Our Expert Florist, Anna Slade, shares her top tips for keeping yourself and the children entertained this Easter.
Spring Jam Jars
All you need is some old containers (jam jars, wine bottles, etc) along with flowers from your garden to create lovely Easter arrangements to decorate your home.
- Add tones of yellow, along with spring flowers such as blossom to really brighten the room.
- Tie a coloured ribbon around the top of the jar or bottle.
- To create an Easter centre piece, put 3 jars onto an old mirror or decorative plate and put it in the centre of your table.
Simple Tricks for the Perfect Arrangement
For this, all you will need is a reasonably shallow vase or container, sellotape along with flowers and foliage from your garden.
- Run around the garden and gather anything that is flowers and some foliage
- Fill your little container with water
- Criss cross sellotape over the top
- Start to add your flowers, poking them in between the sellotape to give you some structure
- Build up your design until it is looking beautiful and full.
Flower Pressing
If you don't own a flower press, don't worry! You can use a heavy book or some sheets of paper and your doormat!
- Pick your flowers from your garden - Anna recommends flowers that aren't too 'fleshy', such as violas, primrose and blossom
- If you're using a heavy book.... Place your flowers in between 2 sheets of paper inside of the book and close. If you wish to weigh it down more, place more books on top of the book you are using to press. Leave for 2 - 3 weeks.
- If you're using your doormat... Choose a doormat that gets walked on a lot. Place 2 sheets of paper under your doormat - glossy paper works the best, but regular paper and newspaper also work well. Leave the flowers there for 4 - 6 weeks.
- You can then use the dried flowers to make greeting cards and other crafts.
DIY Seed Bombs
When making your own seed bombs, Anna recommends using seeds that bloom quickly; such as cornflowers and marigolds.
To attact honeybees and other important pollinators to our gardens, choose seeds for bright coloured flowers.
- Combine your seeds with a handful of soil and dampen them so that you can form a ball
- Let the children thrown them in the garden
- Watch them grow!