Your CartCreate an Orangerie inspired flower arrangement and luncheon table now that the sun is shining outside.
This citrus table-scape is one of my recent favorites! Perfect for spring and summer gatherings, big or intimate. Today I am excited to share a closer look at the table and some tips for how you can create an orangerie inspired flower arrangement and luncheon table! Read on!
WELCOME TO MONDAY MORNING BLOOMS.
Today, Pam, Mary, Shirley and I are so excited to welcome our guest flower friend Bonnie from Living With Thanksgiving. Bonnie loves travel, gardening, entertaining, designing gorgeous table settings and all the things I know you do, too. Be sure to visit all of them via the links at the bottom of this post. You know you always get so inspired!
The French have had a love affair with bright, juicy oranges throughout history. In 1617, King Louis XIV, who loved oranges, had the Orangerie built at Versailles to protect his 3,000 orange trees. Soon, European royalty and the elite had their own orangeries built. Orangeries weren’t just big greenhouses, they were an outward symbol of prestige and wealth.
Owners would give their guests tours of their garden, the centerpiece of which was a beautifully built orangerie. The orangeries often had fountains and grottos inside, and large areas where guests could be entertained in poor weather.
Fortunately, these days we don’t have to be royal, wealthy or build big garden structures to enjoy sweet citrus fruits!
This outdoor table inspired by the colors and freshness of oranges and lemons was so easy to create. I began by layering an antique French linen sheet over our back garden table. It’s really the perfect backdrop, neutral, heavy duty, and washes like a dream. {no ironing either, if you take it out of the dryer immediately.}
Because I wanted to use our gorgeous white linen napkins embroidered in fresh green, I set the table with green and white dishes. The bottom plates are my “party plates” from Ikea {shocking, I know! They are inexpensive, and I am not a fan of paper plates. And not all events warrant rentals.} Sometimes a plain white plate is perfect. On top I added some of my favorite antique majolica in greens.
Glasses, again, inexpensive green glasses that I bought purely for their color. For cutlery, vintage Hotel del Coronado silver plate always makes any table happy.
Re-creating this orangerie inspired flower arrangement and table at home is so easy. Using the vintage French canning jars with lemon labels was a natural choice. You can clip off some branches from your garden like I did {olive tree} or buy some greens at the florist if you don’t have anything to clip. Even better, bring a neighbor a fresh baked batch of cookies and ask for a few cuttings!
You can create your own garland by laying your clipped branches down the center like I did. I recommend waiting until as close to your luncheon {or dinner} as possible so that everything will look fresh and green.
I incorporated oranges and lemons in my arrangement, sprinkling them around the center filled with the olive tree branches.
Some of the fruit I kept whole, but others I sliced in half, their fresh smell is heavenly! I suggest you wait to place the cut ones closer to the time your guests arrive, otherwise bugs.
I wrote each guest’s name on a green paper leaf {I cut it from scrapbooking paper} and used a small pin to secure it to an orange on top of each place setting.
Tulips, hydrangeas, little yellow mums and white scabiosa {also called pincushion flower} bring color on this table to life.
Don’t forget to enter our Monday Morning Blooms GIVE AWAY we are hosting together with Victoria Magazine. There are four copies of their glorious new book The Art of Flowers to win!
To enter the giveaway and for a chance to win a copy of The Art of Flowers:
1) Leave a comment telling me your favorite flower(s).
2) Follow Victoria Magazine on Instagram or Facebook and leave a comment letting me know.
3) Follow me on Instagram and let me know by comment.
This giveaway is open to residents of the U.S.A through midnight April 26th.
Visit all our Monday Morning Blooms Inspirational friends below:
Bonnie – Living With Thanksgiving
Shirley – Housepitality Designs
and me Lidy – FrenchGardenHouse
A BIENTOT
Shop for the best in French Antiques, furniture with the patina of age, vintage accessories to delight you and your family & friends, and French Country utilitarian pieces. Treasures that make your home fresh, beautiful, inspirational and above all uniquely yours. Visit our shop FrenchGardenHouse.com
Good Morning Lidy! What a wonderful garden setting and oasis for alfresco dining! I love all the greenery paired with your tulips and pops of orange and yellow from the citrus and button mums. Your vintage French canning jars make the perfect vessels for your Orangerie-inspired table. Love your place card leaves on the oranges too. . .such a hospitable touch and simple addition! So happy to have you join us today for some flower therapy. Happy Monday <3
Happy Monday Mary!Flower therapy is always happy, isn’t it? I can’t wait to have more friends able to visit and join us outside at the table…we are blessed with an outdoor space to entertain. Wishing I was entertaining YOU! xo
What a most over the top happy table filled with the sunshine of oranges. Thank you for the origin of the elite Orangeries! You know how much I love your French canning jars that inspired me to buy and tote them on the plane with me! I so love the green embroidered napkins…great color. I am going to definitely copycat your place card holders!….thank you for your beautiful setting of sunshine today and always Lidy! My friend, I wish you a most beautiful day filled with the sunshine you give to us!
I wish you a most beautiful day too, Shirley! It’s always such a blessing to join you with our Monday Morning Blooms friends.
Lovely outdoor dining!
Favorite flower is the larkspur.
Following both you & Victoria magazine on Instagram.
Thanks so much Marilyn! Hope you are enjoying spring. xo
Lidy, I wish I could be sitting at your beautiful table. How gorgeous your table looks in your lovely garden on such a beautiful day! I love your arrangement in the vintage French canning jar with lemons. The open tulips caught my eye right away and I love the way they artfully drape in their closed position or open. Using olive tree clippings as a garland and slicing different citrus does create a lovely base for your centerpiece. The dishes and stunning monogrammed napkins along with your commentary make me yearn to return to France.
I am delighted to be included today as a ‘guest bloomer’ for MMB. You have all made me feel so welcome. All of you are very inspiring. I am in good company today.
Bonnie, I set a place for you! Thank you so much for joining us today for Monday Morning Blooms, your arrangement is so beautiful. Wishing you a delighful and blessed week ahead!
What a joyful and uplifting table setting. Love the label on the jars. Going to steal the idea of the leaf name tag and how you cut some of the citrus in half. I wouldn’t have thought of that. Gosh, your chairs are so beautiful. What a perfect garden spot that is. Didn’t know that bit of history that you started with. Love learning something new like that. Also, your napkins are stunning!!!! Following already…fav flowers are roses, freesia, peony, hydrangea….I could go on and on. LOVE flowers!
Ruthie, thank you so very much for joining me this morning. All your favorite flowers are my favorites too. I wish we could grow peonies well here in Southern California, but love them whenever we can buy them in flower shops. Wishing you a beautiful week ahead!
Lidy, I am such a fan of color and your alfresco table hits all of the color notes for me. I would love to sit at my place setting at your gorgeous table. The vintage French canning jars are so perfect for a table filled with lovely oranges and lemons. I have visited Versailles a couple of times. The gardens and orangeries are exquisite. Can you imagine living in such opulence?
It is always a pleasure to join you for Monday Morning Blooms…wishing you a beauty-filled day!
It’s always a joy to have you visit on our Monday Morning Blooms, too, dear friend. I have not visited the orangerie in Versailles, it’s on my list! I took a page out of your beautiful, colorful book and went full on brights this time. : ) xo
Is there anything about your post that I don’t love? I think not. The setting is wonderful, the colors are outstanding. I draw house plans for fun and they always have an orangerie. I grow an orange tree that is currently loaded with small oranges. It’s inside now but will go outside when Spring finally arrives here in Colorado. Thinking of making orange marmalade.
Alice, how interesting that you draw houseplans! It must be so fun to imagine homes with all the rooms and fun additions, including an orangerie. If you make the orange marmalade, let me know how it came out!
My favorite flower is the hydrangea Your post has so many pretty flowers and such a nice book to have a chance to win
Oh, one of my very favorites are hydrangeas too. Hope your week is off to a great start!!
Be still my color loving heart, this table and flowers and setting are divine! It grabs you like a loving hug and draws you in! I love the oranges, and feel like I can almost smell their sweet fragrance…Simple beautiful elegance Lidy, I would stay there all day!
Jenna, thank you so much. It’s super casual, but all about the colors and the smells of spring in the garden. I wish you could stay with me all day, that would be so fun. Happy Monday to you.
Oh Lidy… I so loved the color in this post! Reminds me of Spring and Summer together! I can smell the fragrance of those oranges.
I always enjoy sitting in your garden!
Thank you my friend and Happy Monday!
Thank you so much for joining us today, friend! Happy Monday to you, too. xo
It was a treat to visit your garden and to enjoy your lovely arrangement. Your talent always shines through in your every post. Enjoy these lovely days.
Sandra, it’s always a treat to have you visit, dear friend. Looking forward to many more flowery days, for you and me, and all of us! xo
Lucky us to have a bonus Monday Morning Blooms this month! Also another entry into the drawing. So nice to use fruit in a table setting, I decorated my kitchen for spring/summer with fax oranges,like minded on this fabulous theme. So bright and sunny, love it!
Denise, I love to use fruit. When our orange tree isn’t making oranges, I use the “faux” too! I love them!
Beautiful, bold color in the gorgeous sunlight! I love it. Your outdoor dining area looks fabulous for the season, Lidy.
Thank you Rita! We are pretty excited about being able to host people outside over here again!
Hi Lidy. I enjoyed your post today, loving the green dishes and the monogrammed napkins. Hydrangeas are my favorite flower, even tho I love pretty much anything in bloom.
I follow you on Instagram, and Victoria Magazine on Facebook and Instagram.
Happy Spring!
I always have a bowl of lemons on my kitchen counter. They add color and I always have lemons available. They last four or five times longer than fresh cut flowers. They are always available to add to a center piece like you showed on your table. You are an inspiration as always. I absolutely love those linen napkins.
Thanks for sharing valuable information on how to create an awe-inspiring decoration with Orangerie inspired flowers.