Book Description

One of the most appealing, as well as one of the easiest, ways of bringing a breath of summer in to the home is to use dried and pressed flowers to make an almost endless variety of attractive arrangements and designs. Pot pourri, made with colorful, fragrant plants and carefully selected herbs and spices, recreate evocative scents to remind us of Nature's fragrance. Carol Petelin, author of the successful The Creative Guide to Dried Flowers, has drawn on her wealth of experience to provide the ultimate guide to drying and using flowers, plants, and herbs in a myriad of creative ways. First, she describes plants that can be most successfully grown, even by those with limited garden space, and explains how to best harvest and dry them. The next section covers the art of dried flower arranging. There is advice on working with different combinations of color and form to create arrangements in containers, bouquets, posies, garlands, and swags. She tells how to gather and press flowers and herbs and offers a variety of imaginative projects for them. The final section is devoted to pot pourri. The author includes recipes for deliciously fragrant mixtures and describes how pot pourri, scented flowers, and spices can be used to make many delightfully fragranced items. There is a list of sources for herbs and essential oils. Lavishly illustrated throughout with Simon McBride's color photographs and decorated with some of Edith Holden's own drawings from The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady and The Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady, The Country Diary Book of Flowers will inspire all those who wish to practice the art of dried flower arranging and to make unusual and attractive gifts for their homes and friends.