This month, our expert florist and friend Lu Diamond Flowers, shares with us her tips to add colour into our lives with the bright hues of the orchid family and her latest arrangement ideas...
I have recently fallen in love with the mesmerising orchid family. They are the highlight when visiting the markets during wet, cold mornings. My most favourite are cymbidiums, which look like bright-coloured puppy dog noses, and the golden shower orchid, which have delicate sprays of tiny flowers, shaped like yellow skirted dancing girls.
The variety of orchids on this planet is huge; there are literally thousands of these exotic beauties originating from all over Asia and Australia. I could stare at them all day investigating the detail and their otherworldly structure. Sometimes flowers with such detail are best to admire in a vase on their own, however this week I wanted to have a play and mix them together to create a bright orange colour palette. I added a bunch of blood orange ranunculus flowers (my other favourite at the moment) and my brand new vase. During winter it's nice to add a bit of colour so be brave and grab the perfect hits of bold tones such as red, burgundy and orange. It's an orange affair so I'm calling it my Frida Arrangement.
When creating your arrangement at home, it can be helpful to use a rubber band to keep stems in the right place if need be, if the vase is opaque no one will know! Another useful tip is not to cut the stems until you're confident with where you want your flowers to sit. If you do cut too short they can be placed in a left over jam jar, perfect above the kitchen sink.
