Image: Design Soda

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It’s very nearly Spring. Hurrah to that, in two weeks time official British Spring time will be upon us and I am so ready. I love the change of seasons, all of them, the contrast always jolts me into thoughtful mode as I anticipate the months to come. And, like many of you, there’s no new season I love more than the start of Spring, especially this year after an especially dark and overcast winter, I love the fresh colours stirring after a long sleep and the interludes of bright clement weather.

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 Image: Design Soda

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Whilst official Spring may be a few weeks off, I have been watching the mimosa in our garden for some months, since its first few buds in December, the many more in January and the buds that turned to yellow in February, gradually getting fluffier and more pompon like until finally they are almost all out in full bloom in the garden and I know that Spring is at last on its way. I just love the early flowers of spring – crocuses, daffodils and muscari, followed by tulips, bluebells and finally white lilac and ranunculus, it’s a great season for cheerful blooms. The houseplants are all doing really well at the moment, but I really wanted to bring some colour and floral elements into the house as a celebration of the new season. 

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Image: Design Soda

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Everyone has their go-to Spring flowers that give them an instant hit of sunshine, right? My mother’s are daffodils, mine are Mimosa. Our Mimosa tree was the first shrub I bought when we moved and finally had our own garden, and over the last year it has grown far beyond what I had anticipated. I bought both a mimosa and a white lilac tree primarily so that I could make bouquets of cut flowers for the house that would mirror my choices at flower stalls and save me money. The mimosa is so abundant that it’s been a staple as foliage pretty well all year, so when it started to bloom I knew it was just the thing to bring indoors as an early spring celebration. You may remember that back in November I made a couple of fresh flower wreaths for the Christmas period and I mentioned then that I’d like to do one for each season. They were so incredibly easy to make and we could do with a spring centrepiece indoors to cheer us up after the cold dark winter so I thought as the mimosa is in such abundance at the moment and yellow is surely the colour of spring I would make a wreath entirely of mimosa. 

 

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Image: Design Soda

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I’ve pretty much recycled my instructions from the previous piece but this one is even more simplified, there is only one type of foliage so no specific need for bunching etc. In fact you barely need instructions, treat this piece as an inspiration point, it will take you less than 10 minutes to make and will fill your room with joy for at least a week. The first task is to choose your blooms, all of the flowers mentioned above would look great in a spring wreath – daffodils and muscari particularly so, but I rather like the simplicity of of one delicate and frothy brightly hued bloom (also I still think Mimosa has the prettiest leaves of all). Here’s what I did:

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Image: Design Soda

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You will need:

A ring for a wreath base, I’m using this copper and wood scarf ring which I found here but any ring base will do.

Some decent floristry scissors, I finally have some decent kitchen scissors from Hay so I’m using those.

Some floristry wire (like this) available from most garden centres and craft stores.

Spring flowers and foliage.

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Image: Design Soda

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How to make:

If you are using more than one variety of flower you could be super organised and really plan your design out, or you could go with the flow, layering and adding as you go along which creates a more natural relaxed effect which I really like.

If, like me you are using just one kind of bloom, I find its helpful to loosely arrange your cuttings before you start to commit, this way you can see where you may have sparse areas as these will really show with only one kind of bloom.

I rather like a three quarter full ratio to these wreathes and I like the bottom section to spray off to one side, this asymmetry keeps interest and stops the design becoming too formal, but have a play around with the layout until you find what you prefer.

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Image: Design Soda

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Method Cont…

Cut the pieces of floristry wire into 5cm pieces.

Take the top left as the start point of your wreath and secure your cuttings with two or three pieces of floristry wire wrapped around the wreath to fasten at several different points on each sprig.

Overlap each cutting and try to make sure that you attach floristry wire under the busier sections of the cutting to help camouflage the wire.

Check around for any spots that may look a little bare, if you have any areas that look too sparse, take some very small cuttings to fill the gaps with. Place these stems over the wreath at angles to create more slight irregularities and attach in places where the wire will be best obscured by foliage that is already in place.

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Image: Design Soda

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There you have it, a super simple Spring wreath which is bringing me endless joy in the home. It would also make a great centrepiece on an Easter table setting and is sure to garner you far greater compliments than the minimal effort justifies! What flowers would you use on yours?

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Image: Design Soda

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