Inspired Living Now

Grow A Flower Garden 101

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Rideout) — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 11:55:00 +0000

Become your own home florist to fill your home with flowers and foliage all year round. In this ten-part guide I will show you how to start a flower garden, what to consider, the best flowers to get you started and how to fill your home with flower arrangements, and sharing on-trend ideas. With tutorials for DIY creative flowers and how to throw your own flower party for friends and family to enjoy together.

I love to pick fresh flowers in the morning and gift an abundance to friends and family. Although I do love to visit flower farms for their pick your own events!

This guide isn’t for experts or flower farmers but for anyone who like me who wants to see flowers around their home all year and who enjoys gifting flowers. If you already grow vegetables, add a few flowers to your vegetable patch and the flowers will attract more pollinators to your vegetables.

A flower cutting garden, it is an area designated to cut flowers to fill your home, it might not be the prettiest place in the garden if you cut them all. But cut as you need flowers and they will keep coming back again and again.

What to consider when setting up your area?

You can start a cutting garden in flower pots, wooden crates but the best place is a patch of garden, preferably in full or partial sunshine. The area will need to be weed-free and as the flowers need to recover from all the snipping, organic matter is good to improve water retention and drainage. Work in several inches of compost or leaf mold before planting.

Flowers can get windswept quickly so do ensure where you can that they are placed away from the windy area of your garden. I have been known to build barriers occasionally with bins as the wind moves towards the east of our house.

Feeding - as flowers grow I would recommend a liquid fertilizer as this can give a boost to reproduction.

Layout - access is important to cut the stems easily and to attend to the plants as they need staking up as they grow.

Plant needs - I look at flower and foliage plant needs and group them together based on whether they need lots of water or not and when they will flower. This helps as it makes it easier to not over or under water plants.

Sequence of flowering - you could consider laying out plants by order of flowering, early season, midseason, and late season.

Annuals - often don’t last an entire season, so succession seeding can help. As you can sow seeds a few weeks apart for continuous flowers until the end of that plants flowering season. Remove faded flowers and replace if space is limited to keep your flowers fresh. (More on flower and foliage to plant for a tried and tested flower garden in part 2).

Mulching - helps the soil to retain moisture in summer and rain to penetrate the soil in winter it also helps prevent weeds from growing. Mulching also helps protect the roots of plants in the winter. I haven’t always mulched but I do now as it does help the plants and makes weeding and watering easier.

Now you have an idea of how to set the area where you wish to plant your flowers and foliage, in part 2 I will share the list of flowers and foliage that keep our home filled all year round. If you would like the next blog post, flower inspiration and trends delievered straight to your inbox then sign up here.

For Flower Craft Kits and DIY Flower inspiration at home, visit my shop at Flower Wrap and Grow. Let's get sowing, growing and enjoying flowers in our gardens and homes.

Love

20% Off DIY Flower Wreath Kits

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Rideout) — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 10:48:00 +0000

This November you can get 20% Off now Flower wreath-making kits on the shop. Create floral wreaths to decorate at home with dried or garden foliage. Great with ivy, berries, and pretty lights or with dried flowers and foliage. Good home activity kit to get creative on your own or with family.

See more on the shop >>>

Dried Flower Wreath Making Kit

Moodboard For Flower Wreath Making

Home florist Tutorials and Guides

Other posts of interest DIY Floral Wreath Asymmetrical tutorial or be sure to join the email list to receive special offers, updates, and the first glimpse at on-trend tutorial guides.

See these offers and more at www.flowerwrapandgrow.com

Make A Cup Of Flowers And Decorate Your Home

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Rideout) — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 19:34:00 +0000

I love to create pretty cups of flowers and place them around our home, on the landing window ledge, a side table as you enter the front door, or a couple across the kitchen table. I have used dried or fresher flowers and have included objects we have found on special walks or outings.

Cups Of Garden Flowers - Create Your Own At Home

For dried Autumn displays I like to include conkers, dried lavender, peony heads, poppy seed heads, blue sea holly, and pretty strawflowers. The conker I made a small hole and insert some florist wire so I could push it into the biodegradable oasis.

Dried Flower Arrangement In A Vintage Cup And Saucer Set.

I also love to make seasonal Cups Of Flowers as fresh flower gifts, perfect to say thank you or as a little Birthday treat. These are simple to create with garden flowers, I like to use sweetpeas, feverfew, small dahlia’s, miniature sunflowers such as Helianthus annuus ‘Sonja' or Helianthus debilis 'Vanilla Ice’. Many combinations look great together and see the easy six-step guide below how to create a Cup of Flowers yourself at home.

Ingredients

Flowers, foliage, cup and saucer, florist wire, biodegradable oasis, sharp scissors or florist snips, label if gifting. See the Cup Of Flower Kit to help you create your own.

Time: 20 minutes

1. Pick flowers and foliage from your garden, early in the morning is the ideal time as the plants are hydrated or use dried the choice is yours.

2. Layout your materials such as a vintage cup with saucer, florist wire, sharp scissors.

3. I recommend pressing the oasis into the cup and using a biodegradable oasis. Pull the oasis out and a cup imprint will be left. Cut where the narrow end will be close to the bottom of the cup, then slide the oasis in so it is level.

4. Ensure there is a good fit but do leave a little room for water around the edges and for the oasis to swell a little with water. Keep topped up with water to prolong the display's life.

5. Trim your selected flowers and pick out pretty foliage and any textured items you may wish to include, seed pods, conkers,s, or grasses.

6. It is good to add height to the center of the teacup so add taller structures of foliage and interesting textures here first and fill the rest of the cup with flowers. Turn the cup as you fill with your blooms and alternate coloured flowers and foliage.

Once completed display and photograph your DIY Cup Of Flowers creation. Keep to admire or gift to delight someone special. #DIYcupofflowers

If you love DIY Flower Crafts sign up to our newsletter for more home florist ideas and inspiration join here.

Dahlia Waltzing Mathilda in Flower Arrangement

Chrysanthemums collection in vintage cup

Ranunculus and anemone flower display

Would you like to see more flower inspiration take a peek with Flower Wrap and Grow on Instagram and Pinterest. Let's get creative with flowers and make our gardens a home florist.

If you enjoyed this post you may also like How To Make A Flower Crown - How To Make A Floral Hoop or 18 Flower Arrangement Ideas.

Cup Of Flowers Gifting Kit - Flowerwrapandgrow.com

DIY Floral Wreath Asymmetrical

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Rideout) — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 19:52:00 +0000

On trend this year is the asymmetrical wreath, half the work and tons of glamour. Ideal for your front door or simply to decorate your home this season. A great time to try now with the abundance of Autumn nature or to make a Christmas wreath.

In this tutorial I will show you how to make a seasonal wreath. For my example this was an autumn inspired flower wreath with forged flora and foliage. Using sustainable bamboo hoops 20cm and 23cm and NewLife eco-friendly ribbons.

Materials

Bamboo macrame hoop
Ribbon
Thin gauge floral wire
Florist tape
Wire cutters or sharp scissors
Fresh flowers and foliage

Instructions

1. Layout your floral materials and add your selection of flowers from the garden, dried or faux flowers. In this example ivy and bay leaves to get stared. For materials www.flowerwrapandgrow.com offer DIY Flower Wreath sets, so you just simply add flowers and foliage.

2. A great way to personalise your hoop is to include specially forged seed heads, pine cones or dried grasses. Wrap the green foliage around your hoop, good suggestions include, eucalyptus, ivy and sprigs of holly for Christmas. Beware of using berries if children are around and a wreath maybe in reaching distance.

3. Build your greenery, starting from the outermost edges that you want to cover and work in. Use floral wire to secure branches and larger items. Repeat if you want to builder up a deeper covering.

4. Once the foliage has been built up start adding your fresh or dried flowers. This can be done with the floral wire or florist tape. Pick a flower and wrap the tape around the stem, make sure to high the tape with foliage or more flowers.

5. Keep adding interesting details and ensure you wrap up loose ends to keep the wreath design tidy. It’s lovely if you have collected special seasonal items on a walk as every time you look at your wreath it can make you smile.

6. Add a ribbon ( I choose newline ribbon as it is eco-friendly) and hang your beautiful wreath on a nail or a door frame. Photograph to share with friends and family #DIYFlowerwreath.

Ten Activities That Help Find Moments Of calm For Yourself

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Rideout) — Fri, 22 May 2020 16:16:00 +0000

In these uncertain times, the garden and walks in nature can really help. Stay safe and be kind to yourself. Here are ten activities and ideas that can help in the weeks ahead to find a little calm.

1. Walk-in nature anywhere you can, through a park, along the beach, or if you cannot go outside open the windows and watch the birds
2. Creative art, draw, paint, colour, or create a collage
3. Take time to sit calmly and breath, deeply for five minutes at a time

4. Sing along to a favorite song

5. Feel the sun on your face
6. Find that book you have been meaning to read

7. Call someone to see how they are and what they have been doing?
8. Enjoy the season as Spring turns into Summer, notice the little changes
9. Smile, this will be over and will not last forever
10. Know you are enough and you can do this, feel the calm wash over you.

#walks #Bekind #mindfulness

How To Make A Flower Crown At Home

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Rideout) — Mon, 11 May 2020 07:03:00 +0000

DIY Rose Flower Crown

Simple steps to make your own do-it-yourself flower crown at home. Use garden flowers locally brought florals or choose faux the choice is yours!

There is something so fun and whimsical about flower crowns. Wear them for a party, wedding, festival or at the moment around your home just for fun!

Things you will need, scissors, flowers, florist wire, floral tape (or use the DIY Flower Crown Kit)

1. Take your two pieces of floral wire and fit it around your head so that you know how long it needs to be. Twist the ends together to keep in place. Shape the wire into a circle shape.

Floral Crown and materials from the DIY Flower Crown Kit

2. With your floral tape begin wrapping it around the florist wire making sure you pull it gently as you wrap so the tape becomes sticky. Take a long piece of greenery and twist it around the crown, then secure it with floral tape.

Crown wrapped in florist tape and foliage

3. Begin making small bouquets with your flowers and foliage. Then wrap the ends with the floral tape to ensure all the wire is covered in florist tape.

Roses wrapped with florist tape

4. Add the small bouquets with any extra flowers and foliage, to the crown. Securing with floral tape as you go. Ensuring you add favorite florals to the front.

Garden real flower crown

5. Secure any extra flower ends and tidy up the crown. Add any extra flowers or items such as ribbons as you go.

Garden flowers to make flower crowns

6. Put your floral crown on your head and you are all set to smile, and take photographs to show friends. I would love to see your creations and do share them on #FWG_DIYflowers

DIY Flower Crown made at home by Kelly Rideout

If you like more flower inspiration see the Crafty Flower Ideas To Try At Home 101 and if you would like to start growing your own flowers see Top 15 Cut Flowers And 8 Foliage Plants To Grow This Year.

DIY Flower Crown Kits can be brought at my shop KellyRideout.com or on Amazon ideal Birthday gifts or to use for a flower party, festival, or wedding.

Top 10 Flower Arranging and Cut Flower Growing Books To Read This Summer 2020

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Rideout) — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 15:30:00 +0000

These are the top ten books I am reading or have on my list to read this summer in the garden in the shade with a cup of tea. These books are for flower recipes, to grow cut flowers, learning more about Covent Garden Market, and flower inspiration. What will you be reading this summer and can you recommend anymore flower related books?

The Joy of Dahlias by Katja Staring (Author), Linda Van Der Slot (Author), Marlies Weijers (Author)

Blooms: Contemporary Floral Design by Phaidon Editors and Clare Coulson

Flower Recipe Book, The: 125 Step-by-Step Arrangements for Everyday Occasions by Alethea Harampolis

The Flower Market Year 2019: 12 Months at New Covent Garden Flower Market by Simon Lycett

Floret Farm's A Year in Flowers by Erin Benzakein and Chris Benzakein

The Flower Farmer's Year: How to Grow Cut Flowers for Pleasure and Profit by Georgie Newbery

Flower Colour Guide by Darroch Putnam, Michael Putnam

The Flower Expert: Ideas and inspiration for a life with flowers by Thames & Hudson Australia

Flower Arranging: How to Arrange Flowers from your Florist and from your Garden by Mark Welford and Stephen Wicks

Crafty Flower Ideas To Try At Home 101

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Rideout) — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 07:57:00 +0000

As lots of us are stuck at home at this unprecedented time, I wanted to bring a little flower joy so here are some flower-based activities to try. Flower arranging, making flower ice cubes, baking edible flowers biscuits and wrapping flower gifts for random acts of kindness and more.

This list of flower activates can also be tried with children. You will need access to flowers for some activities, whether garden flowers or local British flowers. Lots of British flower farmers are offering to post or locally deliver flowers. Great to support British Flowers at this time as their spring flowers are in bloom with florist shops closed.

Flower Bouquets - Random Acts of Kindness

Create mini random acts of kindness with flower gifts. Pick garden flowers and foliage, remove lower leaves and hand-tie flowers with string. Wrap with tissue, Kraft or flower wrapping papers. Even newspapers can look great with a ribbon.

It is your bouquet so be as creative as you want. Pick seed pods, buds just opening and anything that catches your eye. (Be careful with berries and wash your hands after picking). See How To Make A Flower Bouquet Step by Step or view DIY Flower Bouquets for ideas on the Pinterest board.

As a random act of kindness, if there is someone you know or someone in your street alone at this time. Maybe leave them a little flower bunch on their doorstep as you get some exercise. It might just make their day and you could leave your number encase they need some shopping too. See a great FREE NOTE to download and print here.

Forage for Flowers and Find Interesting Materials To Create Art

Create art with flowers, set up a scene or a story idea. Pick flowers, grasses or anything you wish to include. These could be really simple like leaves, daisies, and twigs. Find a clear sheet of paper or a worktop for your background. I prefer white or light coloured backgrounds.

Carefully set up your items to turn them into an art picture or spell out words. Be careful the wind does not move your design as you are working. Also, make sure the light is good where you create the art. Capture your flower picture as you finish with a photograph. These photographs can be printed at home or companies such as Printed.com or Photobox. Frame and your art and use it to brighten walls in your home.

Flower art inspiration can be found at Floral Forger for scenes told in nature and for flower fashion inspired by petals see Flower Petal Art Board

Make Edible Flower Biscuits

Stylish for cups of tea at home and these look so good you will want to share your fabulous biscuit creations on Instagram. Simple to make shortbread biscuits see recipe below and add edible flowers to decorate them such as marigolds, viola, and rosemary.

Be inspired by how easy this is with the video 'Pressed Flower Shortbread Cookies' | How It's Made.

This recipe and more ideas for steps can be found on the Sugar and Charm blog

How To Make Shortbread Cookies

Beat butter in a mixer until smooth. Add in sugar, vanilla, and salt and continue to beat. With the mixer on low, add in the flour and mix until incorporated.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes (or longer if you need too!)
Roll the dough out and use a biscuit cutter to make circles.
Bake in a preheated oven, 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.
Let them cool at room temperature.

Flower Growing

You do not need to be green-fingered to try and grow plants, it is more about remembering to water them. Top tip for watering, get a bowl, add water and let the plant sit in it for 30 minutes. After that time the plants will have soaked up enough so tip the remaining water away.

Sunflowers are particularly easy and with all the different colours and styles there is a big selection to choose from. Other easy seeds include Calendula and Violas.

Try a Flower Wrap and Grow Set as you can grow Calendula seeds and learn to wrap flower bouquets with the guide and materials all in one handy set. Wrap and Grow Edible Flower Gifts send a postbox gift to friends and family. They fit directly through the door and have 10% off first orders.

Marks and sponsors also have a ‘Little Growers’ on a the moment with nice little sets to grow all in one. You do have to spend £20 on food to receive a seedbox. There are some lovely free garden-related activities for children on the link too. Colouring in and puzzles related to growing plants.

Make Flower Arrangements

Bring spring joy into your home with little flower arrangements to brighten a sideboard or kitchen table. As these are your creations make them as colourful or as simple as you like with a wide selection of flowers or simply a couple.

18 Easy Flower Arrangement Ideas be inspired to make your own. Great for the soul as you have flowers around the home.

Make Edible Flower Ice cubes

How to make edible flower ice-cubes is simple, but a few tricks will help them show the flowers at their best

Forage flowers just before you intend to use them to keep them fresh. Pick only healthy flowers to included.
Taste a petal or two as you will need to consider the drink you will be adding the ice cubes too. For example, you may wish for a different taste if you are adding them to Gin or to Lemonade. A guide to flower tastes is here and a guide to more edible flowers in the UK can be found here (do make your own research before eating any flower or petals some can cause harm).
Freeze in layers, and start by filling up the ice cube tray halfway with water and place the flower on the surface. Slowly pour in just a little water so when you freeze it the flower will be held in place. Freeze for 12-24 hours, then our another layer of water to fill the ice cube trays. Work quickly so they don’t melt. Freeze for 12-24 hours and you are ready to use them.

Hold A Mini Flower Party In Your Kitchen Or Garden

Plan a mini family party in your home with family members to celebrate spring or plan a late summer/ autumn garden party. Where you can mix homegrown flowers with British blooms brought locally or picked at flowering pick events.

Set up a serving trolley or a table as a flower bar, select glasses, vases or watering cans and fill with fresh flowers and foliage. You can receive a FREE Flower Bar sign and party checklist when you sign up for the email newsletter here.

Set up another table or sideboard with flower wrapping materials, scissors, twines, ribbons and flower decorations. See the Flower Wrapping Guide.

Create flower bouquets together, make flower arrangements for the home, use the flower ice cubes in old fashioned lemonade or water. Eat your edible flower shortbread biscuits with a nice cup of tea. Gift a flower bouquet to someone special who may need a little thoughtful gift to brighten their day. Keep a few flowers for yourself to enjoy in a vase at home, because flower joy is for you too.

See more on HOW TO HOST A FLOWER PARTY

Let florals calm and offer mindfulness in a time of unprecedented uncertainty. Join the newsletter for more floral activities, flower updates and grow your own flower offers.

Top 15 Cut flowers and 8 Foliage Plants To Grow This Year

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Rideout) — Sun, 19 Jan 2020 13:00:00 +0000

Growing a cutting flower garden for the last four years has brought so much happiness. It began with a few wooden crates and has quickly moved to several flower beds. The joy of growing flowers, bringing them inside our home and sharing with the family has been amazing.

In the last few years, I have seen some plants perform really well in the garden and then last year not grow so well with too much rain. I hope this list might help you to get started with a cutting garden or perhaps just add a few new additions to your garden.

For my top-performing fifteen flowers, I have chosen the constants of my flower garden. These are great when cut for vase life and for an abundance of flowers. To see more on cutting and conditioning cut flowers the RHS has a good article to help prolong vase life.

Homegrown Zinnia Giant Red With Bee

Top Fifteen Cutting Flowers To Grow 2020

These are in no particular order but they give an abundance of flowers and were some of the first flowers I grew on the flower garden.

Dahlia Brown Sugar
Zinnias Giant mixed
Cosmos Cup Cake Blush
Dahlia Linda’s Baby
Mixed Cut Flower Seeds (Sarah Raven)
Icelandic poppies Sherbert Mix Papaver nudicaule
Zinnia ‘Early Wonder Mixed’
Sunflowers ‘Helianthus annus ‘Sonja’
Dahlia ‘Bishops Children’
Stocks ‘Vintage Antique Mix’
Icelandic Poppies Giant Peach Paver Nudicaule
Ranunculus Picotee Pink
Calendula officinalis ‘Indian Prince’
Red Parrot Tulips
Peter Beals Rose ‘Desdemona’

August 2019 Flower Bed Two

For my top eight to grow foliage plants, I selected on what works really well when making homegrown flower arrangements and bouquets. See 18 Easy Flower Arrangement Ideas to fill your home for more inspiration on filling your home with flowers.

Top Eight Foliage To Grow This Year

Cerinthe major ‘purpurascens’
White daisy flowers
Orlaya grandiflora (white Lace Flower)
Euphorbia Oblongata (Eggleaf Spurge)
Eucalyptus gunnii Azura (Cagire)
Moluccella Laevis (Bells of Ireland)
Amaranthus caudatus ‘Viridis’ (Love-lies-bleeding)
Ammi Majus

I live on Hayling Island in Hampshire Uk, which is a 9a Zone. Look here to find your British planting zone https://www.trebrown.com/hrdzone.html or here is a plant hardiness global zone useful when thinking about the types of flower and foliage to grow. Although weather patterns are definitely changing so I do try and test my own flowers to see if how they grow.

Dahlia Brown Sugar Homegrown DIY Bouquet

To keep updated on the latest fun garden flower news, Flower Wrap and Grow offers and trends in flowers be sure to join the newsletter.

Pick Your Own Flower Events - Family Activities and Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Rideout) — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 15:30:00 +0000

We love to pick your own flower events and Sams Sunflowers on Hayling Island with the golden sunflowers and expanse of blue skies was a perfect afternoon.

We also like to visit Selborne Lavender fields on their open days. Although this is not a pick your own event it is a lovely day out as there are drinks and you can visit the lavender shop too. You can also take a little picnic and sit on the edge of the fields for a lunchtime rest.

Lavender Fields in Selborne Jacob, Oakley, and me (Kelly Rideout)

Pig at Lavender Fields in Selborne

At Sams Sunflowers we played the game of who could find the best-looking sunflowers, the happiest looking sunflower and of course the tallest sunflower with a beautiful face. The aim was to collect these sunflowers for a jug at home, some for nanny and another bunch for grandma.

The highlights of visiting pick your own for us is supporting local farms, having fun together outside, helping the environment by choosing seasonal flowers with no air miles. Seeing friends and the community coming together. There are lots of people smiling with arms filled with sunflowers when the fields are open in July.

Family fun at Sams Sunflowers

It also turns out to be a great place for natural photographs of children in the flowers and these are a few I took at Sam’s Sunflowers Hayling Island and the Lavender Fields in Selborne.

Sunflower bouquet in Rainbow Flower Wrap

Grandma love x

We cannot wait to visit more pick your own flower events and open days on flower farms this year. With us, we will take some Flower Wrap and Sticker Kits, to quickly make some bouquets to deliver with delight on the way home from the flower picking. I am already on the lookout for new places to visit, and Garsons Garden Centre is definitely on the list. A good place to start looking for events is Flower From The Farm.

Above is a very happy grandma giving out cuddles to the pickers of her fabulous bunch of sunflowers.

Eighteen Easy Flower Arrangements To Make At Home With Cut Flowers

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Rideout) — Mon, 13 Jan 2020 14:26:00 +0000

I love to fill our home with flowers from the cutting garden, over that last three years of growing, there has been an abundance of flowers. I love to arrange them in pretty colourful tins, vases, jugs, Babycham glasses, and vintage china tea sets. Most vessels I have collected from vintage shops, car boot sales, been gifted, eBay, and local fairs.

Decorating tables throughout our home, adding flowers to guest rooms, and brightening up small areas of the home allows me to bring the garden inside. Even when it can be too cold or hot to sit outside you can enjoy flowers throughout your home all year round.

These were easy flower arrangements to create, for beginners and seasoned flower arrangers alike. I hope you find them fun and inspiring, as I loved creating them using my homegrown flowers. You could recreate with garden flowers or locally brought blooms.

Vintage Tea Cups and Jugs

18 easy flower arrangements ideas to try at home to get more creative with garden flowers and bring the flowers inside to make your home bloom.

DIY Cosmos Flower Arrangement - Garden Flower Display Ideas

Homegrown Cosmos, and sweetpea mix

#1 The key to this design was to offset the blue tin with brilliant pinks, whites, and purple colours in the flowers. I used a square of wax-coated chicken wire, crumpled into a ball inside the container. Then places the sweet peas, cosmos, and foliage through the wire.

Vessel: vintage Kellog's Rice Krispies tin. Any bright and colourful tin could work well for this arrangement.

Highlight: The floral scent of sweet peas was wonderful and the colourful display made a great eye-catching centerpiece for a tea party get together. This display was quite large so I set up a little table clear of things to show it off.

Flowers included: mixed sweet peas, with Cosmos bipinnatus 'Purity', Cosmos bipinnatus 'Dazzler', and Cosmos 'Cupcake Blush’.

Spring Flowers Arrangement Idea - Tea Cups

Flower Arrangments For The Home - Spring Floral Inspiration

#2 Spring flower displayed in a vintage teacup and saucer, looks great as a group or as a single display. Although they need to be low ideally on a low table or window sill.

Vessel: vintage English teacup and saucer.

Highlight: Easy to place around the home and ideal in guest rooms as a little flower treat. I especially liked the turquoise inside of the cup and jug set as it offsets the colours of the flowers beautifully.

Flowers included: purple Anemone, orange Freesian, yellow ranunculus, and eucalyptus gunnii.

Camellia Sasanqua Cleopatra White

Vintage Sugar Bowl - Flower Display Idea

#3 Pretty simple flower display of two Camellia's from the garden. I used this for our bedroom next to the bed as it made the table look pretty and these are not scented it was ideal.

Vessel: vintage china English sugar bowl.

Highlight: really easy to recreate with a pretty bowl and a couple of medium-headed garden flowers.

Flowers included: Camellia Sasanqua Cleopatra White

Homegrown Garden Flowers - Do-it-yourself Floral Arrangements

Mixed flowers with Giant Zinnia's, Oxeye Daisy, California Poppies.

#4 Hallway display of three garden flower arrangements, created in August when there was an abundance of flowers from the cutting garden. Lined up these look eye-catching in a miss-matched jar, jug and milk bottle.

Vessel: The jar had been filled with coffee and with the wide neck I thought it would be great for displaying flowers. Simply tied with a VV Rouleaux ribbon around the top. The blue and white jug Heron Cross Pottery 1876 brought on a trip in Haworth and a glass milk bottle.

Highlight: making three mini flower arrangements which were grouped along the hallway really made an impact on entrance. I refilled these up in a row many times with different flowers.

Flowers included: giant zinnia's, oxeye daisies and California poppies.

Cherry Blossom Flower Ideas

Cherry Blossom Mini Flower Arrangement

#5 May Cherry Blossom in a mini glass jar attached with wire to hang on a wall or window sticker hook. Picked simply from our Cherry Blossom Tree which flowers every May.

Vessel: small glass jar with wire attached.

Highlight: these little jars can be filled with pretty flower displays all year round and you only need a couple of small flowers to make it look really attractive. Add a group of small jars with wires and create a beautiful flower display, ideal for a party.

Flowers included: cherry tree blossom.

Blush Climbing Roses and Icelandic Poppies - Flower Arrangement

Homegrown Flowers To Decorate Your Home

#6 Kitchen window sill display idea with blush climbing roses and Icelandic Poppies. Spanish style glass blue water bottles with wide necks so perfect for popping flowers in to display.

Vessel: blue glass Spanish water style bottles.

Highlight: I love these blue bottles with garden flowers as they set a lovely bright tone in any area of our home. Great to arrange together or one on their own in different areas.

Flowers included: blush climbing roses and Icelandic poppies.

Dahlia Linda's Baby displayed in a glass milk bottle with a wooden flower decoration

Homegrown Cut Flowers - Dahlia Linda's Baby

#7 An ideal desk or bedside flower arrangement to brighten a small area. Great as a gift for a friend or family member. Very little time to make and such a pretty little display, the Flower Decoration was from Kelly Rideout.

Vessel: glass milk bottle and wooden flower decoration.

Highlight: Pretty gift idea and flower arrangement which takes very little time to put together. Add your name or a message on the back of the wooden take for an extra keepsake gift.

Flowers included: Dahlia Linda's Baby.

British Flower Display Inspiration

Peony Itoh 'Bartzella

#8 Although Peony's are not a cutting flower as they don't come back again I did decide to include this beauty as it smells so lovely of lemons and I am not a flower farm just growing at home for flower inspiration and fun. One of my favorite plants are Peonies, I just wish they had a longer flowering season.

Vessel: mini glass bottles.

Highlight: Great as a table display across the middle to make a statement for a garden party or simply to make a special afternoon tea. Although I would keep them out of direct sunlight or you may see them physically wilt. Wonderful in colours, textures, and shapes.

Flowers included: peony itoh 'bartzella, cerinthe major 'purpurascens', orange rose, euphorbia oblongata, pink climbing rose, mathiola incana 'vintage antique mix'.

Parrot Tulips Red and White - Coco-Cola Bottle Display

Spring Red and White Parrot Tulip Flower Decoration

#9 When these glorious red and white parrot tulips came though they made me think of coco-cola and the branding. I do enjoy a diet coke from time to time so these glass bottles seem the idea vase for them. Lots of fun and a great spring display.

Vessel: glass Coco-Cola bottles.

Highlight: Fun to display and easy to recreate or have fun with other bottles and flower colours. Maybe Fanta and orange flowers next time. These also received lots of attention on social media too, do follow me on Instagram @kellyrideout_d

Flowers included: red and white parrot tulips.

Homegrown Garden Flower Display Ideas

Love Dahlias, Cosmos, Poppies, roses and more

#10 This colourful display was created in late summer using the pinks from the dahlias and the fun tin box together. The cute little tin box looks like a little french bakery and really caught my eye.

Vessel: Pink Tin Box

Highlight: Fresh fun and uses lots of big hero flowers, which are blooming late in the summer with the long nights. This range of pinks and a few added whites really enhances the flowers and the tin together.

Flowers included: Cosmos bipinnatus 'Dazzler', poppy heads and foliage.

Cosmos Cupcake Blush - Homegrown Flowers with Bag Art

Homegrown Cut Flowers - Cosmos Cupcake Blush

#11 These are flowers I picked straight from the flower garden and popped into glass vases outside. I used them inside next to my handmade bag artwork and across the house. These cosmos are great cut flowers as they come back in abundance when cut.

Vessel: Glass jars filled with beautiful Cosmos Cupcake 'Blush' and Cosmos Cupcake 'White' brought from Floret Flower Farm which is great for seeds, advice on flower farming and stunning flower photography.

Highlight: These lovely light flowers last a long time in the vase and look great in any room. I love the delicate flowers and colours of these Cosmos. One of my top performers on the cutting garden and just lovely to watch blowing lighting in the summer breeze.

Flowers included: Cosmos Cupcake 'Blush', Cosmos Cupcake 'White' and foliage Amaranthus caudatus 'Virdis'.

#12 Brilliant bold magenta, canary yellows, fresh greens, and sunset oranges. Ideal centerpieces for a party with fun style and with a great floral scent.

Vessel: Babycham blush pink glasses

Highlight: Eye-catching and bright these flower displays worked really well for a friends cocktail party.

Flowers included: Anemone Flowers and Freesias, with rosemary and eucalyptus gunnii.

The ideal time to pick flowers is first thing in the morning as they are more hydrated than at the end of a hot day.

How to Arrange Flowers: Step-by-Step

Step 1: Gather your materials

Step 2: Remove extra leaves to create clean stems for inside the vase or vessel

Step 3: Measure the flowers against your vase of choice and cut the stems to size

Step 4: Fill your vase half full with water

Step 5: Pour the plant food into the vase

See more on my cutting garden on Pinterest and you can read How Nurturing A Flower Cutting Garden Has Created New Possibilities

To join the cutting flower garden journey and keep up-to-date with the blog be sure to sign up for the newsletter.

CHILDREN GARDENING, GROWING FLOWERS, VEGETABLES AND CREATIVE ACTIVITIES

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Rideout) — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 18:00:00 +0000

We love growing our own flowers and vegetables in the garden, the children like to pick their items to grow and each has a little area.

I find growing with children is a great way to get them outside, enjoying some fresh air and exercise. Learning about plants, nature, looking after something other than themselves and how it feels when a slug strikes!

Previously we have grown giant Zinnia's, Sunflowers (every year) in a number of colours, heights, and head sizes. Cucumbers did very well last year along with cherry trailing tomatoes and Slovacina peppers which were given to us as a gift.

This year our two boys Jacob (eight) and Oakley (six) have chosen to grow, pumpkins, carrots, cucumbers, sweetcorn, sunflowers, calendula, and zinnias. As their planter broke last year I am thinking of trying them with crates this year. I will update you with some photographs once we are underway.

Some great cut flower seeds we have tried and are great to try with children I think ar, Calendula officials ‘Indian Prince’, Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Dazzler’, Sunflower Vanilla Ice and Centaurea Cyanus ‘Polka Dot’ mixed’. These are easy to grow and make great cut flowers.

Plant them inside to get them growing early in Spring or sow them directly outside in the sunshine when the frost has passed. Direction for the best growing tips can be found on the back of the seed packets, so great to read with children.

Benefits of planting flowers and vegetables with children include

Reducing pollution
Eating homegrown food from the garden
Reducing carbon footprints
Helping Bees and insects
Well being for gardeners (mindfulness)
Healthy exercise benefits
Social activity for the family to enjoy together
Cut flowers can fill a home or be gifted to friends and family
Children learn to nurture and watch for nature in the garden
Having fun together

Here are some children’s activities I have tried and enjoyed with my children, great for school holidays and having fun together.

1. Paint or draw pictures of the seeds and the plants as they grow.

2. Keep a plant diary over a period of time.

4. Photograph the children and yourselves while you are gardening together. Create your own ‘Flower Story’. A collage of pictures while you grow the flowers as a reminder and keepsake. This could be gifted with some flowers as an extra special gift.

5. Learn to wrap flowers like a florist with this handy our handy six-step guide. Ideal for Mother Day Gifts or special end of term teacher presents. For more ideas on flower wrapping ideas follow me on Pinterest or Instagram.

6. Make up a story or poem about your garden.

7. Collet the flower seeds and use them with glue to make patterns.

8. Press flowers and keep in sketchbooks with labels.

9. Flower petals can be used for art, style the scene and take a photograph to print out. See below or look at Bridget Beth Collins as her flower art is stunning as she tells stories with flowers.

Having fun in the garden and creating thoughtful gifts with flowers can be lots of fun. A gift where someone has taken time can mean so much to someone special. When life can seem so fast-paced, gardening can really help time slow down and create last memories by bringing family together.

"You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry. Don't worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way." - Walter Hagen

To begin your own flower journey with children be sure to look at the new Children’s Flower Wrap Set with flower seeds or the rainbow flower wrap and sticker kits.

How Nurturing A Flower Garden Created New Possibilities

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Rideout) — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 14:38:00 +0000

I wanted the flower cutting garden to be a constant source of inspiration for my design work which heavily features florals. To use seasonal flowers that were fresh and I could select when needed. Rather than relying on locally brought flowers and what was for sale, although I do love to support British Flowers and I do visit pick your own flower events.

What I hadn’t anticipated when I developed the area of our garden to grow flowers was how much I would like to browse the seed catalogues. Research online the colours, leaf textures, stem styles and vast selection of new flowers each year. With a cup of tea and a cosy chair, it is a great autumn and winter activity to start planning the cutting garden for the following year. Especially if you are not a fan of the darker months this can help as you begin to grow seeds inside. On a window sill, conservatory or even the hardy plants in a cold frame.

If asked what I would like for Christmas or Birthday's I do tend to answer with gift vouchers for our local garden centres or online sellers. I love to browse the sites and select what new items I would like to try in the garden.

The first year I did select some flowers from Floret USA and coming from America I hadn’t realised the import tax would be more than the seeds themselves. However, I see this as an investment as I have grown these beautiful Daydream and Cupcake Poppies for a few years now and each year I collect seeds. I can sow every year without making another purchase and I have gifted some to my mum so she is enjoying her own. Also, we swap seeds to try new flowers and build up our flower stocks.

Planting the seeds I let my children help, they love getting muddy in the garden. They have now started to select their own seeds to grow for next year including red sunflower xxx Pumpkin xxx, not quite a flower but I am quite open to trying new things. Also, I love my two sons being involved in the garden with helping to water and seeing things develop. Although they do lose interest after a while but that is fine. It allows me to carry on listening to the rustle of leaves, the birds and my boys playing in the background. I have been surprised how quiet it can feel in your mind when gardening, just thinking of the plants and being outside. How after an hour in the garden I can feel lifted in my mind having achieved something or just seen some new developments in growing through the seasons.

I had thought growing a cutting flower garden would be inspiration for my design work and it is every day. Watching the seasonal flowers, colours breaking through each month but it has been so much more.

Giving me time to have quiet moments as I nurture the plants, watering, feeding, staking and enjoying cutting the flowers so they come again. That is the difference for cut flowers, the types of flowers for a cutting garden grow more as you cut them. Giving an abundance of flowers through their flowering months.

I arrange flowers to constantly fill our home on tables and window sills. To add a fresh garden feeling inside when the weather still has a chill in the spring and when it feels too warm for long periods in the summer.

I like to wrap a bunch of flowers for friends or family members to brighten their day. Sharing the love of flowers and the joy people show when realising they are homegrown is really special. I cannot think of a more thoughtful gift than homegrown flowers, especially if it is from someone you love. That is how the cutting garden inspired me to create the Flower Wrap & Grow business I run today, so we can all grow and share the joy of flowers.

This summer has been busy but so much fun with the children helping in the garden developing their understanding of nature and growing cycles. Next year I am arranging an area for both of the boys to grow their own, I will add photographs of how they get on as we go along.

After digging and watering regularly with my husbands relaxing in the garden was wonderful with blooms to watch has been amazing. As I look back with lots of memories, I am excited for next year and to see the flowers grow again with some new additions.

Whether you start with one flower pot or a whole section of your garden, I couldn’t recommend growing your own cut flower enough.

Do join the newsletter here if you would like to keep up with us on the Flower Garden. Each month there will be updates, offers and lots of seasonal ideas based on flowers.

How To Host Your Own Flower Party

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Rideout) — Sat, 05 Oct 2019 09:14:00 +0000

I recently hosted a flower party for friends and featured a flower bar with my garden cut flowers where gusts could make their own floral bouquets. It was a great way to get everyone together and have fun with flowers, learning something new while catching up.

Flower Bar with homegrown flowers

Although I used garden flowers other ways to create a flower bar could include brought bunches, visiting a pick your own flower event or ordering a Do-It-Yourself flower bucket from a local flower farm.

I decided on a cosy cottage theme where I re-used everyday flower vases and jugs, however for a chic feel you could mix tall cylinder glass vases and galvanised metal buckets. You can see more ideas on my Pinterest boards for flower party ideas.

The Flower Bar for my party was set on a vintage style potting table which meant I could hang the flower decorations off the side and layer flower wrap for each guest with stickers, British twine, ribbons, scissors and pens all on the flower bar. I used materials from my Wrap & Grow range which you can see on the shop.

Garden cut flowers dahlias, Calendula offinalis, Phloax drummondii gardaniflora 'Cherry Caramel'

I had an eco-friendly event as I wanted to make sure I had non coated flower wrap so it can be recycled, recycled kraft papers, eco-friendly tissue paper, wooden labels which are from sustainable certified woodlands and vessels I could reuse after the event.

Wooden flower decorations keepsakes

I did send party invitations which I designed from flowers which would be featured in the vases at my flower party. I photographed the flowers and made them into an invitation for favourite friends. Other ideas to create invitations could include a special photograph with the message on the back, pressed flower cards or download our free invitation to printout yourself.

I found that the flower party was a great opportunity to get some wonderful photographs of my friends and I to share on instagram and Facebook. I will be taking more photographs at the next event as I want to complete our our flower story.

Flower story collage sheet

If you host a flower party do include the tag #Flowerpartyfun as I love to see your faces and fun at flower parties. I will be doing the same at our next flower party so do follow me on Instagram @flowerwrapandgrow to keep in touch.

I did add afternoon tea, with cake and some bubbles for refreshment, to keep the party flowing. The party had a lovely feeling and I am already planning my next flower party event for 2020. It was great to see all my friends have a great time and take some special flowers for themselves home that they created from the day.

Wrap and Grow - flower wrapping paper and bouquets

Quote
Happiness radiates like the fragrance from a flower and draws all good things towards you. - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

This is the flower list of the flora and foliage I included from my cutting garden
From left to right: Sweet peas Harlequin Sweet Pea Mix and Vintage Silk Sweet Pea Mix, Phlox drummondii grandiflora 'Cherry Caramel’ with Orlaya grandiflora, Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Dazzler’, Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Daydream’, Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Purity’, Cosmos Cupcake blush, Cosmos Cupcake White, Helianthus annuus ‘Sonja’, Calendula officinalis 'Indian Prince’, Snapdragon ‘Madame Butterfly Bronze’ Antirrhinum majus, Dahlia 'Totally Tangerine’, Dahlia 'Linda's Baby’, Dahlia ‘Snowstorm’, Dahlia 'Bright Eyes’ David Austin roses Desdemona and Port Sunlight, Euphorbia oblongata, Cerinthe major ‘Purpurascens’ and the large Dahlia 'Fairway Spur’.

I generally grow my flowers from seed and you can purchase these cut flower seeds from the suppliers below and rose plants, these are the sites I tend to use the most. (Please note with Floret there are import taxes which are due and in come cases I have paid more than the order to the UK. Although I deemed it as ok as I collect seeds each year and so I haven't need to purchase again).

David Austin Roses (beautiful award winning roses)

Floret (amazing cut flowers including Daydream and Cupcake Cosmos)

Sarah Raven (wonderful dahlias, cutflower sets and flowers for nearly everything)

Suttons (A good selection of seeds and shrubs)

Flower bar and wooden flower decoration keepsakes

British Flowers

The Flower Bar - Party Ideas

Cut flowers from the garden

Ribbons and British twine

Helianthus annuus 'Sonja'

If you plan a flower party do make sure you look at my shop which offers flower wrap, flower stickers, these wooden flower decorations and soon new for 2020 Party Sharing Sets.

THE ART OF BEAUTIFUL CUT FLOWER GIFTING

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Rideout) — Tue, 11 Jun 2019 10:12:00 +0000

I have been asked a lot recently about how I started my flower cutting garden and what tips I could give so I will be writing the post next week on 'How I Started My Flower Cutting Garden' this week as it is British flower week 10 - 16th June I wanted to give a little bit on why I created Wrap & Grow Flower Wrap Gift Sets.

My cutting garden last July was in full bloom and I wanted it to last as long as possible. As Sarah Raven says a cutting garden is where you "Cut flowers and they come again'. I released I needed to be cutting lots so the beautiful blooms didn't go to seed like Sweetpeas easily can if left without cutting.

I had filled my house with beautiful blooms but I didn't have an easy way to wrap and gift flowers to friends and family who would appreciate them. I looked for some pretty flower wrap and personal stickers but I was unable to find them easily.

I decided to design my own and create a set which was easy to keep and use as needed. As a mum, I am always conscious of leaving the world in good condition for our children. I knew the products had to be eco-friendly and made in Britain.

As I am not alone and I know many of us are taking up growing flowers for a hobby, to fill our home, for a wedding or just to add a little calm to our lives. I believe we will all like to try and wrap flowers for family and friends. Whether we grow them or buy local flowers, it's fun learning and bringing joy with flowers.

For ideas on how to use the flower Wrap & Grow gift sets take a peek at the Pinterest boards here and keep an eye on Instagram where pictures are posted daily. Below is an example of what is possible with one flower wrap gift set.

Flower Wrapping Inspiration using Coral Flower Wrap & Grow Gift Set

Now is a great time to order a Wrap & Grow Flower Set ready for your abundance of flowers blloming or try now with local flowers this British Flowers Week. As June is the month of British Flower Week there is currently 20% off with voucher code Britishflowers20 and free UK delivery. Offer ends June 30th 2019 and is subject to availability. www.KellyRideout.com

If you would like step by step instructions on How To Wrap A Flower Bouquet in Six Steps see this blog post or if you would like to Celebrate British flowers week take a look. To keep up to date with Inspired Living Now join the newsletter we would love to have you.

Homegrown flowers from the cutting garden last summer 2018.

Homegrown Cut Flowers - Dahlia's, Cosmos)

Let's Celebrate British Flowers Week 10 - 16 June 2019

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Rideout) — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 11:47:00 +0000

Excited to be supporting and cheering on British Flower growers and sellers this June for British Flowers Week. This week-long celebration of British-grown cut flowers and foliage aims to bring British flowers back into British homes.

There is a wonderful exhibition of British flowers at the Garden Museum with Gardens Illustrated. The campaign from New Covent Garden Market's brings together florists, flower growers, wholesalers and flower lovers, encouraging them to put Britain’s best blooms on display.

There are many events going on around the UK including flower workshops, talks, open gardens to exhibitions and more. Follow #BritishFlowersweek on social media or you can keep an eye on the British Flower Week website to see more information on events near you. I am keen to try a flower crown workshop this year as they look so much fun!

Flowers grown in Britain are like strawberries you pick off the bush in your garden or ones you pick at a local farm. The strawberries always taste much juicier, with a fuller flavour and with natural colours. While others massed grown can lose their smell and taste of water.

If the flowers are in season and haven’t crossed thousands of miles, they are the ones for me every-time. They last longer in the vase at home, save on flower carbon footprints and who doesn’t want to see more beautiful fields of flowers in Britain?

I have been researching flower farms where you can pick your own flowers or buy seasonal buckets of flowers. Ideal for DIY wedding parties, afternoon tea flower arranging events and so much more.

Take a look at British flowers week for sellers at the New Convent Garden Market and selected favourite florists and artisan growers.

If you would like to find a local flower farm, event or workshop then take a peek at the Flowers From The Farm map. I love this map and it's great to see the number of British flower farms growing.

Our support for British Flower Week is buying British flowers and the launch of the specially designed Coral Flower Wrap Gift Set. Designed exclusively for British Flowers Week and is inspired by “Living Coral” Pantone’s Colour of the Year 2019. All materials are eco-friendly and Made in Britain, hand packed in Hampshire with love.

As a special offer for British Flower Week, there is a 20% off Voucher code BRITISHFLOWERS20 to use at www.kellyrideout.com - Ideal to wrap a special British flower bouquet for someone special this June.

Let’s make Britain Bloom together and buy British flowers!

British Flowers links for flower ideas and information

Free download to British flowers by seasons on this handy downloadable British Flower Calendar.
https://www.newcoventgardenmarket.com/flowers/british-seasonal-flower-calendar

Flower Farms Map of Britain
https://www.flowersfromthefarm.co.uk/members-map

Buying British Flowers
https://www.britishflowersweek.com/buying-british-flowers

Keep up to date with British Flowers Week
https://www.britishflowersweek.com

British Flowers Pinterest Board
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/kellyrideout_Design/british-flower-week-2019

Social media hashtag to follow #BritishFlowersWeek and #WrapandGrow
Come say hello @kellyrideout_design and let's chat all about flowers!

Coral Flower Wrap Gift Set voucher code BritishFlowers20
https://www.kellyrideout.com/coralflowerwrap

DIY How To Wrap A Flower Bouquet In Six Steps

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Rideout) — Tue, 19 Mar 2019 11:38:00 +0000

It is lovely to share thoughtful gifts to family and friends straight from your garden or kitchen table. I grow flowers so I select them from the cutting garden but if you don't simply find somewhere great to buy flowers. This handy map from Flowers From The Farm is a great asset as you can see local flower workshops, pick your own flower events and you can buy beautiful British Flowers near to you in Britain.

A handy six-step guide shows you how to wrap a homegrown bouquet easily and gift straight away to someone special. Making an ideal thoughtful gift that they can enjoy as the flowers begin to bloom.

Step 1.

Select your flowers and foliage carefully from your garden or local shop. Remove extra leaves on the stems below where you will hand-tie the flowers. I use British twine by jute but you can use florist tape or elastic bands. Just be sure the flowers are not to restricted as you want the flowers to be able to drink water at all times.

Arrange your flowers so they have nice coverage of colour. For example, if you had three different coloured flowers. You may choose to add colour 1, then a colour 2 and a colour 3. Then repeat so the colours as you add can be separate out to each corner. Once you are happy, tie the flower arrangement together. Trim the stems of the flowers to roughly the same lengths.

Step 2.

Select which flower wrap you would like to use, brown Kraft wrap is good, Satin tissue paper or flower gift wrap non-coated. Eco-friendly papers and items which can be recycled are great for this kind of wrapping so just ensure you do not choose glitter or coated papers as these generally cannot be recycled.

The example in the photograph is mint green flower wrap.

Wrap & Grow Gift Box Content to Wrap Your Bouquets

Step 3.

Lay your chosen paper on the table and with pointed order at an angle. Lay your flowers heads up close to the point of the paper.

Flowers onto eco-friendly Flower Wrap

Step 4.

Wrap the paper from left across the flowers and tuck in behind the hand-tied bunch.

Wrap flower paper from left to right

Step 5.

Lift up the bottom right of the flower wrap and fold the paper over the flower stems. Crease a line up the paper on the right as shown. Wrap the remaining flower gift wrap around the flowers to join together.

DIY flower bouquet wrapping in six steps

Step 6.

You can choose a sticker to add the finishing touches to the bouquet, a ribbon or sellotape to set the paper into place. In this example, a ‘With Love’ sticker has been used. The sticker is set to the front of the flowers. You can present the sticker first, for the special recipient to read the message from your thoughtful gift.

Homegrown or local brought flowers handmade bouquet - with love.

Flower bouquets do not need to be complicated with the right materials and pretty flowers you can create gorgeous thoughtful gifts.

Ideal for Mothers Day, Easter, Birthdays, or simply as a thank you to someone special. Each Wrap & Grow gifting set comes with a packet of seeds to replenish stock of flowers or to grow something new.

If you would like to see the Wrap & Grow Homemade Flower Bouquet Gift Sets view here or if you would like to browser flower wrap or decorations look here.

For more flower bouquet, posey and flower gifting ideas you can take look on Pinterest or follow on Instagram @kellyrideout_design. You can also join the newsletter for updates on the latest flower gifts, shop offers, and competitions.

I would love to see some homemade bouquets you have created, after using these steps? Add your comment below as I would love to see them.

As always, thank you for reading.

Kelly x

Inspiration To Make Homemade Flower Bouquets and Arrangements

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Rideout) — Thu, 14 Mar 2019 20:10:00 +0000

I had such a great year on the cutting garden last year I decided to gift some flowers, to family, friends and charity events. I loved putting together the simple flower arrangements straight from the garden but found it hard to find the right flower wrap and decorations.

I set to work and decided to design my own as they had been so well received. I hope others like you might like to use them and gift them too. I wanted the flower wrap, decorations and all things included to be eco-friendly and Made in Britain and that is excatly what they are so we can wrap with peace of mind. My other main goal was to help others enjoy flowers as I love them and I really wanted this world to bloom all over so I added seed packets.

This month the new 'WRAP & GROW' Gift Sets For Homemade Flower Bouquets With Seeds are launched. I wanted to take this opportunity to look back at what was made and include some of the new ideas I created in the studio this week for flower arrangements.

Below I created homemade flower bouquets, kraft and sticker posey's, flower decorated bunches and a single stem flower gift. What will you create with yours? (Share your designs on Instagram and Facebook #wrapandgrow)

Perhaps you would like to share your abundant flowers from your garden this spring or during the year. Maybe you would like to try something new but you don't grow flowers. Then you could buy locally grown flowers and create your very own arrangements too.

Steps to creating an arrangement can be found in this handy six-step guide or simply
1, Choose the flower arrangement type you would like to create
2, Select your flowers and foliage (from your garden or brought locally)
3, Collect the materials you will need to complete the arrangement

The inspiration for homemade flower bouquets and simple arrangements is below.

Homemade Flower Bouquets
These were wrapped with the new flower gift wrap I created for wrapping my blooms and decided to design more as it was so well received. Colour selections now include the Coral colour of the year, mint green, fresh blue, yellow, patterns and rainbow colours. View Wrap and Bloom gift sets or Flower wrapping paper and stickers here.

Spring Flowers Bouquet Using Fresh Blue and Stickers

Multicoloured Set Of Flower Wraps and Stickers

Homegrown And Coral Mixed Set of Flower Wraps And Stickers

Kraft Paper And Sticker Posey's
These can take fewer flowers and simple ideas can look stunning as sweet little thank you gifts or a treat for someone special.

Just For You - Kraft Paper, Satin Tissue Wrap and Sticker

Grown With Love Kraft Paper and Grown With Love Sticker

Fresh Spring Flower Creations With Kraft Paper And Stickers

Decorated Flower Bunches
Adding a keepsake wooden tag which I wrote on the reverse with permanent maker I found to be very effective. I still see these hung around friends houses now on cupboard door handles and dressers. The decoration is kept long after the flowers have faded.

Flowers Wooden Tag Decoration

Hand-tied Roses With A Keepsake Wooden Flower Decoration

Simply hung over a flower in the bunch with a personal message on the reverse.

Single Stem Flower Gift
Use a hero flower like a Sunflower, Gerbera, Hydrangea, Rose or Dahlia and simply hand-tie some ribbon and a keepsake to make a sweet friendship gift.

Gerbera With A Flower Decoration And Keepsake Tag.

I will be adding to the blog new seasonal inspiration as the flowering months begin and we can see new blooms coming in from the garden. Until then you can also find me on Instagram and see inspiration on the Pinterest boards. #wrapandgrow

Bloom & Wild Flower Arranging Workshop

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Rideout) — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 11:56:00 +0000

I was feeling floral as I joined with other ladies at the Bloom and Wild flower arranging workshop. To learn how to prepare, arrange and pack hand-tied bouquets from a trained Bloom and Wild florist.

Bloom & Wild Flowers created at the workshop

During the hour and a half class, advice was given on the flowers, which would be included in the bouquet and why it had been chosen. All the materials were laid out on arrival at the VOX Studios, London where there was an enviable light space for floristry and a rather pretty pink kitchen.

The group of lovely ladies at the event were all keen to learn something new and get creative with flowers. Some ladies were looking to learn to provide flowers for their daughter's weddings. Others like myself wanted to wrap homegrown flowers or locally brought British flowers into beautiful bouquets.

Bloom & Wild - Flower Arranging, Vox Studio London

Rachel is head of workshops at Bloom and Wild was all smiles as she began the session. As we ran through hero flowers, accent flowers, fillers, accent colours, and second accent colours. Rachel also discussed the layers of flowers into a bouquet via a circling motion. Hero flowers are single-headed flowers such as roses, multiple heads for example, are flowers like the Alstroemeria. Flowers can add height like snapdragons and we added texture by Sea Lavender as it was semi-dry.

We Learned how to prepare the flowers by removing leaves which will be below the waterline and how to spiral layer and twist the flowers was really interesting. With a glass of prosecco in hand, we added the finishing touches to our boxed bouquets. It was a delight to take the beautiful arrangements home, mine is still blooming on my kitchen table.

Kelly Rideout Advertisement

Top takeaways from the event:

- Rules of flower arranging, don’t break the stem as flowers need to drink
- Choose your vessel or flower wrapping carefully
- The arrangement, decide will it face front, need to be a 360 centerpiece at eye level or something else?
- Remove all leaves from your stems to the size of your chosen vessel or to where you will hand-tie your flowers
- Change the water regularly as flowers such as Snap Dragons like to make the water contaminated with bacteria and this would shorten all the flower's life span.
- Take time to choose your flowers and foliage, picking colours to enhance the overall theme
- Where possible add texture, semi-drying plants or unusual leaves can be good for this element
- Ensure flowers like tulips have space to grow as they will continue to grow and will need headspace in the bouquet
- Wrapping is for presentation but also to protect the flowers when traveling

Bloom and Wild - Flower recipe we used at the workshop

To find a Bloom and Wild workshop or another course look at the ticketing site Everbrite or a local flower farm, a local florist may also hold flower arranging workshops near you.

Bloom and Wild are moving to host workshops across the UK soon! (I could be tempted to return for a second visit as they change the flowers used in the classes, but next time I would take friends too).

If you would like to try flower arranging at home check out our new flower wrap and sticker sets or treat someone to a Wrap and Grow Gifting Set complete with seeds. With a handy six-step guide to flower wrapping and all the materials needed to create home bouquets. Simply add your own flowers and start gifting your gorgeous home blooms.

25 Inspiring and Positive Quotes To Lift Your Day

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Rideout) — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 14:00:00 +0000

25 positive and inspiring quotes which uplift and energise. I love these quotes and hope they lift you up today too! The quotes below include Eleanor Roosevelt, Paulo Coelho, D.H Lawrence and Roald Dahl to name a few of the top 25.

1. Life is ours to be spent, not saved. D.H Lawrence

2. What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail? Robert H. Schuller

3. Everything has beauty but not everyone sees it. Andy Warhol

4. There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve. The fear of failure. Paulo Coelho

5. Bloom where you are planted. Anonymous

6. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. Eleanor Roosevelt

7. Be your own sunshine to light the way. Kelly Rideout

8. When it rains look for rainbowsfd when it's dark look for stars.

9. Be the energy you want to attract.

10. Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. Muriel Strode

11. Every day may not be good, but there is something good everyday. Anonymous

12. The secret of change is to focus all your energy. Not on fighting the old, but on building the new. Socrates

13. Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.

14. Do small things with great love. Anonymous

15. If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely. Roald Dahl

16. Enjoy the little things, as these are the fabric of life. Anonymous

17. A year from now you will wish you had started today. Karen Lamb

18. Dreams don't have deadlines. LL Cool J

19. Sow a little happiness every day and watch it bloom and grow. Kelly Rideout

20. Happiness is the new rich, inner peace is a new success. Health is a new wealth, kindness is the new cool. DKuncovered.com

21. Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will. Karim Seddik

22. Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake. Henry David Thoreau

23. I'm going to make everything around me beautiful - that will be my life. Elsie de Wolfe

24. Don't stop until you are proud. Anonymous

25. And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it. Roald Dahl

Inspiring and uplifting quotes help me stay positive and focused, I love recalling my favourites in my mind as and when I need them in different situations. The positive quotes which resonate I believe can also form to be a self-mantra. Focusing the mind and energising when it is needed through the journey. Have a great day!

Creative Joy! Isn't About The Big Moments In Life

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Rideout) — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 20:45:00 +0000

Swans on the lake

Seed tin and Iceland Poppy

Watering the flower cutting garden - Cosmos

Happiness for me isn't about the big moments in life but about everyday little joys. About small pockets of beauty, calm, creativity or just something personal that makes you slow and enjoy that moment. A coffee first thing, a hug from a loved one, seeing a flower on the way to work.

When these little pockets of time are strung together they can create infectious ways of feeling inspired and looking for the positive in any situation. Seeing the world afresh, where the colours become more vivid and senses open up to possibilities.

Gardening work - watering

Roses in the tin cup

Here are some of my creative joys, which I have created for fun and to keep inspiration flowing. I grow a flower cutting garden which I love and can often be found bare feet in the dirt. For me these are special moments watching, growing and waiting for the bloom.

Gardening Joy

Glorious morning coffee

I also love to play with items in the studio which are normally housed on the shelves and ledges. I love making them come to life in little stories. I hope you like them and can feel the joy. If you do be sure to follow for more on Instagram and sign up to the newsletter.

Handmade craft bags

Creative joy in making

Sweetpea playful creation

Thanks for reading!

Kelly x

All images are copyrighted to Kelly Rideout

From Molly Margaret to Kelly Rideout.. The Next Steps

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Rideout) — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 11:52:00 +0000

After lots of creative joy in the studio, I have decided to change my career from over twenty years of marketing to follow my dream of design. Which is what I originally studied at university and after recently taking a number of respected Lilla Rogers courses. May I introduce you to my new website www.kellyrideout.co.uk with designs ready for art licensing and inspiration for what could be possible for new commissions. I love to be surprised on new projects or collaborations so do get in touch if you would like to discuss.

As you can see in my work I love textures, layers, photography, mark making and lots of mixed media. As many of you know I am a keen gardener of my flower cutting area and you can see these heavily influence my work. I love to find inspiration in all things around me and these flow into my design work.

I am keeping the Inspired Living Now blog as I love to share ideas, great quotes, tips on gardening, life in the studio, work in progress and ways for us all to live an inspired life every day. Updated worksheets and journal pages coming very soon!

The new design and illustration website launched as Kelly Rideout this week as I decided using my own name was a better fit. Also using Molly Margaret name which I still love meant I got called Molly a lot, which wasn't ideal. I hope you explore and enjoy the new site. Be sure to check out the Creative Joy area which I hope will offer constant inspiration as it is updated and be sure to follow me on Instagram for the latest news.

Kelly Rideout new website launch November 2018.

Bloom and Grow Greeting Card Designs

Grown With Love Pattern Design

Styling and all photographs are my own, if you would like more information or a portfolio review please contact me.

You can read more on about or browse the Surface Pattern or Illustration pages.

You can still follow me on Instagram or sign up to the newsletter to keep up to date with the latest designs. Thank you for reading this blog post and let's keep enjoying the little moments in life.

Kelly xox

Handmade Bag Craft For Your Home

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Rideout) — Sun, 09 Sep 2018 13:15:00 +0000

One of my favourite outings is to a haberdashery shop or department to view the assortment of colours, textures and prints. By nature I love to collage and make tiny creations by hand and I thought I would share some of these below.

For this style of design I use beautiful fabrics from Liberty London, Cath Kidston, Laura Ashley, Rose and Hubble, Clarke and Clarke, Chatham Glyn and carefully selected vintage fabrics. I like to introduce handmade papers, delicate eye catching trims and other objects to make each unique.

Floral Friends Handmade Fabric Bag Wall Art (includes beautiful Liberty fabrics)

Handmade wall art using the finest fabrics and materials.

Cath Kidston and vintage strawberry bag art.

Creative joy hand making bag art.

Joy in the journey for me is about selecting and arranging the materials before they are handmade. It's the time to create and the moments of joy making the finished artwork.

Handcrafted art minature bags on the studio desk, ready for framing.

Beautiful bundles of fabric all ready to come alive.

Inspired by beach life for minature seaside bag creations.

Inspired by fashion colours and the catwalk for fashion fabric ideas.

These are pieces I have already made but I can also use your own fabrics or colour combinations. For commission pieces please contact me.

Checkout my pinterest for more craft and creative joy, fun inspiration for making at home or buying gifts.

Thank you for reading!

Kelly xox

Designer Kelly Rideout Takes Questions With Zoe

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Rideout) — Mon, 03 Sep 2018 10:02:00 +0000

I have been asked quite a few questions recently so I decided to tell you a little more about me below as my friend and collegue Zoe questioned me.

Where do you live?

Hayling Island (a real island with a bridge to join it to the English mainland. Everytime I drive over the bridge I know I am nearly home surrounded by beautiful sea) in Hampshire UK.

What medium do you use?

Mixed media (Paper, Textiles, Flowers and little treasures I find along the way) and I work on Photoshop, Procreate and Adobe Lightroom mainly.

How do you stay inspired?

I stay inspired by looking around me everyday, keeping my mind open, writing my blog and reading others blogs. I love books and have stacks all around my studio and I grow a cutting flower garden which I use in my designs. That keeps me inspired daily.

What colour combination are you most excited about right now?

I love rustic reds, pinks and a touch of gold right now.

What blog(s) do you read?

I read way too many!

What illustration job would you love to get (your dream job)?

I would love to illustrate my own book Inspired Living Now and a childrens book (already have the outline). Can I also add a range of garden and flower gifts too!

Name something you do in your spare time.

I grow a cutting flower garden, wonder antique shops and vintage shops for little treasures. Play fun and crazy games with my two wild boys and I enjoy tending to my blog https://inspiredliving-now.blogspot.com

What’s your favourite TV show?

My favourite show right now Billions

What is your favourite cake or wine?

White wine in summer and red wine in winter every time.

Do you wear shoes when you do art?

Never, I am always in bare feet unless it is freezing then funky socks is a must! The studio floor is tiled so in winter it gets freezing.

What do you listen to while you work?

Lounge, country, podcasts or something on the radio, depending on my mood.

How do you stay in shape?

I like to go on my bike, swim or gym.

What is your current favourite font?

I have way too many

How do you take your coffee?

Flat white or iced coffee in the summer - lovely!

Favourite Quote

The best way to predict the future is to to create it by Abraham Lincoln

Inspiration at The Lavender Fields and Cutting Garden Selborne Hampshire

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Rideout) — Mon, 16 Jul 2018 09:55:00 +0000

The Lavender Fields at Selborne Hampshire, had an open day yesterday and it was great to visit with the family. A stunning backdrop of colourful fields against the blue sky and fluffy clouds. The blues and subtle shades of the lavender never fail but to impress. It was great to see so many people taking photographs in the fields and simply enjoying themselves. It was also interesting to learn more about the Lavender Fields, the third generation farm and the story behind the farm. What had been farmed before and why they now have wildflowers in the centre of the field. To give the land a rest and to recover before they replant lavender back. Interesting to learn more about local businesses and I loved the bright yellow in the middle of the Lavender so a great visual treat.

Lavender Fields Selbourne Hampshire Uk

Beautiful Blue Lavender

Arctic Snow English Lavender will be a new edition to our garden.

On the visit, it was good to see Rebecca Goff from Blooming Cow Flowers giving a talk and demonstrating hand-tied flower arranging. The flowers and the shop looked so gorgeous and wonderful to know these are now so local. As I tinker with my own cut flower garden out next to the studio it is wonderful to see flower cutting gardens blooming across Britain.

Rebecca Goff - Blooming Cow Flowers

Surrey Beekeepers gave us a great explanation of bees, hives and how queen bees are selected. The children loved asking questions as they had been learning about bees at school this year. He showed us how it looked inside the hive and took time to explain lots of questions we all had about bees. Thank you Surrey Beekeepers, you taught us all something new yesterday.

Surrey Beekeepers - Giving us great information on beekeeping

Lots of fun spotting the ceramic pig smelling lavender, the rat and the lamb on our way into the Lavender Fields. It was a great delight to see Jon Barrett-Danes Ceramics was also located onsite and he was at work painting the spotty pig's feet when we saw him. Lovely to see inside his studio and how the items are stored, hand painted and carefully kiln fired. Be sure to look out for the ceramics around the lavender field as you go in as they are great!

Jon Barrett-Danes Ceramic Pig - Smelling the Lavender

I love to see local and British businesses doing a great job, sometimes it really is the simple pleasures that make the most fun days out and great weekends. It has to be said this visit was followed by a Sunday roast at a local pub so a perfect Sunday with the family. Thank you Lavenderdar Fields, we shall be back and I would recommend if you haven't visited them for an open day before, it is well worth a visit.