To offer a fresh perspective, we’ve elevated typical uninvited garden guests to be the stars of exquisite cut-flower displays, inspired by art and bound to change your mind. Photographs Éva Németh

By Jacky Mills

Published: Tuesday, 04 July 2023 at 12:00 am

---

Gardeners have a fraught relationship with wild plants and weeds, but there is a growing movement to appreciate the charms and biodiversity benefits of these native plants and early colonisers. To offer a fresh perspective, we’ve elevated typical uninvited garden guests to be the stars of exquisite cut-flower displays, inspired by art and bound to change your mind.

I’ve always been drawn to the work of the 18th-century Dutch still life painters, dynamically lit to increase the contrast of light and dark – a technique known as chiaroscuro. The inspiration for this arrangement came from Jan van Huysum’s painting Flowers in a Vase, and like his painting, it includes wildlife in the form of snails – a reminder that all life is important along the food chain.

Arranging weeds with elder, bracken and dog rose: how to achieve the look

This old metal ornamental vase was perfect for the display with its low, wide curvaceous shape raised on ornate legs. I placed a narrow, elliptical glass vase inside, and added two layers of one-inch gauge chicken wire, secured with pot tape. This helps hold the stems in position, removing the need for floral foam. I then filled both vessels with cool, fresh water. This arrangement includes an array of different species, mostly chosen for their value as food plants for wildlife. Big and bold flowerheads contrast with a host of spiky, soft, rough and smooth leaf shapes. The inclusion of very short stems gives the arrangement depth, while curvaceous stems extending beyond the vase give movement and flow.

The flowers and foliage were picked late the previous evening and conditioned in plenty of water overnight. Each stem was recut before placing in the arrangement. Foliage from leafy plantains, elder and bracken was placed first, starting with a couple of low branches of dogwood to give further support to the taller stems. Umbelliferous flowers of common hogweed, wild carrot, elder and a group of mauve thistles added mass and the dog rose became the focal point. I added uprights in the form of mallow, bramble, poppy seedheads, clover and foxglove, complemented by slim flower spikes of plantain, sorrel and quaking grass, and curvy wisps of white bryony and old man’s beard. The colour scheme involved a harmonious blend of pinks, mauves, creams and whites, with a spattering of yellow from the buttercup on one side, balanced on the other by the slightly finer nipplewort.

Plants used

Briza maxima – greater quaking grass

Briza media – quaking grass

Bryonia dioica – white bryony

Chamaenerion angustifolium – willowherb

Cirsium palustre – marsh thistle

Clematis vitalba – old man’s beard

Cornus sanguinea – dogwood

Daucus carota – wild carrot

Digitalis purpurea – common foxglove

Fumaria officinalis – common fumitory

Heracleum sphondylium – common hogweed

Lapsana communis – nipplewort

Malva sylvestris – common mallow

Melilotus albus – white melilot

Papaver somniferum – opium poppy seedheads

Plantago lanceolata – ribwort plantain

Plantago major – broad-leaved plantain

P. major ‘Atropurpurea’ – purple-leaved plantain

Pteridium aquilinum – bracken

Ranunculus acris – meadow buttercup

Rosa canina – dog rose

Rubus fruticosus – wild bramble

Rumex acetosa – sorrel

Rumex obtusifolius – broad-leaved dock

Sambucus nigra – elder

Silene dioica – red campion

Silene latifolia subsp. alba – white campion

Silene vulgaris – bladder campion

Trifolium pratense – red clover

---