Why You Shouldn't Throw Away Those Wilting Flowers in Your Arrangement
It’s the delicate dance of life and death that inspires Kreetta Järvenpää. The Helsinki-based photographer and artist considers wilting stems as beautiful as flowers at their peak—and as crucial to her arrangements.
She inherited an appreciation for flowers from her mother, a hobbyist gardener throughout Järvenpää’s childhood, but pursued a photography career instead. “When I was about 20 years old, I was a bit of a rebel and didn’t want to do anything the same as my mom,” she says. “But when you get older, you begin to remind yourself of your parents somehow.”
After her mother’s sudden passing in 2016, a dormant passion stirred to life, and through learning how to create arrangements, her language with flowers found its voice.
“My best work happens when I combine fresh flowers with wilting and dried ones. It goes back to the year 2016, to life and death,” explains Järvenpää, who sources stems locally and sustainably.
The poetry of nature’s inevitable evolution emerges through her painterly compositions inspired by 17th-century Dutch golden age works and their use of light, capturing the fleeting beauty of blooms throughout their life cycles.
“I want to respect the full lives of the flowers. There is so much more to them than the perfect moment of one day,” she says.
Seeds from the dried plants artfully mixed into some arrangements can be sown for the next season’s crop, and the dance twirls on.
Tulips' Elegant Twilight
Slender ikebana-inspired arrangements depict tulips' maturation through the spring. Daintier seed-bearing stems of forget-me-nots bridge the birth of life with decay.
Sowing New Life
"When flowers wilt and produce seeds, it is a continuing and beginning of a cycle--not an endin," says Järvenpää. Seeds from decaying poppies, cosmos, Thlaspo and Digitalis purpurea can be replanted for the next season's crop.
Dahlia's Theatrical Finale
“Drama is a good thing with flowers,” says Järvenpää. A vintage Hungarian vase and ochre velvet cloth conjure the golden haze of a full garden in late summer. While the dahlias are thriving, fluffy peonies are wilting and cup-shaped tulips have dried.
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This story was originally featured in the January/February 2024 issue of VERANDA. Photography by Kreetta Järvenpää; Written by Grace Haynes.
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