Wildflower Power
“Earth laughs in flowers.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Recently here in Maine, every day it seems as if a new species of wildflower is reaching its peak bloom, brightening yards, fields meadows and trails and piquing our interest here at Nature Links. In honor of this colorful display, we did a recent class on all things floral. Nature Links participants learned to identify 5 wildflowers that grow near their homes. Participants then each chose a unique way of using a flower and demonstrated their knowledge for the rest of the group. That’s one of the best things about Nature Links folks—they’re knowledgeable, clever and are great at sharing their understanding with one another. Below, I’ll tell you about some of the ways in which our creative and curious Nature Links folks are harnessing the power of flowers.
Plantsnap App
Nature Links participants have been using technology in clever ways to deepen their knowledge of the natural world. In particular, apps like Plantsnap and Seek have given our group of nature lovers a way to immediately identify flowers and plants growing in their gardens, backyards and neighborhoods. Hold your smartphone up to a flower you don’t recognize and the app instantly accesses the 600,000+ plants in its database to tell you which one you’ve encountered. The app works on plants, flowers, cacti, succulents and mushrooms, and includes helpful information about common names, ideal growing conditions and locations where it’s been found. The app is free to download. A Nature Links participant who has been using Plantsnap taught us about it and walked us through how to download and use the app.
Flower Crafts
Two participants chose to put flowers to creative use for their demonstrations. One created a decorative jar using flower-printed fabric and glue. Another harvested wildflowers on her property and demonstrated “flower pounding”, a technique that involves pounding flowers onto a surface using a hammer or mallet to create art. You’ll need flowers, of course, watercolor paper or fabric, a hard surface, a mallet and two sheets of parchment paper. Lay out the flowers face down on the paper and pound the flowers using your mallet. It can take a bit of pounding to encourage the flowers to make a mart, so you’ll need to keep pounding! When finished, the petals will have deposited a natural dye onto the surface you’re printing on, sometimes with unexpected colors. The technique yields some beautiful results and can be used to print natural floral patterns on paper and fabric.
Edible Flowers
I recently ate a delicious pizza beautifully adorned with chive blossoms. The pizza satisfied my hunger and piqued my curiosity about edible flowers. While not all flowers are edible (and some can make you very sick), learning to safely identify those that are can help you transform a fairly ordinary salad, dip or pizza into a tasty work of art. Common edible flowers include citrus blossom, clover, daisies, dandelions, hibiscus, honeysuckle, lavender, lilac, mums, nasturtium, pansies, roses, sunflowers and violets. Participants each learned to identify a few edible flower species and shared their knowledge with one another.
Flower Art
Have you ever heard of the artist Jeff Koons? If so, you’re probably familiar with his “Balloon Dog” sculpture that resembles a giant version of a balloon animal you might find at a carnival. Today, Nature Links participants looked at a few of Jeff Koons’s other works involving flowers. From a massive bouquet of tulips made out of stainless steel to a 40-foot puppy made out of 60,000 flowering plants, Koons has used flowers or depicted flowers in many of his works of art in order to “represent loss, rebirth and the vitality of the human spirit.” Participants analyzed his works, speculated about what materials were used to create each one and voted on their favorite (“Puppy” was the clear winner).
Flower Pressing
Finally, one participant demonstrated the art of flower pressing. As we revel in the warmth and beauty of summer here in Maine, we often joke about “bottling up” the feeling we get during this season so we can break it open in February. Flower pressing, in some ways, allows us to collect the beauty of the season and save it for a rainy (or much, much colder) day. If you want to try flower pressing for yourself, here are a few tips we learned…
Always choose flowers that are close to full bloom and avoid ones with blemishes or dark spots.
Pick flowers from a garden in the morning once any dew is gone.
Make sure flowers are completely dry, as wet or damp flowers can become moldy.
If using a bouquet, keep it in water until ready to press. (Tip: Always cut stems at an angle and place flowers in a vase with flower food to maintain freshness. Replace water daily and remove any leaves below the water line.)
For large flowers with layered petals, consider separating the petals before pressing and then “reconstructing” the flower later, if desired.
Flowers with a single layer of petals and flat faces work better than others (think black eyed Susan rather than hydrangea) but any flower is worth a shot! You may end up with surprising results.
You could buy a fancy flower press, but pressing them in a sturdy book works really well too. Just arrange them between two sheets of parchment with some space in between them. Timing will vary due to humidity and flowers used, but 2.5 weeks tends to do the trick.
Once you’ve opened your book to reveal your pressed flowers, I use nylon tweezers to handle your dried flowers. Book-pressed flowers can have very delicate structures, and you don’t want to tear your pretty specimen!
Nature Links folks were up to some pretty creative uses for flowers this week, but we’ll also continue to simply stop and smell the roses.
