SEE US NOW

Ellen Spector Platt & Ellen Zachos are traveling to promote our books. We would LOVE to see you at our various events and have you introduce yourself as a blog reader.
Coming soon to a town near you (if you live near Boston):
Ellen Spector Platt, Feb.9, 2pm at the Andover bookstore, Andover MA, a free collage lesson and demo to promote her book, Artful Collage from Found Objects. To learn more...
(pictured above, 'The 7 Train', photo collage from the 5Pointz area of Queens)

DON'T MISS THE PHILLY FLOWER SHOW
where we'll both be speaking. Photos above and below from recent shows.
For Ellen Zachos on March 5th it's Backyard Foraging: 65 Familiar Plants You Didn't Know You Could Eat.

For Ellen Spector Platt on March 6th it's Adventures in Garden Collage.

See us both if you stay over one night, listen to other speakers, see the show in all it's glory, and if you're feet aren't totally shot, visit the new Barnes Foundation Museum within easy walking distance of the flower show.

To learn more about the show visit....

WINTER BOUQUET, NYC STYLE

(Click on any image to enlarge.)

It was a small party Chez Moi following the artist reception for a group collage show "Pasted". I had entered three pieces and my friends who were eating my food and drinking my wine all loved my work. Any surprises here?

It was also Other Ellen's birthday and I had promised to make her my best orange/sour cream bundt cake with orange/Grand Marnier glaze and a fresh strawberry sauce to spoon over ad lib. Too cheap to buy a pack of official birthday candles I raided my closet for three votive candles used in another photo shoot and three small clay flower pots. The center of the cake screamed for a fresh flower arrangement.
Three floors up in the roof garden I tend for my building, I pruned rose hips from the climber 'New Dawn', a few stems of lavender foliage still in perfect shape, (unheard of for NYC in January) and three stems of an unknown Euphorbia. I placed the stems in water in a porcelain egg cup I keep for miniature arrangements.
Five days later, the euphorbia BLOOMED, and no, I hadn't singed the bottom of the stems, just allowed them to seep milky sap into the water.In summer it's easy to decorate cakes like this from what I grow on the roof; though decidedly less showy, I was even more pleased with my winter bouquet.
(photo ©Alan& Linda Detrick, Ellen Spector Platt design)

WHILE DAYLILLIES STILL BLOOM

Three daylily flowers, picked in the morning, rinsed carefully because the petals are crisp and crack easily, refrigerated until later that same day for a special treat. Remove stamens and pistil before rinsing.
Place gingerly in crystal stemware, scoop in some raspberry or strawberry sorbet, and top with minced red basil, plus more for garnish. Oohs and Aahs. you're a genius, and such hard work!Use wild or cultivated flowers, ones that you're sure haven't been sprayed, and nothing from the roadside where they've been absorbing exhaust fumes. Daylily flowers are edible though some varieties are more flavorful than others. Usually the aroma will guide you to the best flavors.
Basil and fruit sorbet is a tasty combination.
Yesterday in the New York Times Magazine my favorite food writer Mark Bittman showed recipes for ice pops with various herbs and flavorings. I've been doing this for years, sometimes for kids using paper or plastic cups, and sticking a plastic spoon in the sorbet after it's semi-frozen. Here Lucy extracts a watermelon pop from a plastic cup after holding her hands around the outside for a few seconds to release the ice.

The watermelon was going begging in our house because it was not flavorful. So we cut it off the rind and in chunks, whipped it briefly in the food processor with added sugar, lemon juice and a grind of pepper and poured it into plastic cups. Also resurrect other fruits like limp strawberries or mealy peaches, adding water in the same quantity as fruit.

Hey Lucy, she likes it!

west coast window boxes

No, this isn't NYC.

I'm sorry you've been stuck with two out-of-town posts in a row, dear readers, but now is when professional gardeners travel...before the time comes for planting pansies and heavy lifting.

I high-tailed it to the west coast last Sunday, where spring has most definitely already sprung. This morning, Cayce and I tweaked the window boxes in front of a truly wonderful restaurant in SanFran: Sons & Daughters. They have 25 feet of container display in front of the restaurant and Cayce keeps it beautiful all year long. She rotates plants in and out as needed, and I'm amazed it looks this good. In NYC I'm afraid passers-by would pluck from the boxes; street plantings everywhere have to be tough.

That's not all Cayce does for Sons & Daughters. Twice a week she harvests edible flowers, microgreens, herbs, and delicacies like baby radishes and white alpine strawberries, and brings them into the restaurant.

When we ate there on Monday night (a most memorable meal), she pointed out her visible (borage flowers) and invisible (agastache infused oil) contributions. The lamb, by the way, was superb and the tasting menu with wine pairing is a parade of deliciousness that won't break the bank.


As we harvested calendula, pansies, arugula flowers, and cornflowers in the rain this morning, I realized how ready I am to get back to the gratifying work of planting. New York City, get ready. It's time.