Slow Flowers. Debra Prinzing

emerges a few inches above the rim of the container. Here, I placed the white flowers so they billowed out over the vase’s edge. Next, I draped the dark Anthriscus foliage over each side of the square vase, tips pointing down. Two types of flowering branches give this arrangement some height: White-flowering bridal wreath spirea and dogwood with green button-like flowers. Together, these common garden ingredients make a sophisticated statement in chocolate and vanilla.

      Ingredients:

      8-11 Viburnum tinus blooms, harvested from Charlotte Behnke’s Seattle garden

      6 stems Anthriscus sylvestris ‘Ravenswing’, grown by Jello Mold Farm

      6 stems bridal wreath spirea (Spiraea cantoniensis ‘Flore Pleno’), grown by Charles Little & Co.

      3 stems green dogwood (Cornus sp.), harvested by Oregon Coastal Flowers

      Vase:

      6-inch square x 3-inch deep white ceramic nut dish (overall height is 8 inches)

      Design 101

      Elevate for importance: There’s something appealing about lifting a floral arrangement with a footed vase or dish. It’s like giving your bouquet a little stage or platform to help it rise above its environment. This is especially noticeable with an arrangement designed to be viewed on all sides, such as a centerpiece. If you don’t have a footed dish or urn, you can use a cake plate to elevate your flowers!

      SPRING | WEEK 5

       A FLORAL WELCOME

      I RECEIVED THIS GLASS WALL VASE from my friend Jayme Jenkins, who owns an online garden emporium called Aha Modern Living.

      “How would you use this?” she wrote, asking me to send her a photo of whatever I created. You may have seen similar pocket-style vessels that have a mounting hole and a flat back for easy hanging against a wall. They are usually planted with ferns or mosses to create a miniature terrarium.

      But why couldn’t this glass planting pocket double as a vase? Since my red front door already possessed a large screw for the holiday wreath, the location seemed tailor-made for a vase of spring flowers.

      I paired several locally-grown garden hellebores (Helleborus orientalis) with dainty white snowflake flowers (Leucojum aestivum) picked from my garden. In order to corral the stems, I wound a length of curly willow into a loop and inserted it into the vase. Then I cut the hellebores and snowflakes at varying lengths, arranging them in an asymmetrical display so that most of the flowers faced outward – towards anyone arriving on my front doorstep. Notice how the willow holds the stems upright and adds interest to the design.

      Spring’s cool outdoor temperatures helped extend the life of this arrangement. My only concern? Reminding the guys in my household to gently open and close the front door!

      Ingredients:

      10 stems garden hellebores (Helleborus orientalis), grown by Jello Mold Farm

      12 stems summer snowflake (Leucojum aestivum), harvested from my garden

      1 stem curly willow (Salix matsudana ‘Tortuosa’), harvested by Oregon Coastal Flowers

      Vase:

      9-inch tall x 6-inch wide, teardrop-shaped wall vase (4-inch diameter opening)

      Design 101

      Just add white: There are some floral designers who abide by the “rule of white,” which calls for adding white flowers to every design. Take a look at this arrangement and you’ll notice that a few white blooms go a long way. The bell-shaped snowflakes are smaller than the plum-colored hellebores, but they add a lot of cheer to the design. Especially when viewed from a distance, white flowers are impactful, making any arrangement young and fresh-looking.

      SPRING | WEEK 6

       FRESH AND FRAGRANT

      SPRINGTIME IS EMBODIED in this vase, isn’t it?

      You can almost smell the heady perfume associated with Syringa vulgaris, the common lilac. To me, the fragrance is associated with my lifelong relationship with flowers.

      Here, I’ve played seasonal matchmaker, introducing bunches of purple, Oregon-grown lilacs to their lovely companions. Jadeite-green hellebores and fox grape fritillaries (Fritillaria assyriaca) are all that’s needed to create a sublime bouquet for my fireplace mantel. The cream-colored pottery throws more attention to this eye-catching floral palette.

      Using clean, well-sharpened pruners, cut each lilac branch at a 45-degree angle, stripping leaves that would be under water.

      Arrange the flowers slightly asymmetrically, so their pendulous blooms drape farther over the left side of the vase. Next, gather small bunches of the green-hued hellebores and insert them as if they were a single stem. With this technique, smaller flowers have more impact. Finally, since the plum-and-yellow fritillary blooms are so delicate, add them like ribbons on a package, allowing them to naturally fall into place, cascading above and over the other flowers.

      Ingredients:

      10 stems purple lilacs (Syringa vulgaris), grown by Oregon Coastal Flowers

      10 stems garden hellebores (Helleborus orientalis), grown by Jello Mold Farm

      10 stems Fritillaria assyriaca, a spring-flowering bulb, grown by Choice Bulb Farms

      Vase:

      17-inch tall x 7-inch diameter cream urn

      From the Farmer

      Hellebore how-to: Anyone who grows hellebores in their garden knows how frustrating it is to cut a few blooms and bring them inside, only to watch them wilt in a vase of water. Now I enjoy success when I use hellebores in my bouquets, thanks to an important lesson shared by Diane Szukovathy, co-owner of Jello Mold Farm. “Harvest hellebores after they have matured past the flower stage and the seed pods are beginning to form,” she advises. “By then, the petals have started to leather up and those hellebores will be rock solid in an arrangement for ten days.”

      SPRING | WEEK 7

       JEWEL TONES

      THIS INDIGO-BLUE VASE is a favorite of mine. It has beautiful surface details, including rows of raised, button-like dots that resemble embossing. When I tried to include it in a magazine photo shoot, however, the art director told me it competed with the flowers, so we couldn’t use it. This time around, there’s no one to say “no.”

      What says “yes” to this vase is the floral palette of fuchsia anemones, periwinkle bachelor’s buttons (Centaurea cyanus), a handful of plump white tulips and several snowy-white flowering stems of pearlbush (Exochorda racemosa), a deciduous shrub with flowers resembling a delicate string of pearls. These pure, cool-toned flowers hold their own against the vivid blue glaze.

      To create the bouquet, I started by filling the vase opening with varying lengths of anemone stems. Notice how some of the flowers are upright, clustered near the center, while others spill over the rim. Next, I added the pearlbush branches. At this time of the year, the flowers range from tiny, pearl-like buds to fully developed cup-shaped blooms that echo the soft form of the white tulips. The final touch of color comes from bachelor’s buttons, which grow from a single stand