What We Love Today Column: Halloween Decor--Dried Paper Lanterns
our visit to the Milk Pail in Watermill, NY
What We Love Today:
(a weekly column to inspire and educate on one design idea)
There Are Plentiful Garden Bounties
This Time of Year,
We seem to collectively love Halloween in my neighborhood- many go to great efforts to celebrate the macabre holiday dusting off spooky decorations from the far reaching corners of our closets. Soon, the local kids will be ringing the bell to scoop up handfuls of candy. So, decorating for the season can be quite a production with spinning faux spider webs, and many years ago we even cranked up a smoke machine while carving jack-o-lanterns. However, these days I like to keep it a bit more simple for this season's decorating, and I often arrange unique and varying colors of pumpkins and gourds, as well as put together a bright colored, festive mix of fresh and dried flowers on my table and around my home. One of my favorite season's offerings, are these bright colored, and oh-so-unusual Chinese Paper Lanterns. It's likely you've seen these beauties, and they make their annual appearance throughout the fall when they dry because they're a late summer bloom. They are orange with a papery skin, when dried they look lovely arranged in a tall ginger jar or vase. 
known as "Winter Cherry"
about these orange beauties:We call them Chinese Lanterns, but their technical name is Physalis Alkakengi, and they are a relative of the Cape Gooseberry, and the cousin to peppers, tomatoes and petunias. Easy to maintain, they quickly help to give a home that unique autumn feel. Growing in the Southern European or South Asian regions, this perennial grows tall stalks with random flowers on the stem. The flowers begin white then eventually grow into this papery, orange which is actually the cover for a round fruit inside. They are bell-shaped, and the fruit is tasteless with some sources suggesting these berries can be toxic. There are urban legends telling tales of a Scottish king who poisoned an entire Danish army with liquor laced with these berries. So, with these ideas, best to avoid the cherry-like berry inside.
How To Grow:
listed as hardiness zones 3 through zone 9, Seeds should be planted in March and April. They bloom in July and take 60 days to germinate, yet they do not fully develop into these orange beauties until early Fall
photo via decor4all.com
Best to cut and dry them as soon as the white flower turns from green to this typical bright orange. Remove the leaves on the stalks (they typically grown about 24" tall) and hang them upside down in a dark, dry spot for a few days. Voila! You will have these long-lasting beauties for a weeks.
Happy Nesting
XO Tamara
photo via orange pin board
