Today I wanted to make a bouquet and two posies – a bouquet for my old boss and his girlfriend who I’m visiting tomorrow, a posy for their young daughter, and another for a friend who’s just come home from hospital.
Ever since I heard that there was a flower that looked and smelt like chocolate, I thought I can’t wait to use that! Today I did. Chocolate cosmos are small, dahlia-like flowers that are a rich, dark burgundy-chocolate colour, with velvety petals, very thin stems, and a delicious vanilla-chocolate scent. They won’t be in season for much longer, so this was my last chance to use them this year. New Covent Garden Market is currently full of bright Halloween things like Chinese lanterns and crab apples, pretty wintery things like pussy willow, and even spring tulips…which seems a bit wrong to me! After wandering around, I also bought some British dahlias before they disappear for the year, beautiful and strongly-scented Augusta Luise garden roses, and some salmon-pink celosia.
I used everything but the cosmos for the bouquet, some of everything for the posy for my friend, and the cosmos mixed with some lilac asters from my garden for the little girl’s posy. I’m not sure if the girl will be pleased to receive chocolate-scented flowers or disappointed that I didn’t give her real chocolates instead!
The cosmos is quite delicate and, like the dahlias and garden roses, has a short vase life. But when flowers look this beautiful and smell so exquisite, it seems a small price to pay for the intense pleasure they bring. I put the worse-for-wear leftover cosmos and a few wobbly dahlias and roses in a vase for me to enjoy while I did my floristry coursework.
What a perfect Saturday.
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