The World Flower Show 2014 is coming to Dublin next June and for four wonderful days the city will be filled with the scents and dazzling displays of thousands of floral arrangements. It's the first time this world-famous show has come to Ireland and it's a fantastic chance to see the work of 600 leading floral artists from 31 different countries.
If you garden, chances are you occasionally bring a few flowers into the house to fill your windowsills with colour and your rooms with perfume. You don't have to create a world-beating display to enjoy the lovely combinations you can make from flowers grown in your own garden.
Aim to include a few flowers especially grown for picking in your borders and you can take your flower arranging to a whole new level. At this time of the year look out for dahlias, brilliant orange crocosmias and the airy flowerheads of ornamental grasses. Include winter-flowering shrubs in the garden and you can bring branches of sweetly-scented flowers inside even in the depths of the cold weather: witch hazel, winter-flowering honeysuckle and Viburnum x bodnantense 'Dawn' are all wonderful for cutting in midwinter.
The World Flower Show runs from 18-22 June 2014. For more information go to wafaireland.com.
