Flowery prose
Posted on July 9th, 2009 – 8:57 AMBy Robyn Dochterman
Yesterday, my neighbor came over to get a dozen eggs, and brought me a bunch of baby’s breath from her garden. It was beautiful and delicate, just right for filling out bouquets. But, now, I had to make a bouquet.
I decided to wander around the yard and see what was out there. I’ve been so busy with fruits and veggies lately, I hadn’t been paying much attention to the flowers.
Without even trying very hard, I found daisies and black-eyed susans blooming along the wild edge of my yard. I snipped a couple of coneflowers beginning to open. I took a couple of sprigs of …yarrow? It’s embarrassing that I don’t even know.
But I do know that, together, they made a delightful collection of the height of summer to take indoors and enjoy.
Do you have a cutting garden? Or an overgrown lot full of under-appreciated blooming beauties like I do? What do you like to gather to include in your bouquets? Do you go for color, smell or form?
146 Responses to "Flowery prose"
Beautiful! I have a couple of ‘cutting gardens’ and I hope, key word being hope, to transplant some things and spread them out some this fall for next year ~ they are too crowded to look nice all bunched together - but like you - I am able to make some beautiful flower arrangements from time to time!
Your bouquet is exactly the kind I favor. I have several hydrangea types and have had fun with them, too. At every stage, pretty, and the dried last through winter. Thirty-four years ago, my sibs and I picked wild daisies to decorate our house for my wedding. That simple flower has been a kind of emblem for us ever since.
I love seeing the flowers with new eyes. Someday, I’d like to have a garden dedicated to cutting, like you darcie.
MNmom, I love your wild daisies for the wedding story. Very sweet.
I put in a baby’s breath plant a year or two ago, and it’s been an excellent addition to my “bouquet” garden. It has conflowers blooming up through the middle of the “cloud” which is charming. Instead of flowers, lately I’ve been big on doing simple vase arrangements just with hosta leaves.
Oh, and Robyn - your bouquet is beeeeautiful! I keep looking back at the photo and cheering myself up.
Aww. Glad to share the flowers, especially since they were such an unexpected gift to me!
Off-topic abit, but when I was working and hit tough stressful times, I made a point of bringing in a little bouquet from home for my desk. It just amazed me how much that improved my day and sometimes it spilled over and helped other people, too. Flower power is the real deal.
MNMom, I couldn’t agree more about having a bouquet from home on the desk to help with work stress. I also noticed that when I brought in flowers from my garden versus picking up some flowers at the farmer’s market), lots of colleagues would stop by to ask about them and chat about gardening — a really nice way to connect with co-workers.
I don’t have a cutting garden, but looked around earlier this evening and pulled together a bouquet for a friend who just had surgery and can’t be out in her garden right now. I used hosta leaves, sprigs of russian sage, sedge sprigs, coneflowers, lilies (day and asiatic) hydrangea, monarda, and bachelor buttons.
I agree with MNmom and sparklegirl about the power of a bouquet to lift one’s mood. I do it, too. And, like Anneesha, I’ve looked at your bouquet several times. lovely.
Auntie K — you go, girl! What a nice thing to do. We all need flowers (or, at least, photos of them) sometimes.
I think it looks great too! My yard is basically an excuse not to mow but I do like sweet smelling pretty things a lot. In the spring we had a bouquet of peonies that lasted for a month because we all just kept refreshing it with plants from our gardens. I will warn you though, if you start smelling something strange, it’s the daisies. If you have some russian sage or an oriental lily add it to the mix to cover up the daisy stink.
I agree that the basic flowers need the recognition also. Daisy, Lilies. My yellow yarrow is more of a hedge than a plant. I use purple allium also. This year I had some radishes go to seed; that made an extra little flower clump, along with the white onions that went to seed.
I grow a good sized zinnia patch that is my “cutting garden” and this year, I added strawflowers and daisies too.
Black-eyed Susans and Annabelle hydrangeas are also cutting favorites.
Speaking of smelly plant odors .. is it cleome that has a strong odor of cannabis when brought indoors in a bouquet?
I have a little cutting garden, it’s mainly daisies, columbine, and yes, baby’s breath. But other stuff I like to use in bouquets is calendula, lisianthus, delphinium, dill flower clusters, coral bells, leaves from my mock cherry bush, um… pretty much whatever I think will work. I keep a vase on the dining room table throughout the growing season. Flowers definitely make a great pick-me-up.
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Greengirls Connie Nelson, Robyn Dochterman and Jaime Chismar are dishin' the dirt from the backyard garden and beyond. Whether you're a greenthumb or greenhorn, they're eager to learn from your misshaps, mistakes -- and most importantly, your sweet successes -- all growing season long.
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