Foraging for flowers

Foraging for food is now very fashionable - people have realised that there is something life enhancing about returning to our roots, finding free food in the hedgerows.
Foraging for flowers is a quite different matter - it comes under the category of picking wild flowers which is not a good thing at all.
It is an interesting distinction.  I find foraging for both food and flowers equally acceptable as long as you stick to sensible guidelines.  I am not advocating picking scarce or endangered flowers from the wild or for diminishing the pleasure of walkers that come after you - I just find it an interesting distinction.
Anyway, as many wild flowers don't work well as cut flowers I thought it would be useful to mention a couple that do, which are very plentiful weeds and which you might even have (and be cursing) in wilder parts of your own garden.  These are the flower equivalent of the food forager's nettles and sorrel, invasive, thuggish and beautiful.
The first is creeping buttercup, the lacquered bright yellow flowers that can easily take over damp grassland - these look fantastic higgledly piggledly in a jam jar and will last a week; in the past I have used them in more formal table arrangements mixed with garden flowers and they more than held their own.  They are ideal on a table outside for an informal lunch as they don't wilt.
The second is flowering pignut - again a meadow flower that foragers dig up for the tubers - hazelnutty nuggets that taste great with a salad of sorel and oranges.  I can't quite see why it would be socially acceptable to dig up the tuber but not to cut the flower . . .but it seems to be.
Anyway - if you want them to last, pick them into water, let them rest somewhere cool for an hour before arranging and then position away from fruit bowls and direct sun.
Remember there is a notebook giveaway on the next post down - I'm a bit worried - yesterday 648 people looked at this and only 5 people seemed to want a notebook enough to post a comment  . . .

Comments

[Diana]

I love foraging...so satisfying, and connects you with nature at the same time. Happy Weekend! Diana x

[carolyn]

Right I'm off to pick those darn buttercups, maybe they won't be grubbed out of the borders afterall!

[ginny]

gorgeous photos... i see you have great blue skies up there whilst we have rain!... makes a change doesn't it?.. i am pleased.
I love wild flowers and often wonder which ones one can responsibly pick to bring home. There are some lovely oxeye daisies close to my home... i was thinking of picking one for the seed and then scatter it in my garden. We have creeping buttercups already and they are persistent.
great post Jane.
x

[Jane]

May I say that the weather in Scotland is much maligned - I was discussing this with Tracy of Cupcakes just the other day. It has been dry and sunny here for the past month - the only day of rain was this Wednesday which I and the garden were very grateful for.
J
x

[tracy]

i laugh out loud when friends from down South say how awful the weather must be all the way up here....
i can hear the sympathy in their voices - it is almost as if we have been sent up here as a punishment :)
i could not be happier - so far we have had less rain, more sunshine, and so little traffic..... bliss x
t x

[Pipany]

Oh I have blue sky envy! It is grim here again. It is a funny thing about the comments situation isn't it? So many visits sometimes and so little in the way of comments - I guess it is a time thing as we all want to read blogs but it can end up taking all day. Must admit I feel funny if I visit a blog and don't leave a comment though xx

[Diana]

I now have a little jam jar of buttercups on the table...so pretty....and I would never have thought to pick them if you hadn't written this post. Thanks Jane!

[Heidi Richards Mooney]

Just found it via google alerts so I thought I'd stop by and check it out. I have a flower blog at Tulips Talk and am going to mention your blog to my readers.

Wishing you all the best... and more!

Heidi Richards Mooney, Chief Goddess
Eden Florist
Blogger at Tulips Talk - www.tulipstalk.com