Northwest author: Beautiful bouquets are right outside your door
Mar 6, 2012, 10:55 AM | Updated: Mar 10, 2012, 8:35 am
 Valerie Easton’s is challenging people to find great bouquet material outside their front door. (Image courtesy Sasquatch Books) |
Sure there are tons of blooms at the supermarket, but a Northwest author is challenging people to put together their own arrangements.
“You can go outside, right outside your backdoor, and find plenty of things to cut,” said Seattle Times columnist Val Easton, speaking to Gardening with Ciscoe host Ciscoe Morris about her new book “Petal & Twig: Seasonal Bouquets with Blossoms, Branches, and Grasses from Your Garden.”
In her appearance, Easton gifted Ciscoe a bouquet that included Daphne odora, Coral Bark Maple, Kale, Hellebores, Spirea Magic Carpet, and Honeysuckle.
“It was all out of my tiny, little garden in Langley,” said Easton. “All that is going on out there and we forget about it because we’re inside so much this time of year.”
Listen to Val Easton on Gardening with Ciscoe
Since her book’s release, Easton said she’s met a lot of people who seem intimidated at the prospect of creating their own bouquets.
“They say, ‘I’m terrible with flowers,'” said Easton. “I just think that they have an old model in mind, big elaborate arrangements that have nothing to do with how we live or entertain or garden.”
Easton said it can be more simple than that, and it’s really just about bringing a bit of nature indoors.
“That’s why I started gardening, to have flowers to bring inside,” said Easton. “It’s a nice connection with your garden to get out and cut.”
And you don’t have to wait for spring. Ciscoe agrees there is plenty of foliage out there now to make a beautiful bouquet.
“People don’t realize that right now there are a million things out there […] that you can actually put into a flower arrangement.”
Samples of Easton’s homemade works can be seen in her new book Petal & Twig and on her blog.
Gardening with Ciscoe can be heard on the new 97.3 KIRO FM weekend on Saturday at 10 a.m. and anytime ON DEMAND at MyNorthwest.com
By JAMIE GRISWOLD, MyNorthwest.com Editor
