The dark side of Summer
Smoky mauves, wine-stained tones for a birthday celebration bathed in soft June light at The Baring.
On the long wooden banquet table of the private room, we love to create floral tapestries that recall the natural growing patterns of a garden. A unifying thread of papery Amazing Grey poppies led the eye across the table, with pockets of colour or particular flower variety, all slightly bleeding into one another, in between.
Focusing on dark tones, textures and shapes, the tablescape was celebration of the true nature of the garden, where plants at different stages of their life coexist. Together with the flowers at their peak blooming stage, there was the thrilling expectation of the early phases: a cracking poppy bud, only just revealing its heart; sweet pea trails, stretching their curling tendrils, soon to be covered in a multitude of soft frills; the gorgeous dark leaves of the heuceras, soon to be in contrast with the bright tiny bells on their flowers. And then there was the the charm of what is completing its life cycle: the weathered cow parsley and brome grass, their bright green now oxblood stained, the little alien crowns of aquilegia seed pods, and of course the purple tinged flat disks of the lunaria seed heads, revealing the round seeds when the light hits them the right way.
