This small tree is so wonderful….. Carpinus Japonica or Japanese Hornbeam bears the most gorgeous little lime green flowers that just last for ages on these slender delicate stems and the leaves have lovely serrated markings. This year the flowers were so particularly abundant that we thought it a shame not to showcase them and the tree itself.
We started by harvesting a few of the branches and then collecting the flowers, we needed quite a lot of the flowers but the year has been good for them so we were lucky. The idea was to make some abstract topiary shapes nestled on the top of containers. Fortunatley we had some beautiful old terracotta pots of assorted sizes that would be perfect.
“Three ways” is a thought process that can be applied to all sorts of fresh material and is just basically how one type of flower or foliage be worked into different forms and styles. In this instance we used the flowers to create the abstract topiary shapes (which have since dried beautifully), the branches were just left in their natural form and set in terracotta containers and the striking serrated leaves were wrapped around glass votives and wired in place to create beautiful glowing nightlights.
Big thanks to Kayleigh for her patience in creating the topiary shapes. Keith took care of the styling and photography.
