Do you enjoy spring flowers and antique charm? Step back in time at Stone House Antique Center’s garden party, where you can explore 38+ types of flower arrangements with a vintage haul.
Stone House Antique Center
Stone House Antique Center, located in Chester, Vermont, is one of my favorite antique shops in New England. It’s overflowing with antique vendors, and I don’t think I have ever left empty-handed. It’s well worth the visit if you find yourself anywhere near the southern Vermont area.
See more of my favorites in the post, Vintage Shops Near Me: Vermont to Maine.
It just so happened that this past weekend, they were having a “Garden Party Open House.” The event was filled with inspiring garden art, decor, and wonderful treasures to help get our homes ready for spring. It showcases over 38 types of flower arrangements, too.
*Click on any photo in the galleries to enlarge the picture.
38 Types of Flower Arrangements
The inspiration began at the two entryways.
Door #1 Types of Flower Arrangements Outdoors
Door #2 Types of Flower Arrangements Watering Cans
You may also enjoy the post, White & Green Rustic Summer Flower Planters Sure To Charm You.
Then, I was welcomed inside the doorway by a bouquet of spring tulips and forsythia.
Each vendor created their own booth’s garden party with vintage-inspired types of flower arrangements and refreshments.
You may also be inspired by this Cottage Farmhouse Decor Trending Finds post.
Pussy Willows
The pussy willow displays will always have my heart. As a New Englander, I admire their rustic and wildflower charms.
I brought two bunches of pussy willows home with me to create my own antique type of flower arrangements.
Find more antique basket inspiration in this Antique Baskets Vintage Decor Ideas post.
Salvia, Forsythia, Gerbera Daisies, Lavender, and Hydrangea antique types of flower arrangements
You may also enjoy How to Repurpose an Oil Lamp into a Unique Flowers Vase post.
You may also enjoy the post, Forcing Forsythia Branches into Beautiful Spring Flowers.
Types of Flower Arrangements: Tulips
And, of course, the tulips were available in prime time.
You may also enjoy these 17+ Simple Tulip Arrangements You Can Create Today.
Pansies in Antiques
The pansies looked fabulous, and they were displayed with pewter, bird nests, vintage corbels, and antique chamber pots.
Types of Flower Arrangements Table Top
There were various tabletop and hutch flower arrangements. Each one so unique, simple, and creative.
You may also enjoy the post, 17 Best Summer Home Decor Accessories to Thrift.
Types of Flower Arrangements on the Wall
Cute ideas for antique wall flower arrangements and art.
Antique Metal Baskets and Crocks
And now we come to the end of this garden party’s types of flower arrangements, vintage style.
I hope you enjoyed your walk with me today around the Stone House Antique Center.
Which flower arrangement did you like the best? Let me know in the comments below!
You may also enjoy these Antique Crocks with White Tulips.
Vintage Student Plant Press
One of the many other items I found while antiquing today was this vintage student plant press. At first, I thought it was an old flower press, but after getting it home and doing some research, I believe it to be a vintage student plant press.
Let me explain.
This vintage plant press is marked Ward’s Natural Science Establishment, Inc. Rochester, NY.
Today, the company is known as Ward Science, providing high-quality educational learning tools to all grade levels. (I appreciate this world very much, as before retiring, I spent 5 years selling educational textbooks and software to secondary schools.)
I haven’t been able to find another plant press like this one anywhere online.
But after researching Ward’s Natural Science Establishment further, it would make sense that this would be a student plant press that Wards Science would have sold into schools, not a consumer flower press.
Unfortunately, there’s no date on this plant press, so I can only believe that this piece is vintage based on its overall appearance.
For example, the web straps on the plant press, used to tighten the press itself with flowers and plants inside, are classic of an old military bag, and the web strap clips are rusty metal and worn.
Today, web straps are made out of nylon with plastic web strap clips.
The inside cardboard and paper that retains the plants and flowers for pressing are aged with the moldings of pressed flowers and plants, appearing to be very old in nature.
I just love the natural wood, finish, and all the little vintage details that make up this old student plant press.
Read more in the Flower Press: Vintage Meets Academia post.
Wards Science sells a modern-day version of their student plant press here.
I think I like the vintage one, which I found a little bit better. What do you think?
And did I mention it was only $14?
How to Press Flowers and Plants?
I’m thinking about using this vintage student plant press to preserve favorite flowers and plants to create and design with. Not just for decoration.
Would you like to see future blog posts on different types of flower arrangements with dried and pressed flowers?
What Else Was in My Vintage Haul?
And a sassy Berner…
Your Guide to Embracing Eclectic Style, Vintage Finds, and Thrifted Home Inspiration~
Love decorating with vintage finds, thrifted treasures, and eclectic charm? I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment below, share this post with a vintage-loving friend, or join our Reader’s Showcase Series — where we feature your favorite thrifted and antique finds. Email me at [email protected] to be part of it!
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Hi Ann
I just read your blog tonight, I live in Rochester NY and actually lived close to Wards as a kid. We had a few field trips there in grade school, so imagine my surprise to see the flower press. Yes they sold to school labs.
Enjoy reading about your home in Vermont. One of our favorite places to visit, Maine is actually our first!
Thanks for the blog, I enjoy it.
Anita
Ann,
I love all these ideas. So clever
Thanks so much Rachel!
I really enjoyed this post! I would have snatched up that fantastic vintage flower press too. Thank you for the links to some other selections!
I’m so glad Christy, thanks for stopping by!
I loved the arrangement in the clear glass vase on top of the rustic side table. Tulips and forsithia branches together just look so inviting.
I made the small flower press pictured with the four bolt adjustment over 50 years ago. Looking forward to your blog on flower drying and uses!
Jeanne
Oh I do too Jeanne, aren’t they all so rustic and fun? How wonderful that you made your own flower press. What a wonderful DIY that would be. I just pressed my first flowers! Thanks for popping in Jeanne!
Each new post seems to be better than the last one. My husband and I went and pick pussy willows in a swampy area near our home this spring . My grandmother used to have dried pussy willows that she brought out every spring when I was a child so I am hoping to create the same memories for my granddaughters. That grandmother also had a beautiful English country garden and she pressed flowers all the time but with a huge Oxford dictionary. It was exciting to help put the flower, leaves, etc. into the large book and then wait to see them after they were dried and pressed. I would be very interested in you walking me through the process with flowers out of y garden.
I look forward with anticipation for your next adventure. From Ontario, Canada – cheers.
Aww thank you kindly Linda, and adore your wonderful memories of pressing flowers. I just put some into press and am looking forward to learning more about it all too. Stay tuned, my friend!
What a lovely idea, I love flowers and a press for them would be so nice, and ideas on what to do with them. I would love it.
Wonderful! I’m going to start pressing some today! I haven’t done this since I was little. haha. Should be fun. Thanks, Marlene!
What lovely shopping you have near you. Hard to choose but the tall narrow green basket with ivy is darling and the wash stand holding yellow flowers. But the most inspirational are the turquoise glass insulators turned upside as vases and the pansies in pewter because I have those items on hand. I don’t have pewter but do have vintage aluminum ware. Are you familiar with that? Boy I would have loved being in school at a time when they taught a class using a flower press! Amazing. I would be interested in more posts about pressing flowers and using them. I used to do that a lot decades ago. Would be great to use in a nature journal started last week.
Good morning Pamela, thanks for popping in. I think the pewter with the pansies is my favorite too. I’m looking forward to adding some pansies to my mother’s hutch in Maine with her pewter collection when we get there. It’s been ages since I pressed flowers too, but I’m going to give it a try. I do have some pieces of vintage aluminum ware, it will match beautifully with the pansies. So glad you found some inspiration here today!
You are living my dream life. I would like to see ideas on what to do with the pressed flowers and ferns. I taught myself to make cyanotypes of plants so I find this very interesting. Life is so full of lovely things!
LOL, you’re so cute Kathy. I think the last time I pressed flowers was when I was young. But I’m excited to try it out again. A follower mentioned here pressing them and including them with cards. Love this idea! Have a great day and thanks for stopping by today!
Loved this post, Ann! The vintage flower press is quite the find! Yay! And I love the garden party theme! I think we should give it a go at the shop I’m in! Happy hunting!
Cara 🙂
Isn’t that so fun Cara, I love it too. You should definitely put on a garden party. It was so inviting and each booth had refreshments too!
You always find the most interesting and wonderful vintage and antique items. My mother had a friend who always included pressed flowers in cards or letters when she sent them to a friend. I still have a few pressed flowers that she sent to my mother years ago.
Ann, I love that idea so much. And that you still have some of the pressed flowers is amazing. Hang onto those. This sounds like something my mother would have done. I’d love to share this idea too. So thoughtful and I’d love to get a card with a pressed flower in it. Thanks kindly!