This article first appeared in The Home Journal.

Spring

When you think of spring, you think of colour, new blooms and new life. Renew the energy in your house with cuttings of beautiful spring flowers. Cherry blossoms add a bright touch of pink to any décor, with a few sprigs in vases or a couple of branches, giving a lovely oriental element. Add vibrant colour with multi-coloured anemone, sweet williams, tulips, yellow daffodils and beautiful smelling purple wisteria.

While some plants and flowers can be potted to have around all season, many cuttings will fade and eventually die. However, you can keep their beauty all year round by framing them, using a variety of small and large frames to arrange in various places. You can do the same for a glass coffee table or coasters, and spring is the perfect time to do these small projects and bring colour and that spring air into the home.

Summer

 
When you think of summer, you think of the beach and hot days in the sun. Create that summer feeling in your home by filling a handful of glass jars or unusual vases that with ocean salt water and placing them in different parts of the house. Now that your house smells like the beach, complete the look by adding palm tree leaves in vases, down the middle of the dining table or hanging from walls, and sea shells as ornamental decorations on both coffee and kitchen tables.

Bring those summer blooms in as well with large multi-coloured cuttings of big dahlias, tall sunflowers, clumps of hydrangeas, which start in spring and continue through summer, chrysanthemums, cosmos and stargazer lilies. Use a few vases for each room because you can never have enough summer beauty in your home and they will leave the place looking and smelling lovely.

Autumn

 
When you think of autumn, you tend to think of the leaves falling and a strange mix of weather trailing from summer and leading into winter. Well the leaves of all shapes and sizes that fall off the trees can be brought inside and framed like many of the flowers. If you don’t fancy the trouble of framing, try crumbling up the dry leaves and filling a vase with them, or using the crumbled leaves with dried rose petals from summer to make pot pourri. Leave the pot pourri out on a table or put in a candle burner to let the fragrant smells of the burnt rose and leaf, whether it’s a maple, an apple or something else, waft through the house.

Leaves are not the only thing about autumn that can be brought inside. There are many radiant autumn flowers that spice up this time of the year. While many of the summer blooms last through autumn, including some roses, there are plenty of autumn delights to decorate your home. Enchinacea is a beautiful flower with mauve and white petals and a darker centre, as are cuttings of camellia and tibouchina, a gorgeous shrub that comes in purple, white and other colours. Although it is fall, white is in. Light up your home with simple white blooms like lilies, baby’s breath, star of bethlehem, queen ann’s lace, and orchids in white and other colours, while gerbera daisies come in white and every colour imaginable.

Winter

 
When you think of winter, you think of cold weather and getting sick. To help prevent getting a cold but still bring the outdoors in, cut off branches from tea tree and eucalyptus trees and place big, thick branches in entranceways and corners of rooms, while the leaves and flowers can be cut to put in vases. Jasmine is a beautifully fragrant flower and vine that flowers all year round and has many health benefits, including relieving coughs and helping give an undisturbed night of sleep, in both essential oil and the real thing. Put a sprig or two in every room. Let those woody, earthy scents fill your house and create a cosy, relaxing retreat in those winter months. Add a touch of colour to your oasis with potted cyclamen in pinks, red and white.

This article first appeared in The Home Journal.