I use my leftover newspapers (salmon colored Financial Times) to line the bottom of my bird cage, a Senegal if you wonder.
A brighter use for it: Fresh cut flowers wrapped in the news, old or new, it’s garden gift inspiration from Life with Flowers (Artisan Books, May 2025) by Frances Palmer.
Here’s a taste of what ‘Life with Flowers’ is about.
FLOWERS MAKE THE BEST GIFTS
Among the many wonderful reasons to cultivate a cutting garden is this: It fosters generosity. Over the years, I’ve experienced great joy in sharing an abundance of blooms with friends, family, and clients. The flowers carry my spirit in the same way that I feel my pottery does when it leaves the studio and is used by others as part of their daily lives. What’s more, bringing flowers as a gift creates no burden: A bouquet is an ephemeral gesture that can be appreciated as long as it lasts. The recipient can watch the life cycle of a cut flower, meaning every day is a new gift as the bloom changes.
Since I try to grow rare, unusual, and heirloom flower varieties that are not easily found in shops, it’s especially gratifying to give them away. I hope their distinctive qualities—the textures, colors, and sizes of the blooms—inspire creativity when the recipients create their own arrangements.
Most flowers have symbolic associations, which can add an extra layer of meaning to the gift. As I’ve learned from Shane Connolly’s book Discovering the Meaning of Flowers, red roses represent true love; lilies connote purity and fertility; and the iris symbolizes faith, valor, hope, and wisdom. It’s fun to learn about the history of how these floral allegories were assigned.
If I am bringing flowers to a host for lunch or dinner, I wrap the bunch in brown or newsprint paper and tie it together at the bottom with beeswaxed string. If the flowers must survive a lengthy journey, I usually place them in a bucket with water and wrap the bunch when I arrive. When transporting dahlias, I sometimes line the trunk of the car with newsprint and gently lay the stems down flat one by one next to each other so that the heads don’t get jostled and break off, which they are apt to do when crowded in a bucket. This is especially important toward the end of the harvest, in autumn, when the stems tend to be weaker than those of the earlier, heavily petaled, dinner-plate types.
Finally, it’s good to get in the habit of saving flowers for yourself, too. Rather than waiting for someone to present you with a bouquet, do it for your own enjoyment, as a treat to yourself. I try to remind myself often that just one flower in a bud vase—at the window above the kitchen sink, on the dining table, in the powder room, or by my bed—brings enormous pleasure and a sense of calm.
(* Excerpted from Life with Flowers (Artisan Books, May 2025) by Frances Palmer, Photography by Frances Palmer)
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