poppy heads – Ella's Place

Posted on March 28, 2017March 27, 2017 by ellajohnston12

Home hack: Lovely everlasting botanical display

An everlasting display is a lovely thing plus a cheap and easy home hack to boot.

Regular visitors to Ella’s place know how much I love creating floral displays – they are a lovely way to give the place a refresh without costing you a fortune. Plus I think it’s important to bring elements of nature into your home.

Eucalyptus and thistles are great to buy fresh and then let them dry in the house. The make a lovely permanent arrangement as they fade into silvery tones and provide a lovely structured display.Last summer I also gathered spent allium and poppy heads from the garden to decorate our spaces. Again, the faded hues and structured shape look really effective all year round.

Posted on July 8, 2016July 4, 2016 by ellajohnston12

Easy, Cheap Display Ideas: Spoils from my Garden

The garden is a great place to source bits and pieces for a quick, easy and cheap display. Ideal for weddings and parties or, for me, as last minute props when photographing my prints and stationery.
As our ferns are so lush and green at the mo, I’ve been snipping the odd leaf to place in clear containers for the ultimate elegant display. Teaming them with over-it cow parsley also looks very effective as a simple structural tableaux.

We had an abundance of poppies this year. Now they’re all done I’ve got loads of fab poppy heads to have as year-round loveliness. I’ve combined these with some dried out teasels that my mum gave me last year and placed them in a vintage jug I picked up from a charity for a loose organic feel.

Posted on August 23, 2015August 25, 2015 by ellajohnston12

Pleasant way to spend a Sunday

Despite the rain this afternoon I’ve had a very pleasant Sunday. Amazingly it was spent generally tidying up the house and, particularly, the garden.

Over the past month or so we’ve been enjoying the flowers that late summer has brought us as they mingle among the wildness of dried allium blooms and silvering poppy heads. The latter were starting to look scruffy though, rather than romantic, so today I did a bit of dead-heading and cutting down, which gave me a whole new set of things to display in the house. I like showing off dried flowers as a great, cost-effective way of adding notes of interest to a space; they look very effective as floral arrangements and are a nice way of gently preparing yourself for autumn.

So, that done, I’m also treating me and the good Dr to one of his favourite dishes, a roast tomato and pepper broth with potato, butter beans and greens. It’s warming – perfect for a rainy day like today – but the tomatoes and peppers give it a sweet taste of late summer. Find the recipe here.