floradania.dk 11/2012 

Article: Easter with plants and pastels 

Pastel colours, fresh flowers and items from nature arranged around the home like small tableaux will dominate the picture for Easter 2012, according to a well-known Danish lifestyle magazine 

Personal Easter decorations
Nicola Kragh Riis, home and interior editor at the women’s magazine Alt for Damerne, uses the general trends to create her own personal Easter decorations. 

“It’s not about trying to achieve a particular style, but about finding your own expression, which doesn’t look like that of your neighbour,” she says, and continues: 

“Put a small tree on the table, or fill a small table, or an entire window-sill, with lots of small plants. Play with the proportions and concentrate on decorating a few areas in the home, rather than every corner.” 

Proportions and pastels 
Nicola also lets the personal touch shine through in her choice of proportions and colours, and in the form of the decorations: 

“This year I dream about playing with the sizes, and using trees or branches of trees, such as cherry or magnolia branches. I could also imagine decorating with eggs and birds around the trunk of a large fig tree.”

“When it comes to colours, I really like pastels such as light yellow, light blue, pink and delicate green, and I try to avoid harsh colours and the very strong egg yolk yellow when it gets too dominant for my taste.” 

Easter right through spring
When the family gathers for meals, there’s also lots of Easter fun in Nicola’s home: 

“On the dinner table I assemble an array of small bird figurines, Easter eggs and fresh flowers or branches, which gives the atmosphere of both Easter and spring. That way it lasts longer than just for the Easter holiday.” 

Facts: 
Easter or spring cactus, known in Latin as Rhipsalidopsis, is a popular plant for the season. Danish growers are market leaders in the processing and production of Rhipsalidopsis. They produce 2.5 million of the plants every year, approximately 75% of which are exported to Europe and the USA. 

In recent years, interest in pastel colours has been rising among consumers, and pink shades today account for 60% of production. 

Source: Thoruplund 
For more information, see "Plant of the Month". 
Photo: Nicola Kragh Riis