20 Bold Ways to Rock the Floral Print Trend

Prickly Pear Margaritas

Floral cocktails just look so cute, and these prickly pear margaritas are simply cuteness overload from the edible flower garnishes! (via Brit + Co)

Aviation

The Aviation is a classic floral cocktail invented in the early 19th century by a bartender in NYC. It’s a gin-based cocktail that gets its lavender hue from crème de violette! Garnish with an edible violet for a vintage cocktail that’s downright sexy. (via Honestly Yum)

Edible Flower Lemon Jello Shots

You’ve never seen Jell-O shots this elegant! If you’re throwing a DIY backyard wedding, you have to have these for the reception. Plus, making these floral cocktails would be a fun activity to get all of the bridesmaids involved! (via Sugar & Cloth)

Spring Flowers Cocktail With Lilac Syrup

This rum cocktail is infused with lilac syrup, lime and crème de violette. The mix of tropical and floral makes it an essential cocktail for your summer staycation! (via DIY in PDX)

Golden Jasmine Martini

Jasmine tea lovers will rejoice over this adorable martini. Serve it as a lovely aperitif before a flavorful Asian dinner to complement the flavors in your meal! (via Cook Eat Live Vegetarian)

Hibiscus Champagne Cocktail

Hibiscus is one of the more well-known ingredients to use in florals cocktails and cooking. They even come conveniently packaged in jars with their own syrup! All you need is your favorite champagne or prosecco to enjoy this fragrant glass of bubbly. (via Olivia’s Cuisine)

June Blush Cocktail

Rose water is a versatile ingredient that can be used in everything from skincare to cupcakes. Mixed with gin, ginger liqueur and lemon juice, it makes a beautiful floral cocktail that you could serve at high tea. DIY some sugared rose petals to add a light, lovely touch. (via Freutcake)

Lavender Bee’s Knees

This prohibition-era classic cocktail sounds like the perfect pre-bedtime cocktail. Snuggle up with this lavender and gin nightcap and a good book for the perfect evening spent relaxing. (via Honestly Yum)

Lilac Lemon Fizz

If you like a drink with bubbles, this floral cocktail is for you. It’s bright and refreshing, which is great for when the days start to get a little bit warmer. Try freezing some lilac blossoms in an ice cube tray for an extra-elegant garnish. (via The Merry Thought)

Wild Rose Petal Sangria

For this sangria, you’ll need a bottle of rosé (obviously), elderflower liqueur, and rose syrup. For maximum rosy flavor, you’ll want to steep your petals in syrup overnight. Don’t worry — it’s worth it. (via Feasting at Home)

Elderflower Strawberry Bubbles

This refreshing floral cocktail is a simple combo of elderflower syrup and strawberries, with Prosecco and club soda added on top. It can be made in bulk, so it’s a great choice for serving big spring parties. (via Look What I Made)

Zesty Mint Virgin Cocktail

You can still enjoy the fresh garden flavors of spring, even if you don’t drink (or you’re preggo). This mint and elderflower mocktail is a great way to join in the party with zero alcohol involved. If you do fancy adding a bit of booze to it, rum would be a great choice. Just sayin’. (via Kiku Corner)

1. Lavender

Not surprisingly, lavender is America’s favorite flower with 69,430 searches per year. Its delicate purple flowers and wonderful fragrance provides a welcome shock of color to any space and is great for pollinators. Lavender grows best in bright, dry conditions in not very fertile soil with good drainage.

2. Sunflower

The common sunflower’s towering height, bright yellow outer petals and its large, sun-following flower head make it a magnet for pollinators, both big and small.

“The common sunflower is an annual flower, meaning that it dies after one growing season, which is the period from germination to seed production,” Gardening Chores shared. “It grows best in full sun or partial shade, in average fertile soil with good drainage.”

3. Rose

Synonymous with romance and passion, it appears America’s love extends to roses as well with 41,030 searches per year.

“There are more than 300 naturally occurring rose species and tens of thousands of cultivated varieties,” Gardening Chores commented. “Generally, roses come in three types: climbing, groundcover, and shrub. The sheer variety of species can seem overwhelming, but it means there is likely to be a variety to suit whatever space one might have. In general, roses have large, vibrant flowers that range in color from whites to yellows and reds, and they produce a pleasant scent that enhances the space they are in.”

“Roses generally grow best in full sun, with soil of medium moisture and a pH ranging from neutral to slightly acidic,” Gardening Chores continued. “However, specific types of roses can tolerate conditions outside of this range.”

4. Peony

The vibrant peonies (Which, fun fact, has 33 unique species!) are large and range in color from the typical pink to reds, purples, yellows and whites.

These fragrant flowers “are a type of perennial plant that bloom briefly in late spring and early summer. Perennial plants are categorized as those that continue to grow over more than two years,” said Gardening Chores. “Peonies grow best in full sunlight or partially shaded areas that receive a lot of afternoon sun in the summer. They are also quite particular about the soil they grow in, preferring loose, well-draining, fertile, rich soil.”

5. Hydrangea

Famous for their large blooms in striking colors, Hydrangeas “are reliable bloomers that don’t require much maintenance to provide beautiful color to [any] space from spring through to fall,” Gardening Chores shared. “One fascinating characteristic of hydrangeas is that their blooms can change color depending on the pH of the soil they are growing in, with more acidic soil producing blue flowers and more alkaline soil producing pink flowers.”

Gardening Chores continued, “hydrangeas grow best in full sun, although areas with afternoon shade will be preferred in hotter climates. They also prefer rich soil that is well-drained and moist. Remember that hydrangeas grow quickly, and can grow to be very large, with some having a spread of up to ten feet, so make sure to plant them in a space that can accommodate this.”

6. Dahlia

The daisy-adjacent dahlia is the national flower of Mexico with more than 57,000 varieties and 27,090 searches per year. Their blooms provide amazing bursts of color in many shapes and sizes from mid-summer into fall, with a wide range of colors.

With 8 general categories of dahlias (decorative dahlias, pompon and ball dahlias, cactus and semi-cactus dahlias, anemone and collarette dahlias, mignon dahlias, single dahlias, peony and orchid shaped dahlias and waterlily dahlias), this wide selection allows plenty of flexibility in incorporating dahlias into your home and/or garden.

According to Gardening Chores, “dahlias generally prefer full sun, with some varieties tolerating partial shade in warmer climates. They also tend to prefer well-drained soil. If you live in a colder climate, you can still grow dahlias despite them not being cold hardy. Once the blossom is over, cut down your dahlias to the ground, uproot the tubers, and dry them. You can then store them in a cool, but not cold, dry place to be able to plant them again next spring.”

7. Tulip

Tulips provide a rainbow of springtime blooms, generally growing best in full sun conditions with “fertile, well-drained, evenly humid loam, chalk, or sand-based soil with the soil pH ranging from mildly acidic to mildly alkaline,” said Gardening Chores.

“Tulips require plenty of attention to return year after year. Once the bloom is spent, deadhead the tulip so that it diverts most of its energy to the bulb, allowing it to remain healthy for the next year,” Gardening Chores continued. “After all the leaves have dried, gently remove the bulb from the soil using your hands or a small fork, then dry the bulb in the sun. Once dried, store the bulb in a cool, dark, dry, and ventilated place for re-planting around the middle of October for the following spring.”

8. Sweet Pea

Sweet peas are annual climbing (and frequently poisonous) plants known for their bright flowers, ranging from their original wild purple to various shades of blue, pink, purple, and white, often in pastel colors.

9. Poppy

Poppies come in a wide variety of colors and usually bloom from spring into early summer in temperate zones. With 17,360 searches per year, poppies “generally prefer full sun, with fertile and organically rich, well-drained, medium humid to dry loam, chalk, clay, or sand-based soil, with a soil pH that is mildly acidic to mildly alkaline,” shared Gardening Chores.

10. Clematis

America’s tenth most popular flower is the clematis, which has 300 natural species with countless varieties and 16,180 searches per year.

According to Gardening Chores, “clematises are a species of climbing plants often split into three groups: early bloomers, repeated bloomers, and late bloomers. Group one clematises produce flowers on old wood and blossom in spring. Group two starts blooming in late spring to early summer on new and old wood, continuing throughout summer, sometimes into fall. Group three only produces flowers on new wood and starts blooming later in summer, usually lasting into fall.”

“In general, clematises prefer full sun or partial shade, with soil that is well drained and medium humid loam, clay, chalk, or sand-based soil with a pH from neutral to mildly alkaline,” commented Gardening Chores.

As a Power of Women honoree, Mariska was recognized in regards to her work as an advocate for sexual assault survivors. She took the stage and used her platform to discuss rape and assault conviction reversals, shining a light on the recent overturned ruling in Harvey Weinstein's landmark NYC case. Here's what she said:

Today I want to talk about reversing convictions, and more specifically I want to talk to you about how impossible it is to reverse mine. It’s impossible to reverse my conviction that survivors matter. It is impossible to reverse my conviction that what happens to us matters, and that our society must respond to survivors with a more a compassionate, holistically, deeper, and more nuanced understanding of what healing means.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that after a trauma, survivors can reclaim lives of hope, of possibility, of audacious risk, beautiful intimacy, and glorious, glorious abundant joy. And I stand before you as evidence of that statement.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that we must listen to survivors as experts on what justice means. It is extraordinary how little their voices are consulted, let alone incorporated, in the process of deciding how to repair harm. Justice is not a one-size-fits-all journey.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that patriarchal impunity has to end. Patriarchal impunity is when a male-dominated system exempts perpetrators from punishment. Studies show that only 20% of all rape cases in the U.S. are reported to the police, and that between 5 and 0% of all rapes result in a guilty plea or a conviction. So why do 80% of victims not report? Because they're met with a system that grants impunity to perpetrators; a system that blames victims; a system that accepts only those victims who are experienced as "real" rape; a system that completely misunderstands the neurobiology of trauma, which causes behavior in women that doesn't fit the picture of how a "real victim" would act.

Is that change needed that victims should just pull themselves together? Just buck up and report anyway? No. No, it's the system that receives them that needs to change

It is impossible to reverse my conviction — and the conviction of my extraordinary team, The Joyful Heart — that the backlog of untested rape kits can be brought to zero; that the testing of all new kits must be mandated; that we need a statewide kit tracking system; and that survivors have the right to access the status of their kits.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that grammar — yes, grammar — that we use when we speak about rape must change. In the sentence, "A woman is raped," there's a crime and there's a victim, but there's no perpetrator. Where's the perpetrator? Where is he? Statistically, as we know, most likely he's walking free. He's so free that he doesn't even appear in the language about the crime that he committed. Is that not extraordinary? It's extraordinary that in the very grammar, the perpetrator goes free. Reintroducing perpetrators in the language of rape will make some very unwieldy grammar, but that's the nature of change. It's unwieldy, it's messy, it's uncomfortable, but it's necessary.

Hargitay continued on in her prolific speech to describe that rape shouldn't be considered a "crime of passion" because it's "not simply the next step in the trajectory of his passion" when a man takes a consensual hookup too far and assaults a woman against her will. She stated that it's "an exercise of power," doubling down that the language we use is important.

The speech went on to address that rape is both about power and control, as a "construct" that was "built, and assembled, and reinforced over time." She noted that there are people with these positions of power — and she specifically called out those in the entertainment industry — that could make a difference and aligned themselves to victims and survivors.

After this and some other remarks, Hargitay specifically called out the Weinstein conviction reversal. She said:

I do want to say something about the Harvey Weinstein conviction, specifically about the reason that it was overturned: too many women's voices. Too many women's voices were allowed to speak. Hallelujah! Amen! I can't imagine anything more beautiful than that. The Daily podcast episode talked about how it was so risky for the prosecution to have that many women testify. Risky to let women speak? You're damn right it is!

Too many women speaking brings change. Too many women speaking shakes the establishment. Too many women means we get listened to more, and people might actually hear what we have to say. Look what happened when women started saying just two words, right? Me too — just as an example — a tidal wave of change. Me too.

And then of course, there was the response: the Me Too Movement. The backlash. The examination of whether the changes that have come are lasting, or are even positive. Of course there's a backlash! What did they expect? For women to speak repeatedly, loudly, together, with a purpose — for there to be no backlash? The backlash is evidence of how powerful those voices were, how powerful those voices ARE.

Watch Mariska Hargitay's Full Speech Here

Turns out that your TV heroes really can be your IRL heroes after all. Long live Olivia Benson! Long live Mariska Hargitay!