Hello! Ellea here.
Spring is the most heavenly time of year. When the buds are coming out, colour is bursting from everywhere you look and you can feel the evenings slowly unfurling, getting longer, lighter and warmer. Total heaven.
And longer, lighter, warmer evenings can only mean one thing – alfresco. There's nothing we love more. Honestly – we attempt to do anything and everything alfresco wherever remotely possible. Breakfast alfresco, supper alfresco – we’ve even been known to host meetings alfresco (seriously).
So, this past weekend, fully embracing the spirit of Spring, we spent the day with our fabulous friend Elle Hollingworth (who is a both a fountain of knowledge when it comes to seasonal blooms, and an amazing floral stylist in her own right) and had a glorious day foraging for an alfreso Spring tablescape (in preparation for a small - covid friendly - supper party that evening).
The result was a gorgeously uplifting seasonal Spring table, awash with (very 100 Acres) greens and pinks. The essence of everything we love - colourful, luscious, bountiful and botanical.
The best part? You can absolutely recreate this at home. Keep reading for our (well…Elle’s) expert tips on seasonal foraging and arranging your own Spring supper tablescape.
Over to Elle...
When it comes to foraging beyond your own garden, a general tip (or more, an unspoken rule) is to only pick foliage - anything green and twiggy and evidently abundant. Be mindful of what you’re picking to ensure a) you’re not picking any protected wild flowers, and b) you’re only picking a small amount of any one thing.
Other than that, go slow, and enjoy it! Take a blanket and some time to soak up the sunshine and the fresh, aromatic Spring air all around. There aren’t many greater pleasures in life than foraging for foliage, or lying on a blanket in the Spring sunshine.
We foraged in our local hedgerows. At this time of year - even with the season rapidly changing - there's plenty to choose from.
We used:
- Blackthorn blossom...
- Hawthorn blossom...
- Cow Parsley...
- Hazel (I love using hazel year-round, but Spring is when it's at its most beautiful – bright bevelled leaves and elegant long stems)...
...but just use whatever you can find, and love the look of.
Flowers
I’m all about seasonal and sustainable blooms, and for the past few years have been honing my skills not just as a stylist, but a grower too, cultivating my own flowers in my Gloucestershire garden.
We used some of my best Spring stems to dot throughout the tablescape, coupling them with leafy green foliage. I love keeping it wild and true to the garden the stems came from - nothing too forced. The wilder the better.
And, even if you don’t have much colour in your garden currently - or if space is limited - you can absolutely still find seasonal British flowers nearby - this is actually easier than you may think! I love 'Flowers from the Farm' - an amazing website that shows you where you can find seasonal and sustainable flowers from local growers, wherever you are in Britain.
The garden-grown blooms we used were…
- Tulips - Foxtrot Double, Mondial Double and Queen of Night
- Cream narcissus
- Pink flowering currant
- Euphorbia polychrome
And some other seasonal garden blooms you’ll find around this time of year...
- Aquilegia
- Geums
- Alliums
- Lilac
But, again - use whatever you can find and like the look of!
Arranging & Styling
As with anything going in a vase, condition your stems by removing any leaves that'll sit below the water line. Cut the stems at an angle to keep them looking fresh for days afterwards (post tablescape, these flowers populated 100 Acres HQ for at least a week).
We spread the flowers and foliage across my collection of antique vases and jars - Ellea and I are both shameless maximalists, loving anything eclectic, colourful, wild and unkempt - and this showed through our table. To best replicate, just ensure...
a) you have lots of green, bushy foliage. In each vase, create an abundant base of interlocking green stems...
b) be playful with colour - fill in the foliage with the more plentiful of your flowers, and then finish each one with a few bright, favourite stems. Our favourite showstopper stems were big double tulips, but go for anything colourful, flouncy and bountiful.
c) most importantly - just don’t try to tame it too much. Remember - the wilder the better.!
And once you’ve filled the table with your blooms, crockery, cutlery and glasses - intersperse the gaps with 100 Acres’ gorgeous three-wick candles. They smell just as heavenly as the flowers, magnifying their beautiful scent and lighting them up with the most glorious golden glow.
A Spring tablescape is not complete without 100 Acres candles.
Food!
You don’t need us to tell you this part. All we’ll say is…
Wine. Where wine goes, we go. Or, if we’d had more time, we'd have made some picantes (or even some herbal cocktails with herbs picked from the garden), but we clearly spent too much time lounging in the sun...
And that’s it! There’s no set formula, no tablescape rules - just foliage, flowers, food and friends.
Above: Elle (@elleholl_at_home - left) and Ellea (co-founder of 100 Acres - right).
And that's how to forage for and create your own super easy, Spring supper tablescape. We hope you enjoyed it and would love to see any recreations too!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table styling and floristry by Elle Hollingworth. For more tablescapes and gorgeous images, follow us on Instagram @100_acres @elleholl_athome.
To have our notes and all sorts of 100 Acres inspiration delivered directly to your inbox, simply sign up for our 100 Acres Club email list. You'll also receive subscriber exclusive offers, and be the first to know about new launches and restocks - we promise not to spam you and you can unsubscribe at any time. We would so love for you to join us. See you there!
Ellea
Co-Founder
Leave a comment