3 unexpected ways to enjoy flowers

While integrating them into your life.

Not all of us are meant to be in the flower business. However we can still be incredible designers, arrangers, and lovers of flowers and live a flower-filled life.

There are so many ways in which to enjoy flowers. Some ways may seem unexpected, some not. Making a bouquet for example, which I love, happens to just be one way to treasure and showcase their amazingness. Through the practices your capacity for enjoying and appreciating flowers may expand.

Equally impressive and delicate in form, I find flowers to be some of the most accessible and friendly tools to: deepen your wisdom and respect for life, surround yourself with beauty, and remind you that your own body is not separate from the natural world.

You may already be enjoying flowers in less than obvious ways. I’d love to hear how. In the meantime, may these tips assist you in integrating and enjoying flowers daily.

Cup of blossoms.

Had a cup of earl gray or chamomile recently? You can enjoy flowers through a delicious cup or pot of tea. Flowers like their herbal cousins have ancient roots and healing properties and drinking them as a tisane can be divine. As delicate as they seem, they are potent and transformative. I dry my own rose petals so that I can put them in my black tea. But many dried blossoms are used in tea. Linden, hops, lavender, chrysanthemum, chamomile, clover, and hibiscus, just to name a few. 

Unfurling gratitude.

The next time you're eating an apple, zucchini, tomato, avocado, olives, even a slice of yummy bread or bowl of rice, take a moment and express gratitude. All of these were flowers before they were fruits. A great deal of the foods we enjoy are the result of flowers and their subsequent pollination by amazing little winged creatures. 

A plate of petals.

You can enjoy flowers by actually eating them. A fun and playful way of integrating flowers is introducing them into your cooking or should I say plating or presentation. Unlike with tea, in these scenarios the flowers are not cooked, unless they are flor de calabaza, fried squash blossoms. They can be put on salads, cakes, or to top the plate prior to serving like a garnish. Some of my personal favorites are rose, borage, and nasturtiums. There are many more but let’s be honest, 3’s a great place to start.