Tag: cut flowers

Verona, Italy

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A group of children with flowers in the cloister of San Zeno, Verona, Italy, May 10, 1918, by Fernand Cuville, via Archives of the Planet Collection – Albert Kahn Museum /Département des Hauts-de-Seine.

Tradition has it that the crypt of San Zeno is where Romeo married Juliet.

The autochrome above is one of about seventy-two thousand that were commissioned and then archived by Albert Kahn, a wealthy French banker and pacifist, between 1909 and 1931. Kahn sent thirteen photographers and filmmakers to fifty countries “to fix, once and for all, aspects, practices, and modes of human activity whose fatal disappearance is no longer ‘a matter of time.'”* The resulting collection is called Archives de la Planète and now resides in its own museum at Kahn’s old suburban estate at Boulogne-Billancourt, just west of Paris. Since June 2016, the archive has also been available for viewing online here.

*words of Albert Kahn, 1912. Also, the above photo (A 19 474) is © Collection Archives de la Planète – Musée Albert-Kahn and used under its terms, here.

In a vase on Monday: peonies

Cindy at enclos*ure17 Comments

For each of the last two springs in this house, the peony plant in the back yard has given me exactly one bloom. This week, there were eight — all but two opening fully on the same day. Their stems are very curved from being knocked over earlier in the month by a late snow and then rain and wind.  Next year, I will try to remember to rig up some sort of support before they emerge.

The blooms look red, but they’re actually a very dark pink, and they have a nice light scent. I arranged them with some wild pink geranium that comes up along the back fence (maybe G. palustre?) and some sweet woodruff. The Westerwald salt-glazed pottery pitcher is from this Saturday’s flea market.

To see what other bloggers have put in a vase today, please visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden. She hosts this Monday theme.

The flower seller, NYC

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An Easter floral display at Bradshaw & Hartman, New York City, between 1900 and 1905, by Detroit Publishing Co., via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (both photos).

I found this advertisement in The Weekly Florists Review, Vol. 12, 1903:

Established 1891
Geo. E. Bradshaw   John R. Hartman
Wholesale Florists
53 West 28th Street, New York
Telephone 1239 Madison Square
Consignments Solicited
Mention the Review when you write.

The current building at 53 W. 28th Street seems to be the same one in these pictures.

There have been flower wholesalers on this section of 28th Street since the 1890s, according to this interesting article in The Economist.

In a vase on Monday: tulips

Cindy at enclos*ure17 Comments


This morning, I have arranged purple and red tulips in assorted small glass vases along the radiator cover in the dining room.

I found the large shells in the woods behind the house soon after we moved in. I guess a former resident had tossed them out there.


To see what other garden bloggers have put in vases today, please visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

In a vase on Monday: warm weekend

Cindy at enclos*ure4 Comments

Little flowers picked from our yard (except for the tulip) in the kitchen window. . .

We had a relatively warm sunny weekend, and now the primroses are starting to bloom, and the woods behind the house are full of wood anemones.


In the city, all the platz were full of people soaking up the sun. Most were still dressed in black winter coats, so it looked like flocks of large crows had settled down on the grass and concrete. The lines for ice cream were very long — Stuttgarters seem to want cones the minute the temperature rises above 55°F (12°C).


We’ve seen three large hares in the neighborhood in as many days (this is their peak mating season), after not seeing any for months. They are hard to miss, being the size of small dogs — largish small dogs. Occasionally when we come upon one, it stands its ground and we always move along first.


To see what other garden bloggers have put in vases today, please visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.