How to create a beautiful window display using early summer flowers
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Early summer is defined here by froth, a lot of froth. Great umbels of flowers seem to be in plenitude, prettily clouding the wild and in the confines of the garden too, lending a softness and whimsy to the landscape. The wild roses tangle their way past the honeysuckle, and sweet peas scramble up homemade triangles. I love this time of year, and have long made variations of the same window installation each year to celebrate the sudden abundance everywhere. This is one of the simplest large-scale installations I make. It’s almost mechanic free, and relies on the transparency of glass to create a floating, just growing from-the-sill feeling.
Window installations are fun to create. As a direct link between our inside and outside lives, they provide a playful context for bringing the outside in. So gather up some jam jars and any glass vases you may have (they’re easy and cheap to find in junk shops, too).
I play with scale in this design. I have an extra tall, extra large, heavy glass vase that can take the towering Ammi. If you can’t source an extra tall vase, feel free to use a table under the window for a shorter vase, or have it on the floor, but use a pin frog, and balance it in place with stones at its base.
TOOLS:
- Secateurs/garden snips
- 4 jam jars and 4 glass vases of varying sizes
- Fishing wire (optional)
MATERIALS:
Focal:
- Roses ‘Mokarosa’, ‘Wildeve’ and ‘Eustacia Vye’: 9 stems
Supporting:
- Roses ‘Minnehaha’, ‘Kew Gardens’: 3 stems
- Sweet peas ‘Aphrodite’, ’Juliet’, ‘Spring Sunshine Blush’, ‘Mollie Rilstone’, ‘Raspberry Flake’: 50 stems
- Sweet pea vine: 1 stem
- Foxgloves ‘Alba’: 2 stems
Textural/sparkle:
- Ammi majus: 30 stems
IDEA:
These mechanics can work well for a fireplace installation, with the glass vases sitting along the mantelpiece.
HOW TO:
Eva Nemeth1/6- Fill all your vases with water and plan where you will place them. Use a table if you need. You’ll want the shortest jars closest to the middle, and have the taller ones by the frame to build up around the window.
Eva Nemeth2/62. Add your largest elements first, placing them loosely to give the sense that they’re growing up and around the window. Pick vines and long arching stems to look as though they’re climbing around the frame. If anything needs extra support to grow up the window frame, you can use a little fishing wire to tie them in place.
Eva Nemeth3/63. Once you have the structure and scale in place, you can add jars of flowers, in this case, sweet peas, to start filling in the picture.
Eva Nemeth4/64. Place stems in places that help to mask the jars and vases. Glass is very forgiving in its transparency so just a little hiding is required.
Eva Nemeth5/65. Add your focal flowers, in this design it’s roses, and have them cascading down at different levels, some in jars, some in the vases.
Eva Nemeth6/66. Make sure everything is sturdy and in place. If your window is going to be open, make sure nothing is too light and in jeopardy of being blown off. Add a little putty or tack underneath the vases if you’re worried.
