea? Heath Row suggested Imperial Republic's Jasmine Pearls Green Tea, saying it tastes and smells like flowers. Green tea is good for you, too.

Here is a recipe to go with it for shortbread made with lavendar flowers. It is from the Canterbury Shaker Village in Canterbury, New Hampshire. I have had these and they are dellightful. Make sure you use food grade lavendar:

Eldress Bertha Lindsay's Lavendar Shortbread

1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons lavendar flowers

Perheat oven to 300 degrees

Cream butter. Stir in sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Mix together flour and lavendar and stir this into the butter mixture.

Roll on lightly floured board to 1/4 inch thickness and cut with small cookie cutters. Place cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet and use a small fork to make light dents in the cookie tops.

Bake 14-15 minutes. Makes about 50 cookies.

Fragrant Cooking

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My favorites in the garden

In the warm months I love to pass the time in my gardens. It is the most relaxing thing I can do for myself. I have mostly been working on a shade garden, digging rocks and building a wall.

Here are my current favorite shade garden plants:
  1. Astilbe: My very favorite plant all around, I think, is this lacey lover of shade. It comes is whites, pinks and reds, some purples too and there are so many varieties. I like the magical, delicate look they create and they are easy to grow if you give them shade and plenty of water. Not only are the flowers delicate and lacey, but the leaves are, as well. Check out the following Flickr module to see some astilbe.
  2. Ladies Mantle: Again, a rather lacey look to the flower, but in a lower growing, light green. The leaves are broad and rounded and the small, delicate lime-green flower bunches pop in the shade.
  3. Japanese Fern: A bi-colored, hardy, lower-growing fern. I love its coloring; green to reddish brown. And it will keep its leaves throughout the New England winters.
  4. And for the sun: Daffodils of all varieties! They are easy to plant, inexpensive, are self-spreading and the deer don't bother them. I love it when they come up in the Spring. I plant more every year and then forget where I put them. They pop up unexpectedly all over the place. It is a great surprise after a long winter when you think nothing will ever be green again.

    Garrison Keilor once said of winter: "It is nature's way of saying, 'I'm going to kill you'!" That is definitely how it feels at times here in New England. But, then, the daffodils appear: sweet and innocent looking and poking up through that once-frozen ground.

My Favorite Woodland Wildflower

Trilliums!!!

I think Trilliums are the most beautiful woodland flower there is, especially when you find a patch of them that goes on and on through the woods creating a white/purple/pink dappled blanket under the trees.

While growing up in Michigan, I was lucky enough to live next to the woods and find many a huge patch of these single, white, 3-petaled gems. A delicate and sensitive flower, they are illegal to pick or transplant. If picked, the plant WILL die and if moved, they will very likely not recover. However, you can find them in specialty nurseries where they have been bred for sale.

The Trilllium is a spring flower which grows in a shady wood in cold climates. Where I am now, in New England, I find them to be more often purple than white, and as they age, all colors will get darker.

Sweet and sensitive, to me they are magical.

Flower Meanings

Flowers & Magic
From the Fairyland Trust, here is a very comprehensive list of flowers and their meaning and magical properties. The Fairyland trust is dedicated to saving land in its natural state.

A "WOW" Flower Photo Book!

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Another GREAT Lens on Flowers

Flowers and Color
See Betsy's wonderful flower lens: Flowers & Color. She has links to some very fun sites.

What Do You Have to Say About Flowers?

Share with all of us your thoughts, suggestions or favorite flower ideas!

  • SereneSea Mar 7, 2011 @ 12:13 am | delete
    Love the lovely flowers - orchids and roses, daffodils and daisies, there is no dearth of flowers on earth and getting lost in their beauty.
  • susansavad Dec 17, 2008 @ 7:25 pm | delete
    I also love flowers and use them in my flower designs. Great lens with a lot of information.

    Susan
  • windowbox Oct 20, 2008 @ 5:45 am | delete
    Flowers attract every one as me too...i grow flowers at home too through container like Flower Box , Box Planter.....etc as hot having space for the gardening and its really come with the beauty..
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Though I am still a Northwesterner at heart (I lived in Oregon for 20 years), I now make my home in beautiful, historic, semi-rural New England. Not f... more »

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