[today i'm thrilled to share a special guest floral post from one of my favorite flower school girls, nicolette of nicolette camille! click here to see a tour of nicolette's beautiful brooklyn home]
Icelandic Poppies are one of my winter favorites; crimped, ruffled, luscious & elegant (and fuzzy)! The delicate petals unfurl like crepe paper from their fuzzy casings. Often the petals will have a slight color variation creating a pretty ombre effect. They have an unusual sweet fragrance and long wiry hairy stems.
Large and showy, these blossoms look stunning all by themselves or delicately poised in more elaborate arrangements. For a simple arrangement cut several stems at different lengths and let them show off there sinuous stems. You can peel off their bud casings to reveal the flowers for a more showy look. (start at the base of the flower, where the bud meets the stem, and gently peel the casing up slowly and gingerly as to not tear the delicate petals inside). I like to leave some of them as buds for variation.
Poppies should be cut while in bud and the stems need to be sealed to help preserve its longevity as a cut flower. When cut, the stems exude a milky sap (this can be a mild skin irritant so handle with care). You can seal the stems by dipping the tips for a few seconds in boiling water, or singe the ends with a match. These beauties are fleeting, lasting around 3-4 days as a cut flower.
While perusing a lovely book of Alphonse Mucha’s gorgeous art nouveau drawings, I was inspired by how heavily adorned all of his ladies were with flowers. I love their elaborate floral headdresses and thought these poppies would be perfect for a headdress.
CLICK HERE for 4 more beautiful poppy pictures from nicolette after the jump!
22 Comments
How gorgeous!
Beautiful, and so feminine!!
Lovely flowers and gorgeous photos. Well done!
I too love these poppies. Their colors are extraordinary and I’m a big fan of the furriness of there stems in contrast to the gauziness of the bloom. And my most favorite thing about them is that when I plant them in my yard they come back year after year, that’s my kind of pretty.
can these be grown indoors from seed? if so, how long will they take and what are their growing conditions? these are one of my favs, but i usually associate them with the summer :)
I’m having issues posting a comment, maybe it’s too early for me, anyways, I directed my traffic over to this post today because i loved it so much! you can check it out at
http://www.projectk.ca/Project_K/HOME/Entries/2010/1/8_Icelandic_Poppies.html
cheers
Karina
hi karina
we’re having some issues with our server this week- some people are getting duplicate comment errors so we’re trying to figure it out. sorry for the trouble.
g
Gorgeous! Love the headdress. I didn’t realize that sneak peek was Nicolette’s house–it’s one of my favorites!
ah yes, that is why i was getting, all is well i see ONE of my comments made it up!!
breath-taking!
Beautiful flowers and photos. How wonderful to look at Spring flowers in the Winter. Nicolette has a great eye for the perfect flowers for every occasion. Well done!
Poppies are my absolute favorite! Gorgeous pictures and great info, I love the headpiece. Nicolette’s sneak pic is still one of my absolute favorites!
Nicolette, you are fabulous!!!!!
Love, Jana
Sigh…poppies are some of my very favorite flowers. They used to grow at my childhood home, so they take me right back to a happy, peaceful place.
Beautiful….I used poppies as my home decorating colors..in pictures my lazyboys,& dining chairs..From pinks to reds..even my dishes have poppies on them..blends thru my apt..I love your selections and have seeds to try togrow them this yr….
Icelandic poppies are one of my favorite flowers. I fell in love with them a few years ago & planted several in my garden. Thanks for posting about this lovely flower!
I love poppies and have been looking for some good photos of them for my watercolor paintings! And Mucha is one of my favorite artists ever! The perfect POST!
I love poppies! I’ve had them in my garden many times, but I have to admit I never brought them indoors much. These pictures make me want to fill my house with them!
I only wish they weren’t poisonous ~ if I remember correctly they are dangerous for both cats and babies.
Amazing flowers! They look almost like theyre from another planet! x
These pictures are gorgeous! Would it be possible to get a high-res version of the one titled “2poppy-arrangement”? It’s a fantastic photo that I’d love to use as a desktop background!
yea for poppies…love them…as a single flower or a bunch ~
Amazing poppy arrangements!
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