Ballerina Pink

I’m so in love with this color – year round really – but especially in the spring when there are so many pretty pale colors coming into bloom.
I snapped this shot of pretty blush pink sweet peas at the flower market this morning. These are some of our favorite flowers – mostly available in winter through spring, but occasionally in the fall too.

Sweet Peas at the Flower Market

Here is a close up of a bouquet we did back in November featuring pinks in a similar hue range:

Bouquet with pale pinks and burgundy-brown

Apryl and I both loved the incorporation of pear tree leaves, which are a beautiful burgundy-brown color, along with fiddleheads.
The pale pink cymbidiums were hand-wired into the bouquet for an exotic touch. We really like working with cymbidiums, they are available almost all year-round and come in the most beautiful colors  – from this pale pink, to chartreuse, pale ivories, and even a chocolate-y brown. They can really be a statement flower because of their size and sculptural nature.

Quince from outside the studio. Photo by Channing Johnson.

I’ll post more photos (once I download them off my camera!) of flowering quince as seen above from outside one of our studio windows. This is such a beautiful thing this time of year – big long branches with tiny pale pink flowers sprinkled all over. A lot of people think they are cherry blossoms and they do look very similar, but it is actually another beautiful fruit tree that creates these sweet early spring blooms.

Think spring everyone!

Petalena

 

Signs of Spring

A touch of spring…paperwhite bulbs (also called narcissus) on my dining room table on a bed of moss.
When blooming, they have wonderful tiny little white fragrant flowers like mini-daffodils!

Paperwhite Bulbs in Moss

Narcissus in Bouquets
Apryl and I recently created this wedding bouquet of spring blooms. The bouquet features little white narcissus, fluffy white ranunculas, purple-blue grape hyacinth, fresh lavender, and maidenhair fern. It was a light bouquet to hold and so evocative of spring!

Springtime Bouquet with Narcissus, Lavender, and Grape Hyacinth

Designs by Petalena

 

Beauty for the day

I love this photo Channing Johnson took of a bridal bouquet we did with ivory ranunculas and white parrot tulips. Ranunculas seem almost impossibly petaled.
Each flower must have at least a hundred papery thin petals, making them luxuriously fun.
The white on white in this photograph is so soft and lovely – truly peaceful.

Ranunculas Bouquet Against the Studio Door. Photo by Channing Johnson.

Photo by Channing Johnson.

Design by Petalena.

 

Vintage Find

I love to Google pictures of flowers, I could do it for hours.  The other day while looking up something about orchids online, I came across this one image which Apryl and I are now both completely obsessed with:

Apryl and I both love that “Old Hollywood” style glamor as well as any orchid under the sun  so this fabulous vintage Harlequin book cover is just the best of both worlds!

I have yet to read the book (I hope it won’t be a disappointment compared to how vintage stylie the cover is!). And rather amazingly, there is quite story around this book and its author too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hadley_Chase

 

Needing some pink cheer

I think all the snow in Boston and getting over a cold right now is just making me downright blue! I need sun, warmth, flowers and summer!
To lift my spirits and maybe yours too – here  a few simply pretty pictures of flowers – lovely pink ones – a color that always lifts my mood!

First dahlias, because they are both Apryl’s and my favorite summer flower. Here I mixed them with basil for the ultimate summer bouquet:

Dahlias and Basil on my side table

(And yes, that is John Adams on my side table, I am still reading it!)

Rose Mallow in Maine

And here, from a garden in Maine. I love Rose Mallow, such an old fashioned flower, kind of like a Hollyhock. Apryl grows these in her garden with great success. So ruffle-y and open. I don’t think they do well in bouquets so they are best appreciated in a friend’s garden (or your own!).

Bud Vase with Dahlia and Mint. Photo by Mara Brod Photography.

And lastly, a lovely little bud vase we did for an early October wedding. One little dahlia with magenta “Mokara” orchids, and mint. So simple and pretty.

 

Bouquet for Boston Globe Sunday Magazine

Petalena in Print!

Apryl and I were completely psyched when a freelance style editor working on the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine’s  “Weddings” issue (set to release on Sunday, January 14th!) asked to us contribute a bouquet for a style feature!

The article will feature three different bouquets at three different price points, we were asked to do a modest bouquet for $75 – a bit below our normal price range so we did a precious small little posie bouquet seen below:

Darling Bouquet for Boston Globe Magazine

About the Flowers & Color Palette:
Peach and apricot tones work gorgeously with the silver tones. This kind of color mood is really perfect for January through June wedding especially with all the wonderful flowers are available as the season progresses like amaryllis in winter, fragrant sweet peas in late winter through spring, and the classic spring flowers – tulips and narcissus.

Our bouquet features two of our favorite flowers – ranunculas (the gorgeous petal-y flower that looks like a more luxurious version of a rose) and peach parrot tulips. Apryl and I both stricken a modern-day version of  ‘Tulip Mania” so thank goodness we don’t live in Holland back in the 1600s!

The Tulip by Anna Pavord

If you’re struck by a love of tulips too, check out the wonderful writer Anna Pavord. She wrote a fantastic book back in 2000 The Tulip, which as her publisher says “is not a garden book” but the story of how the tulip arrived in Turkey and made its way to Western Europe. A bit botanical history, a bit cultural voyage, it’s a fascinating read.

 

Harmony in Gold, Ivory, and Green

I created a quick design for my dining room table with some perfect seasonal flowers – amaryllis, hydrangea, and orchids. The light in the afternoons is so simply delicious, I had to snap a few photos. Wouldn’t this be the most gorgeous yet subtle color palette for a late fall or winter wedding?

Harmony in Gold, Ivory, and Green

Even though this was something very quickly put together, the play of textures, though unplanned, is really what makes this work. The tablecloth picks up the colors of the silk ribbon and flowers. And the light is so striking, the way it gives a glow and dramatic cast to the flowers.

Lady's Slipper Orchid in an Antique Demitasse Cup

Photos and Design by Petalena

 

Waking Up to Beauty

The first things my eyes opened to this morning.
Sigh, I do love flowers…

Papheopedilum Orchids in the Morning Sun

Photo by Petalena

 

A Bouquet for a Star

This wedding was a small elegant family event held last weekend – and the bride is a leader and visionary in the arts in Boston – so we really wanted to something unbelievably special for her! Going to the flower market to buy flowers for her wedding, vendors saw the incredible things we had pulled for her, and one even said, ‘these are flowers for star!’ We agreed because they were completely right!

Bridal Bouquet for a Star

About the Design – We wanted to give this bride something unique, slightly ‘sculptural,’ and mesmerizing. She loves orchids and unique floral materials and really gave us carte blanche to run with her adjectives of ‘unruly,’ ‘feathery,’ and ‘billowing.’ It’s so fantastic when you have a client like this who sort of gives themselves over to the experience, Apryl and I can run with it and do something really special.

Close up of orchids and tulips in bouquet

I adore close ups of gorgeous flowers, so one more time!

Even Closer

About the Flowers – We used stems of funky ‘speckled’ white and magenta phalenopsis orchids, pale yellow, and iridescent pink/lavender phalenopsis orchids, peach and green parrot tulips, mini papyrus stems, and maidenhair ferns.

Because this bride also loves unique fabrics and textures, we added some unique elements to the handle of her bouquet – a midori silk ribbon I call ‘storm’ and an embroidered ribbon with Swarovski crystal.

Adding unique elements to bouquet handle

Photos and Floral Design by Petalena

 

Still Life Moment

This photo is from the wedding we did the other weekend.  I was busy snapping away photos of our design work as we moved throughout the day. After placing the bride’s bouquet in an antique vase we had hanging around the studio, I took this photo that was just so, well, harmonious. Soft, quiet, and lovely…it reminded me of painting of a still life.