April & May Flowers

Spring has finally sprung here in Baltimore and it’s been lovely. Usually what happens is that we get a day or two of 80° temperatures and everything blooms and leafs out within 48 hours. We had one day of that, but it’s been cool otherwise, so the flowers are lasting and that’s a huge treat!

There are lots of flower-related events happening in and around Baltimore, including my favourite, the Ladew Garden Festival.

This is always the best show and sale, with the added bonus of being held on the gorgeous grounds of the Ladew Topiary Gardens, one of the top gardens in North America. Vendors including Halcyon House Antiques and Pennoyer-Newman (that’s where Snow Bunny came from) will be on hand. Click here for details.

On Friday, I went to a lecture at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore given by Laura Dowling, the recently fired resigned White House Florist. Although people were dying to know what happened, she was very circumspect about it and didn’t reveal a thing. Her floral style is very natural, and while she was talking, she made the most beautiful hand bouquets.

Her advice was the start with one large flower that would be the centerpiece and keep adding flowers, foliage and berries on the diagonal, until you deemed it complete. If your hand wouldn’t fit all the stems, tie it off and continue to add flowers. When you’ve finished, trim all the ends and add more twine for a rustic look, or wrap ribbon around the stems for a more elegant feel.

She loves covering floral foam with small fruits like kumquats, or vegetables like baby carrots or fingerling potatoes, and then adding flowers to the foam. Here, she used double daffodils.

The stunning municipal gardens at Sherwood Gardens in Baltimore are in full bloom now and all of the masses of tulips are out. Today’s cool weather will help keep them around for a while longer. These aren’t at Sherwood, but at a stoplight on my way home from the office.

Each year, there are a series of steeplechase races just north of Baltimore during March and April. Last weekend was the Grand National, and someone shot the second race, which our friend won, with a drone camera. It’s pretty amazing to see. I am hoping he does the Maryland Hunt Cup, which is the most difficult timber race in the world, on Saturday. There’s a great article about it in the Washington Post, here.

 

Grand National - Second Race from Circumvolo on Vimeo.

Enjoy!