Today’s Bouquet #63, and in a vase on Monday, is sweetly scented with honeysuckle, jasmine, roses, cottage pinks, salvia and sweet pea. I’ve called this bouquet ‘The Bee’s Knees.’
I’ve been delighted to hear from FromeBlooms customers that they love the scent of the bouquets, so I’m determined that each will be packed with strongly scented flowers. There’s certainly room for more sweet things in this world. And while I was musing on honeysuckle and sweetness, I fed and conditioned the flowers for this bouquet, putting a little vodka and honey cocktail into their overnight bath.
Usually I’d use sugar and spirits to condition flowers, but it seemed appropriate to add a little honey to the mix this time. As there’s a similar cocktail of gin and honey called the bee’s knees it seemed appropriate to call Bouquet 63 ‘The Bee’s Knees.’
I’m also experimenting with video adverts, and have fashioned a lazy susan pot spinner, from a few beads in a couple of saucers. The results are quite pleasing, and make a pretty video advert.
https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fjennyfromeblooms%2Fvideos%2F1152742411497667%2F&show_text=0&width=560
There were a few sweetpeas which were too short stemmed for the main display, so they’re in a little vase with some pinks and penstemon, and this blue star shaped flower that I don’t know the name of. Anyone recognise this blue bloom on the left?
In the big bouquet we have roses, salvia, penstemon, hebe, willow, pinks, honeysuckle, jasmine and sweetpea, and more of the mystery blue star flower.
Since the daily bouquets project began, back on 21 Mar at the spring equinox, I’ve learned lots about how the garden grows and discovered some fabulous flowers.
I’ve also grown some of my favourites from seed, including theses sweet beauties. One of my earliest memories is sowing sweet peas with mum, and I’ve loved these flowers ever since.
As well as growing flowers, I’ve developed a process to cut, condition, arrange and package them which is working well. Customer feedback is good. And I’m getting ready for my next FromeBlooms flower stall at the Frome Independent market, and crossing my fingers for decent weather. 
I’ve shared bouquets ‘in a vase on Monday’ with Cathy and her friends at Rambling in the Garden. Pop over to her blog to see some amazing ball dahlias in sunshine colours.
Is the blue bloom a camassia? I love the whole concept of what you do, Jenny, and I am so pleased you are getting noticed – although it’s a bit sad that not everyone has the time and inclination to grow their own blooms and create their own vases. They certainly miss out on the pleasure it brings but in the meantime you are giving them a big hint of it 😉 What’s this idea of vodka and honey for conditioning? Do tell us more
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Thanks Cathy, I think you’re right. It looks a lot like Camassia leichtlinii Blue Danube – thanks for the info!
As for conditioning, its common to put a little bleach and sugar into the vase to kill bugs and feed the flowers… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPW-0gLbLU8
I’ve read a few article about conditioning flowers in various mixtures, and vodka is often suggested as an alternative to bleach. And since honey is essentially just sugar, I thought it was worth trying it as an alternative to sugar. Hence, the bee’s knees flower food.
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I will give different combinations a try!
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This is such a pretty vase of flowers; I’m sure it smells lovely. Like Cathy, I’m intrigued by the conditioning as it’s not something I do. Just tap water here! I’ll have to give it a go. Could the blue flowers be a form of agapanthus? They look similar.
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Thanks Sam, it’s lovely to hear nice feedback! 💐😊
I’ll do a post about conditioning flowers soon, and run a little test to see if it really does help the bouquets last longer. 👍
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