Winter Bouquet

 

 

A bit on the gothic side, I'll admit.

 

My daughter picked this for me the other day:

Echinacea seed heads, dried rose stems, dead corkscrew rush

 

My husband didn't quite see the charm.

I believe he said something along the lines of, "Now we're putting dead things in vases?"

On the plus side, they don't require any water, and will probably last as long as I'm willing to keep them around. (I'll give them a few more days, before discreetly disposing of them.)

 

I have to chuckle, though, when I think about giving it to someone.

What sentiment would you derive from this lovely bouquet?

Flower Family

 

My two assistant gardeners have caught the flower arranging bug.

They can pick all the dandelions and wild flowers they want.

Also, they have free reign to pick any that are done and need to be deadheaded.

(They love that chore!)

Even so, they often beg to be allowed to pick the living flowers from my flowerbeds.

Thanks to our experience with Erin's Garden Appreciation Society last year, I have been much more willing to let them.

 

I'm a complete amateur myself, but we have talked about trying to get as long a stem as possible, to make it easier to arrange them in a vase. Also, how it's better to snip one here and there, rather than leave a big hole in the middle of a section.

Mostly, though, we have had fun choosing and arranging what we bring in.

Giving the bouquets to friends makes it even better.

 

This time my daughter realized we had little, medium, and big vases all being used.

A flower family!

 

 

 

Assistant flower pickers and garden helpers.

The biggest vase on the left ("Flower Daddy") had the remnants of my purchased Mother's Day bouquet in it. The rest of the Family was all home grown.

 

It was a bit painful at first, to allow my precious flowers to be cut.

But the sparkle in those eyes and their eagerness to be involved with the arrangements has been so worth it.

I am planning to add a section of cutting flowers to my vegetable garden this year--a small patch, probably 4x4. Just because it is so much fun to say "yes!" and see what they come up with.

 

Heat Wave Bouquets

We had an early spring heat wave last week!

With temperatures in the 70's, I decided to pick some of the spring bloomers so we could enjoy them in the house before the heat finished them off.

 

The kids were very eager flower pickers.

They even were excited to help me arrange them in vases.

 

Bouquet 1: The Heat Wave

 (Otherwise known as, the short-stemmed pickings)

 

Bouquet 2: Spring Lady

 I probably should have added some greenery, but I love it as it is!

 

 

I'm glad we were judicious in our picking.

So far most of the blooms have withstood the heat, and this week we're back to our usual early May temps in the 50's and 60's.

Frost Bouquet

These are actually from a few weeks ago.

Little did we know, as we snipped a few blooms, that it would frost that night!

Makes me wish we had cut a few more.

 

Linking up to the Garden Appreciation Society.

 

So, official first frost date this year: Oct 4

 

'Burgundy Iceberg' rose, burgundy guillardia, coleus, salvia.

 

There are a few hardy souls out there who have survived multiple frosts now. I should probably cut a few of them to bring in and enjoy, before winter hits.

 

A Study in Contrasts: Garden Appreciation Society

I never would have thought to use hosta leaves in a bouquet until I saw Erin do it for the Garden Appreciation Society.

Once I decided to use them, then I started seeing the other leaves around that were green and white, which led to the euonymous.

The first round of Shasta 'Becky' daisies is about done, so I gleaned a handful from there. Then since we had large and small leaves, I thought it would be fun to have large and small daisies as well.

The dog fennel (also called Mayweed chamomile) is blooming like crazy along our east side, where we need to put grass in this fall.

Hey, nothing like using the weeds--um, wildflowers at our disposal! 

The roses were to add a little sparkle and color.

 

As a sidenote, I just planted the Burgundy Iceberg Rose this year, and I love it!

The deep purple and red tones are gorgeous next to the other plants in my front flowerbed.

 

Top View

This is not a bouquet for sniffing.

Dog fennel is called that for a reason! It stinks!

Fortunately, you have to get up close to really smell it; otherwise, I wouldn't have brought it in the house!

Overflowing with Blooms: Garden Appreciation Society

We had visitors this past week, so we decided to go to our local u-pick flower farm.

For $7 you get a child-sized sand pail, a pair of shears, and all the blooms you can stuff in (plus a cut-off milk jug to bring them home in.)

 

I love it there.

I would go once a month if I could.

 

We paid for 2 buckets, so that grandparents/kiddos could split up a bit.

After about 45 minutes of snipping delight, we came home with enough flowers for 4 bouquets!

 

So I got to play with flowers for awhile.

I especially enjoy choosing color schemes for the bouquets.

The form doesn't always turn out how I had envisioned, but I'm learning!

 

Bouquet #1: Wildflower Delight

Bouquet #2: Hot Mama

Bouquet #3: Long and Lanky

Bouquet #4: Pretty in Pink

All of them together.

Unfortunately, with all of them on my counter there was no space for making dinner!

Fortunately, I have several friends who also love flowers, so I was able to make some surprise deliveries.

 

Next week I'll be back to snipping my own, but this was fun for a change.

Simple & Sweet: Garden Appreciation Society

Wild daisies from the back slope in my favorite vase.

Doesn't get much better (or easier) than that.

 

 

Irises, Roses, Tulips

Week 2 of Garden Appreciation Society, hosted by Erin at The Impatient Gardener :

 

Basically, it's an effort to actually cut some of those beautiful blooms and bring them into a new space to enjoy.

 

My irises are in full swing right now, so that was an obvious choice.

Plus, I thought they would look good with the leftover Mother's Day roses.

The pink tulips and lavender were to round it out.

 

Obviously, I'm an amateur!

This turned out nothing like I had envisioned it.

Also, I came to the realization that there's not a good place in my kitchen for photographing flower arrangements. At least I managed to crop the trash can out of this photo! :)

 

All that being said, I was excited to give it a try again this week.

And if I'm standing right next to the flowers, I can smell the irises and lavender.

It makes me smile.

So, mission accomplished!

 

Maybe as I practice each week I'll figure out a few things about flower arranging.

Either way, it should be fun.

April SNOW showers bring...

What is all this?

C'mon, spring, stick with me here! 

 

 

Snowing, hailing, (would that be "snailing?")

 

The kids were hoping for snow boots and snowmen.

I was quite happy to see it all melted off by evening, thank you very much.

 

The flowers didn't seem any worse for the wear, at least.

 

  I had a hard time cutting some to bring in, at first.

They look so pretty where they are and will last for so much longer out there.

But after a visit with friends, where the children were allowed to pick tulips to their hearts delight, I realized that part of the joy of having these pretty flowers is being able to pick some to brighten up your home.

So we did.

It is such a cheerful spot of color on the counter; I don't regret it a bit.

Besides, once I got going, it was fun! I picked a few more to share with a neighbor.

And what do you know? There are still plenty in the flowerbed.

In fact, you can't even really tell they are gone.

 

There are plenty of these left out there, too.
In case you were wondering.

Flower arranging

Brought home this from the flower farm. 

Arrangement 1

Front view 

back view 

 wild top view

I'm actually quite pleased with how this one turned out. I didn't get too large a vase this time, purposely selecting one shorter and smaller than most of the stems.

Liked the color combinations.

Used the green straw-tubes to hold up some of the bendier stems.

Arrangement 2 

 Liked this one better than I thought I would, actually.

These were mostly the very short stems courtesy of my little helpers at the flower farm.

I decided to add a few spiky taller ones to give it a little more interest, and I think it worked!

I think these may be my best efforts yet!

Wildflower bouquet

When they're still out front they can be weeds.

When I clip them to put in a bouquet, now they're wildflowers. :)

Except the lupines, I guess. I don't consider them weeds.

A few daisies and lupines left, and some of the clover from out front.

I quite like the effect, actually. 

Sort of wild and sprawling, but pretty too.

I had tons of each this year--not sure why I didn't think to clip some sooner and try my hand at bouquets. 

Flower Arrangements

Our latest trip to the flower farm (about 2 weeks ago) produced several tulips, blue bachelor buttons, a few poppies, purple lunaria, and some yellow daisies.

 Not the prettiest form, but I like the colors together and the vase.

 All in all, a cheerful little arrangement. The pink tulip I cut from our flower bed to complement the pink poppy.

This one was definitely a hodgepodge--all the ones with really short stems.

I had a little helper with the arrangements. :)

 My favorite.

I really like the color combination.

The yellow daisies throughout give it some uniformity, as do the tall stalks of purple lunaria.

Then the lighter purplish-blue bachelor buttons add interest without distracting. 

After I was done with this one and stepped back, I realized that it needed to be in a much smaller vase.

I always tend too big on that account, and it was painfully obvious this time. They looked stuffed in, instead of having a little stem showing between the top of the vase and the bouquet.

I'll have to keep that in mind for next time and go with one smaller than I think I need.

Maybe I can go back to the flower farm when Brenda gets here next month. I'll bet she would love it!

And perhaps check out some books on flower arranging in the meantime. :) 

Flower Arranging 101

The kids and I went to a U-Pick Flower Farm in the area and so when we got home, I got to try my hand at flower arranging.  It's pretty obvious that I need some more practice, but it was fun to give it a try.

No. 1: Hodge-podge

 This one turned out okay, but the flowers look a bit crowded.

I really wanted that sunflower in there, too (below), but it looks pretty ridiculous.

I needed to stick a rod into the stem or something to hold it up, I think.

 Not my favorite at all. 

No. 2: Study in fuschia 

 I debated between leaving the gladiolus all by itself and sticking those field flowers in with it.  As you can see, I opted for the small flowers as well. Provided a little contrast, anyway.

No. 3: Pinks with yellow and purple accents

 This one, in the blue/green Venetian glass vase, was my favorite.

Form was a little better than the first, and colors went together well.

My hope is to someday have enough flowers of my own to cut arrangements, without having to worry about leaving a big bare spot in my landscaping!  I may even have room for a cutting garden, with our 3 garden terraces.

Cutting Garden Inspiration

So I bought this gorgeous bouquet from the Farmer's Market this week, and I took pictures to try and figure out what all is in it so that SOMEDAY I can grow a cutting garden and make beautiful bouquets of my own. Is that enough of a run-on sentence?

Not sure about the tall spiky-thing.
Obviously some huge sunflowers and pink cosmos. I'm wondering if the orange and deep pink with white edges are maybe dahlias?
The feathery purple cone-shaped ones are sure pretty, too. And they are lasting longer than some of the others. I asked the seller what they were but he couldn't tell me.

The little purple balls are gomphrena--I grew them in a pot one year with petunias and they looked really good. They're a type of clover, I think.

I am not in the habit of cutting flowers to bring in the house, but I want to start doing it more. If I just had a vase full of flowers going at all times, it would be a cinch to pluck out the dying ones every so often and put in a new stem or two. Plus, this bouquet cost $10!! Way too much, especially since it's mostly dying off already, and it's only been 4 days since I got it. Another advantage of snipping a few from my own garden and trying my hand at arranging them.