Rhododendron & Iris: Holy Thursday Altar Flowers

Flowers for the altar of repose

High altar arrangements

For Holy Thursday, I visited our local bulb farm and selected gold and white irises, colors for the Holy Eucharist.

White centranthus is always a good filler that grows like a weed in my garden. For greenery I used magnolia, pittosporum, laurel and camellia. Unfortunately, most of the yellow irises weren't quite open for today's feast. Irises need direct sunlight to open and the last three days have been mostly rainy. On a positive note, the arrangements will be brought back out to decorate the church on Easter Sunday, when all of the irises are at their peak.

The fragrant yellow rhododendrons were a last minute treasure found in the garden where I cut my greenery. The climbing yellow rose was also an irresistible addition. After looking at altars of repose on the New Liturgical Movement's website, I was inspired to do more than just my usual small arrangements.

I used a rectangular ceramic dish with floral foam and layered the rhodies with sprays of roses, on a base of laurel leaves. In my experience, delicate rhodies have a short life when cut, so they are perfect for one special day like today!

Have a blessed and holy Triduum!

Comments

Roses for Our Lady: Altar Flowers for the Nativity of the BVM

Altar flowers for the Traditional Latin Mass Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Roses, Queen Anne's lace, green poms and crocosmia greens.

Processional Litter & Flowers for the Feast of the Assumption

This year for the Feast of the Assumption, the pastor of our little country parish asked if I would help create a processional litter for the statue of Our Lady. He had the great idea of repurposing an old table! It seemed Our Lady was smiling down on me that day when I walked into the thrift store and there it was for twenty dollars: a perfect square, three foot, solid oak table. A few months ago, my kind friend, mentor, and owner of Altarations Paraments in Oregon sent me a box loaded with remnants of liturgical fabric. I added a white skirt around the bottom to hide the table legs and a carpenter attached brackets for the removable oak rods. I was a bit nervous about creating the arrangements for the litter. They needed to be as light as possible and secured to the litter to withstand being jostled about in the procession. I found four plastic oval platters at the dollar store, added a block of wet foam, taped it in place and created the arr...

Greenery for Altar Flowers

On this Solemnity of St. Joseph, I thought I would write a bit about one of the colors associated with our beloved St. Joseph, green. In God's perfectly-ordered creation, this color serves as a backdrop to both the rose and the lily. Perhaps greenery is a sort of metaphor for St. Joseph: always present and right behind, highlighting the splendor and perfection of Our Lady and Our Lord. This reflection leads me into more practical considerations for the use of greenery in my arrangements. Greenery is, for me, what "makes" an arrangement and adds your personal touch. It is also a way to stretch your flower budget, and make one dozen roses look like two. I live in a Pacific coastal climate where there is an abundance of greenery available throughout the year. This eliminates the need to purchase greenery for my arrangements and affords me a lot of flexibility in choosing greens. However, if you live in the desert or in an ar...

Introibo- with Flowers

Search This Blog