My Holiday Gift Guide for the Flower Lover in Your Life
I think about flowers all the time, and maybe that’s a problem. But, today, it works for you because I’ve got all the good ideas for what to give the flower lover in your life this holiday season. Or, what to drop hints about if that flower lover happens to be you.
1. A Mold to Make Floral Ice Buckets
I’ve always loved to entertain. As a young woman, I used to go to great lengths to make ice rings filled with flowers as a dramatic display to chill special drinks. There were no molds back then, so I went through an elaborate procedure that took days. Seemed worth it at the time, but I wouldn’t go to all that trouble now. Luckily, no one has to because there are so many great molds out there now to make fancy things out of ice. Here’s my favorite to make an ice bucket. You just stuff it with colorful flowers, fill with water and freeze.
When you pop it out of the mold you’ll have a super dramatic display for chilling wine or any other special drink.
I made a floral ice bucket to elevate the experience in our partnership with Rivaura Winery. They came to the farm for Flower Happy Hour this summer and the ice ring kept that floral theme going down to the details.
2 Chrysanthemum cuttings
Three Porch Farm in Comer Georgia produces some of the prettiest chrysanthemums you can find anywhere and they’ll ship plant starts within the continental US. I’ve grown mums from this farm before and absolutely love them.
You can choose the date you want your plants shipped and they’ll come with instructions for propagating more plants from your slips so you can expand your mum crop.
A word of caution: If you live on the Palouse like I do, the growing season is too short to grow these beauties in the field or garden. You need a green house or a hoop house or some way to protect them at the end of the season. Mine bloom right at Thanksgiving time and that is well past our frost date, which is why I grew them in my hoop house.
If you’re not set up to grow these stunning mums, check out the site anyway, because Three Porch has all kinds of unusual plant material and fun stuff for flower lovers.
Three Porch mums blooming this fall in my hoop house
3 Home in Bloom by Ariella Chezar
I love a good floral design book and this is an especially fun one.
Here’s what makes Home in Bloom different: While this book is filled with floral design inspiration, it is all placed in the context of a home. The focus is on living with flowers and integrating them into our home spaces in vibrant and personal ways. Filled with beautiful photography, I will never tire of leafing through this book for new ideas. If you love living with flowers, this book will help you deepen that practice.
Get inspired to weave flowers into your home decor in a fresh way
4 Pansy Ring Vase
If you’ve followed me for a while, you know I love a good pansy ring. It’s shaped in a circle that allows you to make fresh floral wreaths and use up flowers with short stems. Best of all, it has a very low profile making it ideal for centerpieces. You can even put a candle or other decorative items in the open middle. A pansy ring is also beginner friendly in that you can’t possibly go wrong with your arrangement. They are kind of hard to find unless you come across an old on at a yard sale or on Etsy.
Here’s the good news: I found a ceramic artist who has a really sweet one that ships within the US and Canada
I think this is a unique pansy ring and I love that you can support a working artist with your purchase
5 Just buy fresh flowers
You can’t go wrong with an arrangement of fresh blooms. If you’re shopping for someone who already has a lot of stuff, flowers are perfect. They’ll enjoy the beauty while it lasts but you wont’ be burdening them with more clutter and things they don’t need. What’s not to love.
If you live near me, I want to share my favorite florists in the area. They’re all talented floral artists and they all support local growers during the season.
Lavender and Thyme My pal Tammy has created a French style flower shop and bakery in the East Side Mall in Moscow Idaho. All of my friends from Europe have found the bakery and lose their minds over the scratch made pastries. So, you can combine a sophisticated arrangement from Tammy and a fancy pastry for a winning gift.
Garden and Villa is owned by my sweet friend Sarah. Located on 2nd Street in downtown Moscow, Sarah is a young florist with a bottomless passion for flowers and design. She is committed to sustainability and is a champion supporter of local flower farmers and her community.
The Styled Porch in Lewiston Idaho is run by my friend Jessica. She has a very distinct style that screams luxury. She sources unusual and stylish footed vases and twirls them into lush confections featuring big premium blooms like rannunculus and high end roses.
Have fun shopping, my friends, and relish the joy that comes with the generosity we share this time of year.
