A proper garden needs flowers. Lots of them. Unfortunately artificial flowers usually don’t come in doll scale, so I have to make them.
After spending hours searching for artificial flowers with small leaves and blossoms I have quite a stock of artificial baby’s breath in various colors, small twigs of fake cherry blossoms and other small blooms I can use to make tiny flowers. Miniature vines and artificial herbs are what I have been taking apart for the leafage.
Making flowers that are in scale and don’t look too obviously artificial requires a lot of fiddly work, since most of the flowers are made of various ‘ingredients’. I’ve hot-glued blossoms to stems for hours and cut larger leaves into smaller pieces.
Making flowers turns out to be a challenge, even for somebody with a lot of patience. But I am quite happy with the results.
This one for example is made of cherry blossoms, parts of a miniature vine and fake rosemary. I love hollyhock of all kinds, so my girls need to have some, too.
I used painted Styrofoam for the base, which I covered in pine bark mulch parts. I want to be able to arrange the flowers to find the best position before I glue them to the flower bed base permanently, that’s why I decided to make every flower on a separate additional base. The gaps will be filled with a mix of coco fiber soil and wallpaper paste.
I have a lot of perennials in my real garden that are above knee-height, but my doll garden will mostly have low-growth flowers to make the scene more suitable for taking pictures.
This is what the smaller flower bed looks like after I covered the gaps with my coco-paste mixture. I have to admit, my dolls are obviously much better at weeding the flower beds than I am…:D. I probably have to add some fallen leaves and more weeds to make it look a bit more real.
I also just finished a bird bath, like the boulders it’s made of plaster. The water is a mix of transparent varnish for the wet look and a piece of clear film for the reflecting surface.
Aha! I wondered how you managed to get such small flowers for your diorama. Glad you shared your secrets, although I don't have nearly enough patience to attempt it. I have found very few tiny flowers at craft stores. I'm not above taking things apart, although I haven't actually cut any petals down to smaller size. What really bugs me is all the plastic bits involved. They would work as succulents but they're never the right shape. In order to be true to life, my garden would be 80 percent weeds and 20 percent other stuff struggling to get its head up above the weeds. 😀
Most of the small vines and flowers are actually wedding decoration of some sort. I bought them off ebay. But I'll be glad when it's finished, to be honest. Haha… it's about 50/50 in my garden, but probably just because my perennials are so high that the weeds just don't get enough light. And I do actually like weeding. At least when the weather is nice. I find it quite relaxing.
I had to hire a landscaper to remove the weeds on the sunny side of my house. The builder must have used contaminated backfill because I had weeds that threatened to obscure the windows–and they're pretty high off the ground. As a result, I find weeding to be anything but relaxing. I should make a miniature garden. I have a feeling that's about all the gardening I can deal with.
That doesn't sound relaxing…I have seen the trouble kudzu can cause, but I guess it doesn't survive Vermont winters, right? Miniature gardens are fun, artificial or real. There are pictures of the cutest real miniature gardens on the web, but of course they overgrow their pots too.
I've never seen kudzu–I've always thought it was native to the Southern States–so my guess is it doesn't survive Vermont winters. After poking around the internet looking at colorful shrubs and trees that can be considered weeds, I've decided what I had was a variety of sumac. Very pretty in autumn but if not eradicated it will grow as tall as the house.
Excellent job! They look so natural. I love the comment about weeds. I can only agree – it's the same with my own garden.
I just know staghorn sumac and I remember reading about poison sumac. I am always surprised to see how quickly nature can claim urban areas back if left alone.
Thank you! Haha.. but if you love to have a garden that's part of the attraction, there's always something outdoorsy to do.
This is so cool <3 Very creative solution to take appart/cut/reassemble pieces into the right size/type flowers you want!
Thank you :). It's really fiddly though…
Oh my Mia, I got stressed just imagining the patience it must have took to make these flowers! But they certainly look wonderful and so real. I agree and had a giggle about your comment regarding the weeds…I hate the darn things! What you have done so far looks stunning and I am looking forward to seeing the finished garden in full flower. 🙂
Big hugs,
X
You are right to be proud, these are so perfect! I can't imagine the level of patience required to do this!! They look stunning, like everything you do. Looking forward to see it finished!!
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