Flowers delivery for Berliners

My friends love flowers and many of them receive regularly beautiful bouquets every week, from as far as from Austria. But it seems that in the last two years, flowers delivery services entered the Berlin and German market in general too. For instance, Bloomon, who operates for around 2 years already.

I discovered the company during the tour of the Home and Garden show the last week. Before asking them what they are doing, the beautiful appearance of the bouquet, natural, seasonal flowers, caught my eyes. Those beautiful bouquets can be delivered at home once or regularly, accompanied with the bowls. The prices for flowers start from 23 EUR.

The website - in German - is very well done, with a lot of information about how to order. You need to choose the size of the bouquet, the delivery, indicate the address and pay. The rest is the duty of the company. It seems very simple.

If your language skills do not help, you can understand a lot just watching the graphic images. As for now, the company operates also in other big German cities, such as Hamburg and Düsseldorf.

5 Flower inspiration for your garden

Springs and summers are the time of the year when I love this city more than ever. With its sunny and green corners and the trees adorning and embelishing even the most boring and ugly looking streets. If you are lucky enough to have a big garden or you just want to decorate your small balcony, here are some suggestions you can find to any flower store in Berlin, at very cheap prices. Most of them do not request special assistance or more than average knowledge.

Rhododendron - There are thousand of varieties, many of them edible, in salads or tea. The national flower of Nepal, a woody plant, it requires a well drained soil.

Member of the sunflower family, Bellis is an ornamental flower that is not only a beautiful ornamental bedding, but also brings joy to any garden arrangement.

There are more than 400 species of English Geranium a must-have for any respectable English Garden. From the spring until early summer, it brings beauty and grace to the garden.

Forget-me-not is indiscutably a gracious and beautiful presence in any balcony and garden. Discrete, romantic, uncomplicated, there are resistant to cold weather and suit well the shady areas too.

Blaukissen Aubretta are a bit pretentious as they need more light and special watering. Spring is the best season to plant them and they have a late bloom in the mid-summer too.

Bonus, two beautiful bouquets from one of my favourite flower stores in Berlin, Le Orchid, on Joachimsthalerstr. 14. One year ago, I ordered there some special flower arrangements for a client's wedding and they were more than friendly. They can make a beautiful wonder out of everything. These two arrangements are just two of the many seasonal bouquets they make every day.

What about you? What are your favourite flowers arrangements and garden flowers?

3 Hobby Books to make your weekends more creative

Either if you work full or part time, if you are a parent with one or more children or just single, life is not easy and the working week means very often a lot of stress. As winter and the cold weather decide to stay for longer in some unhappy parts of the world, weekends can be just grey and not-eventful, without too much to do outside. Instead of staying in the front of the TV most of the time, what about learning some new skills that can save your mind for something better during the exhausting days of the week? Here there are three books that can bring a pintch of creativity into your life:

Simple Calligraphy. A Beginner's Guide to Elegant Lettering, by Judy Detrick

In the age of digital writing, hand writing is greatly neglected. I used to study calligraphy in primary school and I still do a lot of handwriting every day, but the art of elegant lettering is not so widespread as it used to be. Judy Detrick, a calligraphy teacher and professional, offers an introduction into this precious art, with the help of a couple of exercises and various advices about the best materials to use. The exercises for acquiring basic skills for Italic hand writing, are designated for specific letters - including capitals and punctuation. 

For the beginning, it requires an investment of maximum 40-50 EUR. You can practice 10 insightful minutes the day and use this new skill for creating various 'Thank you' notes or invitations for events.  

The book will be available for sale starting with 19 April.

Wonderland. A Colouring Book inspired by Alice's Adventures, by Amely Shen

I am a big supporter of colouring books for adults and I own myself a couple of them. This one is a bit special though, because besides the beautiful graphics it features a story that I love even more as I love colouring books: Alice in Wonderland, celebrating 150 years since making the world a better place. Besides the colouring patterns, it also has some little story and an invitation to quizzes. The only regret is that there are not as many patterns to keep you creative at least for a couple of months. 

The title will be released on April 5.

The Flower Workshop, by Ariella Chezar with Julie Michaels

I spent most of my childhood in a house with a wild garden and I love flowers wherever they are. I am doing once in a while flower arrangements, but not that much as I want to do and not always with a plan. This book is meant to bring inspiration for creating insightful flower projects but also brings the personal story of the author, of growing up in a creative familly in love with nature. First and foremost it has beautiful pictures, but it is also well written and gives many ideas for the beginner or advanced flower designer. The learning is based on the author's workshops all over the world that I will be very tempted to attend at least once.

The book will be released the March 1.

Disclaimer: I was offered these books via Netgalley.com, but the opinions are, as usual, my own