It’s been a while! Things have continued to be a busy in the gardens, we have had a heatwave and I have spent my evenings watering and feeling too tired to blog. Today was a bit fresher and I was taken in a new direction when I agreed to do house flowers for a 60th birthday.
I had a whole garden to choose from so how hard could it be to find flowers for 5 vases? I like to think that I have a good eye for colour combinations but a florist I am not. It turns out that making arrangements that look casually gathered from the garden and placed in a vase is quite time consuming.
As I said, large garden to choose from but the roses peaked 2 weeks ago and despite vigorous deadheading since, aren’t really up to the job.
Plan B, a more mixed selection is needed and thank goodness the Alchemilla is is still going.
I started with the biggest vase as I thought that it would be the hardest. It was also the prickliest as I chose Acanthus and Echinops for height and structure and filled in with airy fairy stuff. Anyway here’s the first attempt.
It looked better than this in real life but it did lack something. I put it aside and came back to it later, always a good plan when trying to do something artistic, and added some dark penstemon which helped a lot.
I did the next ones altogether, sorting through what I’d picked and whizzing round the garden for inspiration. I particularly liked the poppy heads and I managed to find a few roses in bud. Note the abundant use of Alchemilla which I intend to cut back soon anyway.
Work in progress and the finished vases. I was really happy to discover the buddleia and the Anthemis were a good find too. Purple Miscanthus looks good with the poppy heads, just hope no-one has hayfever. The day lilies, Hemerocalis, really finish it well, orange and purple bang on trend!
All lined up, only took 3 hours! What a lovely way to spend a Saturday morning, the only downside was resisting the urge to pull out weeds and tidy the borders as I went round. I think that I have found my creative style, informal, which is no surprise. The customer was very happy with the results but I don’t think that I will be changing career just yet.
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