anastasiaehlers » blue

irises and pitcher plants

anastasia — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 18:42:58 +0000

can we please fast forward to june so i can have buckets full of bearded iris again? the scent just slays me, and i love the pure seasonality of the blooms–they are only available for a few weeks, and really, one should only procure them locally. these were from one of my favorite farms in springfield and i’m proud to say i picked ‘em myself.

the rest of the ingredients were also fantastic fun–poppy pods, cobra lilies (those’d be the pitcher plants…not quite the same as the darlingtonia found on the wayside, but i love the connection), passion vine, muscari, and hydrangeas. better still, but not in this (rather sorry) set of photos, were the fuchsia peonies, picasso calla lilies, and delicate clematis in the bride’s bouquet. resolution for 2013: take more and better pictures, damn it.

i hate flash in photos, but that ruffly iris persuaded me to post this anyway.

catching up

anastasia — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 15:21:00 +0000

please excuse my blogging absence. once again, here i am, making it up to you with peonies. i suspect that if i offered peonies by way of apology every time, you lot would have me slacking off more often. there’s more fluffy goodness over on facebook, hint hint.

the holiday weekend was wonderful, a big gulp of air before i dive in to the next few weeks. every weekend has some event or another attached to it from here til labor day; weddings, concerts, remodeling, vacations, festivals. whew.

vases are here, and so is my new (to me) cooler. i’ll tell you all about the cooler next week, once i get the camera/data card/photos back so i can upload them.

go get out there and get some sunshine!

butterflies and ice cream socials

anastasia — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 16:22:00 +0000

these are not those pretty butterflies that flit from flower to flower, happily drunk on nectar. they’re the kind in your tummy. in two days, i get to come together with an incredible group of women (and a couple very obliging men) to take some pictures and eat some ice cream. no big deal. so why am i so nervous about it?

everything is going to be great. the flowers are ordered. the vases are free of price stickers and dust (or will be right after i post this, i swear). the chandelier is pink. the invitations are adorable. the cupcakes will be delicious. and all my favorite blogs and magazines are going to fight over the right to publish it. in fact, they’re going to pay us for it (rrrriiiight).

in all seriousness, i am beyond excited. and even more grateful. thank you thank you thank you to the kind folks contributing time, goods, and creativity to this shoot. check out their stuff–these people do great work, yo.

photos by anne nunn photographers
cake and sweets by carla of honeycrumb cake studio
paper goods by suzanne of my sunflower expressions
dress from the fantastic blush bridal boutique
linens and rentals by parties to go, coordinated by the helpful elizabeth
jenn and michael for standing around looking lovely
and last but not least, the muffin mill, for letting me borrow the most perfect set of chairs

again, thanks a bundle.

botany lab | ranunculus

anastasia — Tue, 03 May 2011 15:00:00 +0000

i came to floral design in a roundabout sort of way. before i snipped stems and made bouquets, i trekked through the forests and wetlands around oregon staring wide-eyed at wildflowers. my major in college was biology, but only because the university didn’t have a botany program.

much of my focus was given over to systematic botany, studying the evolutionary relationships between different families of plants. it’s still fascinating to me to relate commercially grown cut flowers to each other and their wildflower relatives.

one of the largest families of flowering plants, the ranunculaceae, is also one of the most diverse. it’s an ancient family, and the diversity of it lends well to hybridization for our purposes–it’s easy to select for a bazillion petals over time, which is precisely what we’ve done.

ranunculaceae is the buttercup family, and the typical form is easy to find in the spring time. these guys, ranunculus occidentalis, are native to the area and a great example of a few key characteristics of the family–five petals and lots and lots of stamen.

florists mostly use hybrids of a different species, ranunculus asiaticus, aka persian buttercup. they seem pretty wildly different from those sweet little buttercups until you peer inside and notice all those stamen.

photo by aviad2001 via wikimedia commons

hellebores and anemones are part of the ranunculaceae, each in their own genus. it’s getting easier to spot the relation, right? if you buy these guys at a flower stall or nursery, they’re much closer in appearance to their original form, unaltered by our artificial selection. kinda. hellebores are remarkably easy to cross and hybridize, and i swear there’s a whole gardening subculture devoted to doing just that. gardeners have come up with all sorts of crazy colors for hellebores, and have even added rows and rows of petals. the latter seems to be humans’ favorite way of altering plants for our own enjoyment.

photo by jerzy opiola via wikimedia commons

photo by haolrd supfle via wikimedia commons

things get weird when you consider delphiniums (also used by florists a lot, at least around here where they’ll be growing like weeds in a few weeks) and columbines, with their crazy spurred petals. the spur that juts out behind the face of the flower holds a tasty nectar reward for passing bees, enticing them to stay awhile and unknowingly gather lots of pollen to deliver to the next flower over. what look like petals in this case are actually sepals, fused in various ways. as alien as they appear next to the buttercups and anemones, the many stamen are still present, and they bear the same sort of fruit as the rest of the family.

thanks for indulging my science kick. i could go on and on about all sorts of flowers and their relatives. which ones would you like to see next?

spring wildflowers at mt. pisgah

anastasia — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 15:00:00 +0000

on sunday afternoon, we hiked to the top of mt. pisgah. the day was perfect for it, not raining, but not too hot. predictably, i wanted to do nothing but ogle the flowers.

western buttercups

oregon iris

fawn lily

shooting stars and camas

houndstongue

and some fantastic fungus for good measure

all the usual suspects for spring flowers around eugene. are you heading for the arboretum’s annual wildflower festival? see you there!

feathers

anastasia — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 17:28:00 +0000

maybe you saw this on facebook the other day. i love feathers. some florists will turn their noses up at this and say they are over the trend, or perhaps claim to be purists when it comes to arrangements–flowers and foliage only. i happen not to care. if it’s pretty, and these definitely are, i’ll put it to use in a bouquet.

that said, people do some pretty hideous things to feathers as far as bleaching and dyeing is concerned. it can be done well, but lets try to avoid the day-glo kindergarten craft look, shall we?

natural white ostrich feathers add fantastic fluff and lightness. love.

i swear those are g’s, not q’s. the font’s still too pretty to pass up. annnnyway…i love the little polka-dotted guinea feathers in boutonnieres. yup, those dots are natural and just perfect.

peacock feathers really are the grandaddy of them all. these are from my friend jayme at harvest moon photography, who just happens to have a bunch of peacocks strutting around her property. i like these guys paired best with something high-contrast. deep, bright red? or maybe some gold? yes, please.

lesser known, but gorgeous in their own right, are the peacock swords. the iridescence is just so spectacular on these, more than it is on the eye feathers.

these days, feathers aren’t just for flowers, especially in weddings. there are feathery dresses, feathery hair accessories, hell, even feathers attached in hair. a bunch of friends of mine actually did that last one to a poor passing boy once. funny thing is that they didn’t even have to hold him down.

fun fact: one of the best places to get loose feathers is at your local fly shop. this tip is brought to you by one of my july brides, the lovely miss brianna. i swear this gal has a resource for everything. we’re totally using feathers in her flowers, and i positively can’t wait.

so what’s the word? are we over feathers? can’t get enough? want them in your bouquet?

the collection grows

anastasia — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 17:35:00 +0000

cool blues and creamy whites, just begging for a puff of pink flowers.

i have plans for these pretties later this week.

don’t forget how badly you’ve always wanted a pet dinosaur. or pitch the t-rex and just love the plants. it won’t hurt my feelings.