Monday, April 6, 2015

Floating Flowers


I love flowers, which you probably know if you’ve been reading my blog. I always have a bouquet in my bedroom, flowers appear in a large number of my blog posts, and come spring (after the snow melts and warm enough to put my down coat into storage), I’ll be in the garden section of Home Depot with my parents picking out this year’s blooms.

But sometimes for the sake of blogging and photography, I have to destroy some flowers to get the look I want. That means that I’m occasionally caught plucking petals from a beautiful rose or decapitating daisies. I also feel guilty about and have a difficult time throwing the flowers away afterwards, especially if they’re not yet faded.

When I was photographing my monthly favorites for March, I popped the heads off some white flowers from one of my mother’s bouquets to add a bit of spring to the shots. Although the rest of the bouquet had seen better days, these unidentified flowers still seemed quite fresh so I didn’t have the heart to throw them out. But I didn’t know what to do with them either.

Eventually I came up with the idea of a floating "bouquet."  I grabbed one of my mother’s candy dishes, filled it with some water, and dropped the flowers in. Now that I look at it again, it reminds me vaguely of water lilies in a pond. I’ve been pleased with the overall look of my floating "bouquet," which has taken up residence on my bedside table. There’s something very tranquil and soothing about it. I’m sure someone who understood the art and subtleties of Feng Shui could explain why that is, but for now I’m just going to enjoy it while the daisies keep.

Do you have any surprising uses for flowers?

2 comments: