Beautiful blooms and saffron dreams as well as caring for those winter bulbs.
By: Annika Axell
Tags: Christmas, Indoor Plants, Baking, Gardening, Flower Bulbs

Christmas flowers. In the past few years, it’s these festive, delicate, providers of colour accents that have come to signify Christmas cheer for me. It’s so enjoyable to have a burst of colour brought in such a dark time. The local florists display them all and what inspiration they provide! Such a lovely selection of flowers and foliage to get wrapped into arrangements, wreaths and bouquets. I love to walk by and soak it all up. Evergreen boughs on mass, helleborous overflowing the benches, racks and racks of hyacinths, amaryllis and azaleas. All these flowers which bring us bloom now in the winter months. Last year we went to a museum in Stockholm where their florist displays the winter flowers in their signature pots which were designed by the Prince who’s past residence is now the museum. I was in happy heaven walking around and looking at their display. Here are a couple of photos of the arrangements.

Luckily for me, these Waldemarsudde pots have been quite trendy in Sweden, so I have had some passed to me by my family. They are the pots that I place all my seasonal floral arrangements in. They are kept in my living room so that you see these pots with flowers when you enter my home. Since it’s Christmas soon, it’s the winter foliage that adorn them now. I do love to fill the house with hyacinths since they are simple and spread such a delicious aroma. For me it’s truly one of the scents of Christmas. They are a lovely spring bulb too so the more Christmases I spend in this house the lovelier the garden will be come spring. My holiday fleurs are displayed in these simple, crisp, white pots on my windowsill next to all my Christmas gnomes and on the central table by our fireplace. Such beauty and such delight to always be greeted by my flowers upon entering the house.

I like to add moss over the flowers and other greenery found in my garden to complete the look.

Traditionally, hyacinths were forced bulbs that were brought up each Christmas. The bulbs would be kept in cool rooms under paper and it would be exiting to go and see if the bulb had sprouted or grown at all. It would signify that Christmas was drawing closer as the bulb grew more.

If you are interested and have time to do this then the process is as follows, it takes about 10–12 weeks:

Purchase a nice and firm hyacinth bulb and place it in water but just enough water so that the bulbs are just above the water surface. Some recommend putting in a little bit of horticultural charcoal to keep the water fresh.

Place a piece of paper cut out to form a funnel (fasten the side of with a bit of tape) over the bulb. It should be about 20 cm high so that the hyacinth has room to develop.

Keep the hyacinth bulb in it’s glass vase with the paper over it in a cool place.

Check on the bulb every other week or so until you see that it has begun to grow. When you just start to see that the green is developing but not until it has released itself from the bulb is it time to bring it up into room temperature. Place the bulb, still covered by the paper, in a window.

Remove the paper when the bulb has developed to the point that you are just about able to determine the colour of the flower.

Enjoy your hyacinth! The scent of the hyacinth floating though the air of your house at Christmas is worth the effort! Unless you are as me, and this year it was simpler to buy them.

Poinsettias remind me of Canadian Christmases, with such variety in size, foliage and choice. Huge pink leaved ones, tiny white ones, brilliant red beauties, all kinds! I always did enjoy when they were brought out in stores and houses at this time of year. The ones I get are smaller and fairly traditional but they I display them prominently in the house so that I think of all those who I miss over on the other side. This plant grows like wild bushes in Mexico and the colourful petals are part of the foliage and not the actual flower even though it has the appearance of a flower. The poinsettia doesn’t like it cold, it prefers room temperature and an even moisture in the soil. With these conditions they can last a very long time.

Helleborous, the beautiful Christmas rose, is my true favourite. The delicate, dainty flowers blooming in contrast to the dark, rainy days and are just remarkable. I always saw them as a garden adornment when I lived in Vancouver and would see them bloom in the late winter. Now though, I see that they are a very popular Christmas flower over here. Every year I hope to expand my collection a little bit more as I find there to be such diversity and beauty in all it’s varieties. They too have a hefty price tag so I have yet to splurge on the rarities. For now, I stick to the white ones inside. Helleborous is much better suited to be outside and in a much cooler environment so they aren’t truly happy in the house but I always hope that they make it to the end of the holiday when I move them out and even plant them in the garden if the ground isn’t frozen. They do well as long as I move them to cooler window placement and keep them well watered throughout the month.

For the past 2 years I have added amaryllis’. Initially, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to add more flowers or if I was too fond of them. I am very wooed by how plants are displayed though and was a quick convert to bring these flowers into the mix. There are many varieties of amaryllis and they are quite nice in how strong, stylish and proud they stand. I also like how long they take to flower and the fact that the flower lasts for so long.

You can plant your own amaryllis bulb and keep this plant for many seasons. It’s good to start with a healthy bulb and plant it in a small pot as the bulb likes to be planted fairly compactly. Make sure there is drainage and then add planting soil and then place in the bulb. It shouldn’t be planted very deeply so about a third of the bulb should be above the soil.

Water the bulb thoroughly and then place it dark and warm. At this point refrain from watering until the first flower bulb has appeared and released from the bulb. This takes 6–8 weeks.

When the first flower stalk is about 1 dm it’s time to bring it into daylight. Place it in a window and water sparingly, either from the dish or carefully on the soil. If it is watered too much the bulb may flower before the stalk has matured enough.

If you care for an amaryllis properly, you could with luck, have it for several years. To ensure for this the buld needs to gather enough nutrients and then get a good resting period of 3–4 months.

If you want to bring your amarylis back to life and to keep it for more seasons you can try the following. Cut down the bloomed out flowers but leave the leaves. Water and feed it like any other potted plant during the spring and summer. At the end of the summer, place the pot and bulb in a dry, cool place. Let the plant, leaves and all, wither. After a few months of total rest the hope is that you can see a bit of green of the new growth and then it’s time to plant it again just like was stated above.

As I add these accent flowers to my home, those that are ever present on my windowsill but only bloom at this time are making themselves present as well. That is the azalea and Christmas cactus, plants that you can have all year but they bloom now. It’s so neat that they add such colour to the home at this time of year.

The weekend mission is to go out to the forest and see if there are any coniferous branches to be found. See what treasures lie on the forest floor to come and adorn my house, the plants and our veranda. I am working towards making my own wreath for our veranda. It’s quite enjoyable to work outdoors in the crisp air and make something to add to the Christmas joy.

It’s also busy with the baking for the holiday and this week I made Saffron Dreams. Very appreciated!

How to:

For about 50 cookies:

250 grams of room temperature butter

2 1/2 + 1/2 tsp sugar

1 packet of saffron (1/2 g)

1/2 tsp water

5 dl (300g) flour

1 tbsp vanilla sugar

1/2 tsp baker’s ammonia

PROCEDURE:

Turn on the oven to 150 degrees Celsius. Whip butter and the 2 1/2 dl of sugar together until it is really light and fluffy.

Mash and mix the saffron and 1/2 tsp sugar together in a pestle and mortar (or small bowl with spoon if you don’t have one). Add the water and then add this to the dough.

Mix flour, vanilla sugar and baker’s ammonia and then turn this into the dough.

Roll small balls of dough and place on a baking pan covered with baking paper. Bake in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes and leave to cool.

Reposted from MacGyver Gardening.