Scandis use lots of wood when making furniture – bringing nature into the home. So it is with flowers. For some people flowers serve to decorate their home. In indoor Garden Ideas we show how most Scandis bring the outdoors inside with flowers and green plants. Floral decorations in the home are about feeling cosy (Hygge) and connected with the simple things in life. This taps into news that sales of houseplants are booming – particularly among Millennials:

• Today fewer young people and first time homeowners can afford outdoor space, so therefore don’t have a garden
• More people rent because they can’t afford to buy their own home as house prices have shot up over the last 20-30 years – therefore, less incentive to keep any outdoor space or garden
• Plants, they say, can have a calming effect on people’s mental status…watching them grow and looking after them
• The Instagram generation are getting to love plants and know how they help make their homes look better
• Some plants have a purifying effect on air quality

Scandindinavian Florals – most popular Flowers for Scandi Decor

Houseplants have become fashionable and large retailers and online plant boutiques have sprung up everywhere. So it is in Scandinavia. But while beautiful plants such as roses are popular, our ‘national’ plants are less glam.

The Danish ‘favourite’ flower is the simple marguerite, or Daisy flower. The Daisy features in many aspects of Scandi design. Danish jeweller Georg Jensen has a range of Daisy earrings, rings and pendants. Those are regularly worn by the Queen of Denmark, Margrete II, whose nickname, incidentally, is Daisy. Here we pick a handful of Scandi favourites, which feature in many Nordic homes.

The white Marguerite, or Daisy, flower is not officially the Danish national flower. But in the hearts and minds of many Scandis it is the plant that most represent our culture. Every girl grows up having made bracelets and necklaces out of the white flower. She picks off the stem and strings the crowns together.

And, as mentioned above, the Danish jeweller Georg Jensen has not been slow to create a collection of Daisy rings, earrings, necklaces and pendants.

Scandindinavian Florals – best indoor Garden Ideas for Scandi Decor

A regular gift for teenage girls getting confirmed or graduating from college is a pair of those Daisy earrings by the Scandi superbrand. The charm of the flower is that it grows wild in garden lawns and fields and along highways. It’s accessible, free and glorious in its simplicity – it perfectly sums up the Scandi aesthetic.

The flower has several names from common daisy, oxeye daisy, dog daisy, moon daisy, but its official name is the leucanthemum vulgare fore the white petalled variety with deep yellow centre. In southern Sweden they call it the Vicar’s Collar.

The peony flower is arguably top of our fave list. In Denmark it’s called Bonderose, or Farmer’s Rose, which is perhaps a snooty way of suggesting it is inferior to a ‘real’ rose. When in full bloom it may not be as attractive as a rose – but for the few days just as it opens up, it has an amazing quality about it.

It may be the perfect round ball if forms or the texture of the flower that makes it so special just before bloom. But the peony rarely lasts more than a fortnight in a vase. Soon the petals start to drop – we’ve seen peonies bloom from nothing to fully grown in the space of an afternoon.

The Danish writer Karen Blixen made the peony famous 100 years. While in Kenya, Africa, on which the book and film Out of Africa is based, she imported a white peopny. She hoped to grow the flower there, but without luck.

Most popular: the daisy and the marguerite

As with everything Scandinavian, when arranging peonies in a vase, it is done with precision and with just enough to call it a bouquet. So velvety and intriguing is each flower that few are needed to create the wow factor – as illustrated below with just three reaching full bloom and one bud.

The Daisy flower (or Marguerite) and the peony are hugely popular in the Nordic countries. The former is “the people’s flower” while the latter is the precious, pricey flower.

Another Scandi hit is the low maintenance marigold flower which is seen in most public and private gardens. It is not known for its beauty, though. It isn’t overly attractive, although the bold yellow and orange lift the mood.

The marigold is known for its strong musky scent and are often used as notes in fragrances. Ironically, as the fragrance is an acquired taste – it all adds something entirely different to the garden space. In this case it is mainly an outdoor plant, but will last as long as the peony indoors.

Heather – the ultimate outdoor Plant to bring indoors for a truly Scandinavian Living Space

Heather is an outdoor the Nordic people truly connect with. It lines our beaches and is an integral part of our growing up. So many happy, summery memories are tied up in this plant we have to have it indoors as well. And although it doesn’t thrive indoors – it starts to fade and wither (no matter how much you water it) and drop its mini leaves after a week or so, the thrill of having the plant and all the memories it brings back makes it worth it.

And heather looks fabulous in a pot. Potted heather is part of the Scandi Boho chic look – a must on the kitchen table or in the window. The stunning purple and creamy white heather looks fantastic in a ceramic jar (as above) or in a pot on the table as below, against a pale background.

Scandi looking Flower Arrangements – How to make your Home look Nordic

Keeping it simple is the golden rule. Team busy, opulent, wow furnishings with natural looking flower arrangements, and vice versa. Floor sweeping curtains and period furniture paired with simple heather in a tin pot – as pictured below – or minimalist, white decor with functional furniture teamed with massive, colourful flowers in a striking, high quality vase. That’s the Scandi way or layering the look and making the home feel homely, while aesthetically pleasing.

At home there is no difference between day and evening flower arrangements – less is almost more…as long as it looks natural. Nordic garden centres are brimming with floral decor ideas. However, there is a difference if the flowers are for business or social in a business context. Here it’s perfectly acceptable to go over the top, be rather flashy in the way flowers are presented.