Christmas cut and dried
OVER the summer, floral designer Sofie Paton-Smith grew flowers and foliage at her home, Marbury Hall, Shropshire, to make decorations for Christmas. Not, she hastens to point out, the more traditional holly, ivy and mistletoe, but those annuals, herbaceous perennials, shrubs and grasses that are transformed when dried. Artichokes and cardoons stood in the windows of the glasshouse, hops were hung from rafters and hydrangea heads were left in the sun to bleach to the palest of paper-whites. She has been experimenting with dahlias and chrysanthemums to discover how different colours morph into new shades as they dry (COUNTRY LIFE, ) and
