#flowersonmyway in April

from left to right and from top to bottom:@adreiabarata//@jenn_adores//
@glomerylane//@23qmstil

Hello everyone,

Here are my favourite contributions to my little Instagram Photochallenge: #flowersonmyway in April. I received some beautiful entries and flowers seem to be blooming everywhere around the world! I love spring! As last time, the winners are welcome to send me their postal address to this email address: elodie@madame-love.com, if they want to receive some snail mail from me. I wish you a great day! Elodie

Narzissenfest at the Hof Hollingbohl in North Frisia

Hello everyone! I hope you had a relaxing bank holiday yesterday! Today I would like to talk with you about flowers again. Last weekend I visited a beautiful flower garden in the northen part of Germany, next to the Danish border and the North Sea, called North Frisia. The mother of my friend Clara, from the lovely blog Tastesheriff, lives in a beautiful house with a thatched roof, similar to the house my husband's grandmother used to live in, in Cambridgeshire.  Once a year, they open their beautiful garden for the "Narzissenfest" - the daffodils festival.  More than 100,000 flowers covering more than 100 varieties of daffodils can be admired in the garden.  The planting is very wild and the tall grass is mixed with wild flowers. It all seams so natural and tasteful. One thing I really like in Clara's house is the colour blue, which can be spotted everywhere in the house and in the garden: the doors, the bench, the flower pots, the window frames are all blue. 

We had a piece of cake in their wonderful living room that they open to the public for that week-end and which is paved with gorgeous tiles from floor to ceiling. 

The "Narzissenfest" will be taking place next year as well, but if you can't wait that long, you can also stay at the lovely Hof Hillingbohl bed and breakfast this summer!

I wish you all a great day today! Talk to you soon, Elodie

A little garden in France

Hello everyone, on my way to the Joyeuse Clique Workhop at the beginning of April with parents, we stopped at my Mum's best friend house in a little village in Burgundy and I wanted to share some pictures of her lovely garden with you. It was the beginning of April and the garden was full of pansies and little daisies planted in very pretty pots and Medicis vases.  I wish you a great day! Speak to you soon, Elodie

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Keukenhof - The Most Beautiful Spring Garden in the World

Hello everyone,

As you might have seen on Instagram, if you follow me there, I just came back from a trip to Holland, to Keukenhof, to be more precise.  Keukenhof is a synonym for paradise for flower lovers and it is also known as the most beautiful spring garden in the world. 

I was invited to Keukenhof along with two other bloggers, the travel blogger Udo and the garden blogger Olaf and we had a great time together during this tailor-made trip. We started with a lovely guided tour of the Keukenhof park, followed by a bike ride through the flower fields and visit to a field where you can pick your own tulips. On the second day, we visited the historical garden of Hortus Bulborum and finished our lovely trip in Amsterdam with a guided tulip tour of the Rijksmuseum (I will tell you more about it in another blogpost later). Here are the photos from my trip and my impressions, as well as some practical information, if you want to visit Keukenhof too.

1- Keukenhof:

In 2014 Keukenhof opened its gates for the 65^th time. When the gates will close only eight weeks later, on May 18^th, another 800,000 guests from all over the world will have visited the Keukenhof international flower exhibition in Holland.  The park of Keukenhof is situated in the Lisse, only a few kilometres away from Amsterdam Schiphol's airport.  Keukenhof's mission is to be the international and independent showcase for the Dutch floricultural sector, with a special emphasis on flowering bulbs. I was very surprised to find out that among the 7 million flowers planted on over 32 hectares in the park, only half of them were tulips. In Keukenhof, you can find many other flowering bulbs, such as muscari, daffodils or hyacinths and fritillaria.  The park is literally carpeted with flowers and bursting with vibrant colours. Each year, thirty gardeners (29 male and one female gardener) plant bulbs at reserved locations throughout the park. At the end of the season, these bulbs are harvested, and a new cycle of planting, blooming and harvesting begins again in the autumn.  The planting is redesigned every year. The plants are carefully selected so that visitors can enjoy bulbs in full bloom throughout the entire period Keukenhof is open. The seven million flower bulbs are supplied completely free of charge by a hundred exhibitors who could hardly imagine a better showcase for their products. The Netherlands is the world’s largest producer of tulip bulbs, with a surface area of 10,000 ha providing an annual 4.2 billion bulbs.  Keukenhof also has inspirational gardens, to give the visitors new ideas for their own garden, and a beautiful historical garden. The flower shows situated in the indoor pavilion are stunning and change every week. I was lucky to be there during the Hortensia show and see some beautiful sorts. During the opening season, 30 flower and plant shows take place at Keukenhof. Growers exhibit a wide variety of flowers and plants in all different colours and shapes. 

2- The Flower fields:

3- Annemieke's Pluktuin: 

After a very interesting guided tour of Keukenhof, and a great bike ride through the flower fields, we headed to Annemieke's Pluktuin, a field where one can pick one's own tulips.  We learned a lot about tulips, and about the mixed planting trend. In the field you can find an incredible amount of tulip varieties, all mixed together. It really made me revise my opinion about tulips being a rather dull flower. 

4- Hortus Bulborum:

The Hortus Bulborum Foundation presents an incredible collection of 4,000 historical bulbs. The plants are presented in a beautiful garden situated in a lovely village near Keukenhof.  This collection consists primarily of tulips (with its 19 families), narcissus and hyacinths, but there is also a small number of Fritillaria and crocus. I especially loved the Tulipa family, the simple tulips from the mountains of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.  The Hortus Bulborum is open every year from April 6 until May 16. The bulbs shown in the garden can be bought online on the Hortus Bulborum website. Tulip bulbs should be planted in the autumn, from September to November. 

5- Fun fact about tulips: Here are a couple of things I learned during my trip to Keukenhof:

The etymology of the word tulip: Some people say that the word tulip comes from the Persian delband ("Turban"), this name being applied because of a perceived resemblance of the shape of a tulip flower to that of a turban

The origin of the tulip and its introduction in Europe: Tulips were originally found in the Tian Shan mountain region of the north-western Himalaya. Dozens of different types in all kinds of colours still grow there each spring. The tulip became a cherished flower in Turkish culture, and is still so today. Sultans organised tulip parties each spring. And the most extraordinary tulips were illustrated in beautiful books.  The Belgian doctor Carolus Clusius (1526-1609) was employed as the Austrian court botanist in Vienna from 1574 till 1588. After leaving Vienna in the late 1580s he established himself in Frankfurt am Main, before his appointment as professor at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands in October 1593. He helped create one of the earliest formal botanical gardens of Europe at Leyden, the Hortus Academicus. Clusius was one of the first in Northern Europe to recognise plants for their own sake, valuing their beauty as well as their use. His friend Busbecq, the Austrian ambassador in Turkey, brought him some bulbs for his botanical garden, to test if they could be used for medical purposes. Clusius recognised that the tulips were not of any use for the body, but that their beauty was good for the soul. Clusius had the tulip varieties grown and spread them among fellow botanists in Europe. He is therefore known as being primarily responsible for the introduction of the tulip as a cultivated garden plant in Europe. 1594 is considered the date of the tulip's first flowering in the Netherlands.

The origin of the Parrot tulips: The immediate popularity of the tulip drove Clusius and other horticulturalists to produce new colour variations to satisfy the demand for those beautiful flowers.  Over the years, many tulip forms were produced by crossing and hybridising techniques. Some had frilly petals and a dramatic flame-like colour that later became known as Parrot tulips.  In the 20^th century, these distinctive characteristics were found to be the symptoms of the mosaic virus which was transported to the tulip plant by a louse living on peaches and potatoes! Today, hybrids have been developed with similar visual characteristics, but without the virus infection.

6- Practical information:

• The park of Keukenhof is still open until May 18th The tickets can be bought online here (it is better to book online, if you don't want to wait at the entrance) 15 € for an adult/ 7.50 € for a child (4 - 11 years) and 13 € for a group (from 20 people). 
• If you don't come by car, you can buy a combi ticket from the airport or from the city centre of Amsterdam including the bus ride in both directions. You don't need to purchase the ticket for a particular day and they are valid until the park closes on the 18th May.
• If you spend the day at Keukenhof, you can also rent a bike for the day for just 10 € per person and explore the flower fields around the park.

I hope I made you curious about this great region and about the Keukenhof park. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me in the comment field! I will be back soon with some more flowers and interior crush. I will be going for some more flower watching at the end of next week to the Daffodil festival in North Frisia.  Have a great day! Elodie   

Floral decoration inspired by French and German painters

Hello everyone!I am back from my trip to the Netherlands and it was so beautiful! Today I would like to show you some of the bouquets I made for a ball in Hamburg at the End of March. The Bal de l'Amitié Franco-Allemande in the beautiful Hotel Atlantic. Each table was named after a French or a German painter (okay, one Austrian painter also), without forgetting the female painters, of course, and I had to create a bouquet in the spirit of each one.  It was both challenging and so inspiring. I researched a lot beforehand to find a floral bouquet for each painter. Another issue, was to choose flowers that could be found in Hamburg at the end of March and to find the right vases for 22 different bouquets.

Therefore, I set up a little project with the chosen paintings and corresponding vases. It forced me to look at the props I had at home and make a little catalogue. I knew I would have only a couple of hours on the day of the event to make the bouquet, so I had to be well organised and decide which vase I was going to use for which bouquet. It was a lot of research but I am quite happy with the outcome. I had to be creative and change the shape of the vase according to what I had and the type of flowers, such as for Gabriele Münter for instance.  I took some Chrysanthemum for my bouquet even if the original painting shows Dahlia. I tried my best to respect the spirit of the painter and the bouquet, more than just copy it. 

Here are a couple of the bouquets I made. I am not really happy with the photos, but I finished the bouquets just in time before the guests came and I had to to make the photos in a rush with little light.

What do you think about the idea? Which one is your favourite? I think that would be a great idea for a flower decoration for a binational wedding. What do you think? 

I know it took me a while to put this post together. I struggled a bit because everyone has been sick in my little household lately and we had quite a challenging time.  Nevertheless, I wish you all a great Easter week-end. I will be back on Tuesday with some beautiful tulips and the story of my trip to Keukenhof in Holland. speak to you soon,

Elodie

PS: I would like to thank LIV by TM Interior for lending me their beautiful copper vases for the event!

A mini-bouquet with flowers from the forest

Hello everyone! I am flying to Holland for the #keukenhof blog tour and will come back with 1.000 pictures of tulips. You can follow my adventures on Instagram meanwhile. Before I leave, I wanted to show this mini bouquet I made with flowers I found in the forest behind my parent's garden on Monday: Wild anemones and wild hyacinths. Have a great weekend everyone! xoxo Elodie

Joyeuse Clique - A Styling Workshop for Bloggers in Provence

Hello everyone! I hope you are having a good time. I must say I feel very inspired at the moment. I am back to the North of France, where I spend a lot of time photographing flowers from the forest and from my parent's garden. I just come back from two days spent in the South of France, in a little village called Pernes les fontaine, where I attended a Styling master class called Joyeuse Clique in the concept store "la maison pernoise".   Here are some snapshots of this beautiful location very well curated by Lau and Leo, two passionate interior architects, who created a very personal and unique store. You can see more pictures of the Session in my Facebook album. The workshop was given by the incredibly talented and very kind stylist Anouk Brands. Her motto is "look deeply", but Anouk also has the ability to talk and listen deeply. On the second day of the workshop, Anouk gave us a hand printed message on a piece of linen. The message was: KEEP IT SIMPLE BUT BEAUTIFUL. That pretty much sums up those two days and her approach of styling. 

DAY 1: BE HERE AND NOW: The task of her first day, was to create all together a Kinfolk style table.

"Kinfolk is a growing community of artists, writers, designers, photographers, cooks and others who are interested in creating small gatherings and finding new things to cook, make and do. We understand that coming together to share great food and casual conversation can make us feel balanced, grounded and energized.

Kinfok is the journal where we share ideas about low-key, back-to-basics entertaining. Every element of the magazine—the features, the photography and the general aesthetic—mirrors the way we feel entertaining should be: comfortable, slow, fun and engaging. The magazine brings together our interest in art and design with our love for spending time with our favorite people." {kinfolk Website}

The dinner was not an official kinfolk dinner, but a natural style dinner inspired by the kinfolk tables.  We styled it with props from the maison pernoise as well as things we found in the nature.

That is how we worked: After a theoretical session explaining the kinfolk movement, each of us gathered some props in the shop and in the nature, to create a little vignette with what could fit to decorate a kinfolk table according to us: The keywords were: SEASONAL, SIMPLE, SLOW, NATURAL, PURE, RECYCLED. We then had a look all together at the props we wanted to keep or not and why and then styled the table.

As you can imagine, my focus was on the flower decoration. A lot of the small bouquets were made with wild flowers we found in the background of the store or with branches of cherry and quince trees we picked in Lau's beautiful backyard. We also had some mini olive trees to remind us of the provence.

The dinner was cooked by the food truck Mistral Gagnant. The food was simple and delicious. All the recipes came from the Kinfolk Table cookbook.

The dinner was served for 50 people in the backyard of the maison pernoise under the stars with candle lights, and it was just incredible!

DAY 2: Moodboards and personal branding On the second day, it was more about showing your personality through your styling and styling from the heart. We could also use the props from the maison pernoise for some moodboard exercises. Here are some snapshots of the Joyeuse Clique at work:

Here is the moodboard I created for madame love, inspired by the keywords, that symbolise my brand: GREY, FLOWERS, ANIMALS, CREATIVITY. I think that will help me take my blog in the right direction. I am really happy with how it turned out.

Here are some of my favourite vignettes created by some of the Joyeuse Clique bloggers.

Sources: from left to right and from top to bottom

1. Karin from BODIE and FOU* 2.  Valérie from Atelier rue verte  3. Iris from propos déco 4.  CEZ from Méchant Design 

Thank you lovely ladies! Here is the list of the participants:

Lau, Ilaria, Anouk, Cristine, Karine, Caro, Juliana, Catherine, Cathrin, 

Marion, Iris, Valérie, Nannette, Elisabeth 

 

I can't wait for next year's edition! Have a nice day.

Elodie

Easter decoration idea: Hortensia on your table

Hello everyone,I just come back from the very inspiring Joyeuse Clique stylism blogger's session in the South of France. I have just been reviewing the pictures and I can't wait to show you the outcome in the next few days.

Today I would like to show you what you can do with Hortensia (also called Hydrangea). 

Hortensia is one of my favourite flowers.  They look so splendid in a garden and, as they love water, they are the perfect plants in rainy regions, such as Northern Germany where I live, the west coast of France or of course Great Britain. Of course, It is not quite spring yet and you are more likely to find hydrangeas in the flower shop than in your garden. So I have decided to show you some ideas of what you can do with a pot that you can buy from the flower shop.  If you take blue hortensia, you can create a very nice table decoration around it, with shades of green and purple. This can make a nice table for an easter brunch. I love that time of year, but I don't need to overdecorate my table with hundreds of painted eggs or tiny kitsch hares.  The good thing with decorating with flowers in a pot is that you can recycle them afterwards by planting them in your garden or in a nice pot on your balcony or terrace. 

Anyone who has ever had hydrangeas knows that they can be a bit tricky. That is over now, because of the new generation of hydrangeas that are easy to maintain, such as the hydrangeas of Forever&Ever^®. Those, unlike older varieties, flower on one-year-old wood, i.e. even after cutting back or frost each branch still bears flowers IN THE SAME YEAR. And that also means: if you cut some branches to put them in a vase, the flowers on the plant will bloom again that same year!

 If you are invited to an easter lunch or brunch this year, why not bring an hortensia as a present. It's a present that is made to last. I love for instance the red variety from Forever&Ever^®.

I wish you a great day and talk to you soon, Elodie

PS: This post is sponsored by Forever&Ever^®. However, my views about this plant are my own and haven't been influenced in any way.

Flower styling idea: Copper vase with tulips & spirea

Hello! How are you? Ready for some flowers?  I know, I know, copper is not really the newest interior design trend. I know everyone speaks about marble now, but even still, I still like copper. What about you?  I love the warmth of this colour and I love its reflective surface. I have been asked lately where to find a nice copper vase. The answer is: LIV by TM Interior. The size of this vase is perfect for displaying tulips. I have often a problem with tulips, even if the colour palette is incredible, I find them quite difficult to combine, and a little boring on their own.  I think adding some foliage, such as spirea, can give them a much wilder and interesting look. Do you like it? However, I should better get ready for some tulips as I am going to go to Keukenhof later this month.

If you want to buy a copper vase (they come in three different sizes) from LIV, as for the mini-vases get in touch with Diana on their Facebook Page. 

I wish you a great day! Elodie

Hellebore & peach tree blossom

Hello everyone, here is just a little bouquet I made with beautiful hellebores and some peach tree blossom from my parent's garden on Monday. I don't know the name of the bright pink blossom; but it just looked perfect with the hellebores. I love them, they are so easy to grow and bloom for ever. They also look very pretty as cut flowers even if they won't last in a vase. I wish you all a great day! I am on my way to Pernes les Fontaines now! Elodie