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I've spent many a happy hour picking and arranging flowers.
It is one of the most compelling reasons to garden.

On May first first there was more than usual in bloom in my garden. Here are pictures of some of combinations of flowers I arranged for my talk at the Hudson River Museum.

The plastic cup that holds the moist floral foam in place is called an oasis o’dapter and is available from afloral.com. The cost less than two dollars  and can be used over and over again. The #5 oasis cylinders (50 cents each) should be replaced for each new arrangement. If a candle is desired a small plastic, pointed candle cup can be pushed into the top of the foam to hold the candle in place. The candle cups are sold in sets of two from saveoncrafts.com.

Topping Wrapped  Packages With Flowers

I’ve never met a person who didn’t appreciate a gift of flowers. A posy topping a gift-wrapped package holds the promise of unstoppable smiles. It is like giving two presents in one. The flowers can be removed from the top of the package and placed on a table to be enjoyed for several days.

Here is how to do it: I wrap my packages with a plain color or small-print paper so the focus is on the flowers instead of the paper. Pick a selection of flowers and foliage from the garden. Sometimes a single large rose or a hydrangea bloom might be all that is needed.  Put the flowers and foliage in warm water with a floral preservative and place in a cool place to condition them for 6 hours or overnight before arranging them in the floral foam.

Soak an Oasis Mini Deco Holder in water, floral foam side down. Peel the back off and stick it on the top of the present or if you are using ribbons, slide the ribbon through the hoops on the side and attach it to the package.

Cut the stems of the conditioned flowers and foliage on an angle before poking them into the foam. Make sure the stem does not go out the other side or touches the plastic bottom. Continue adding flowers until the foam is covered. (A large flower on a short stem will cover the foam.) The longer the stems of the flowers the more flowers needed and the larger the arrangement.

The person who receives the gift can take the deco holder off and set it on a table as a centerpiece to enjoy.

October 21, 2009

Fall Rains Keep the Flowers Coming

Heavy rains and cold weather has not slowed the blooms. More roses are blooming now then in August. So I combined them with dahlias in a floral foam wreath covered with pachysandra. To make one, check out my how-to video.

Dogwood foliage and berries give a floral foam wreath a completely different look.

 

Dahlias come in so many different guises and steal the show when combined with snapdragons, zinnias and blue salvia. But, love-lies-bleeding, one of the stranger fall blooming annuals, with its long velvety tassels is certainly arresting.

October 27, 2009

A Candle Cup of Bloom

A quick and easy arrangement for a side table or a fireplace is made with a candle cup of floral foam decorated with ‘Golden Heart’ ivy, beautyberries and purple gomphrena.

 

October 9, 2009
Fall Bloomers

Although the gardens are showing wear, the flowers keep coming. Our native Eupatorium perfoliatum, also known as boneset or snakeroot, has marched right in and made itself way too comfortable. Now is the time to pull some out before it seeds everywhere. I had more than enough to fill a birdbath with blooms. I used branches of burning bushes’ red leafs as the center and surrounded them with the airy, white flowers of Eupatorium. Dahlias and zinnia were poked in to add beauty among the thugs.

August 31, 2009

Moss Bowls

 

 

Les Brake, my gardening friend in Alaska, just emailed me this picture of his latest creation, a moss bowl decorated with mushrooms, strawberries and poppy pods. As he explained, “We had rain today, so I played and made up moss bowls. This one is called, ‘The Happy Harvest (long winter ahead). When I spotted the largest of the three mushrooms growing on the edge of the woods, I knew that I’d have to do something with it.”  The moss bowl was displayed outside on his porch and lasted 6 days.

Vegetables as Centerpieces

 

Six zucchini plants more than feeds my family of seven, weekend guests and neighbors all summer. After boiling, sautéing and baking tiny zucchini, and pureeing larger ones for breads and soups, we still are surprised to find several hiding, in spite of their baseball-bat size, under even larger leaves. Conventional wisdom in peaceful Vermont advises locking cars at shopping centers to avoid finding your backseat filled with generous donations of zucchini left by a kind, over-productive gardener.



One playful solution to the squash glut is to turn the largest into a peacock centerpiece. To do it I sliced off just enough of the bottom so it sits flat on an oval platter. Then I scooped out flesh near the back of the zucchini for the peacock's tail flowers. The opening is filled with moist floral foam, then I poked in flowers and ferns with arching shapes including white Queen Anne's lace, pink cosmos, purple butterfly bush, and blue scabiosa. The beak and the head are fashioned from small yellow peppers and attached with straight pins. I sliced an opening in the top pepper for the beak. As the pepper dried over the next few hours the beak opened. If you are so inclined, a flower can be inserted in its mouth. Small leaved ivy formed a collar where the neck met the body and where the head meets the neck. The crushed velvet of cockscomb provided the peacock's comb. And a frilled collar of Queen Anne's lace decorated the neck. The peacock may be a little quirky, but it amused guests and the seeds of a smile were planted.



Actually, there are many vegetables that make kooky centerpieces, if you are so inclined. A watermelon is as its name implies filled with water. Simply slice a circle of the rind on the top of the melon and poke in the flowers. Pumpkins too make fun vases. After scooping out the seeds, I placed a plastic deli container filled with floral foam inside and poked in the flowers and berries: black-eyed Susans, marigolds, roses, crab apples, and zinnias. Red and green peppers can be outfitted with small vials of water to hold flowers. I used Queen Anne's lace, black-eyed Susans and scarlet runner beans. Because a cabbage can hold water between its leaves, it can be used to hold roses or any other flowers. This makes a delightful and unexpected hostess present. Once the flowers fade, the hostess can eat the cabbage.

August 12, 2009

Floral Swags

 

Swags set the tone for a celebration. Why are they so seldom used? Making a swag is simpler than you might think. The frame can be anything from a ribbon, to a floral vine, to a heavy rope for a floral extravagance. If a ribbon is used, flowers are simply wired on. A rosebud garland makes a lovely dog collar for a home wedding or a decorative swag on a buffet table. A few strands of honeysuckle, sweet peas or another flowering vine can simply be twisted together and pinned to a tablecloth.

To make a floral extravagance like the one J. Barry Fergusion for a friend's party in early June, cut a heavy rope to the length needed, including extra to tie it in place. Lay the frame on a table and starting at one end of the rope, tie on bunches of greens by winding the spool of lightweight green wire around them. Each bunch that is wired on needs to face in the same direction. The form can be keep in a cool place covered with wet newspaper for a day or two until a few hours before the party.

Cut the flowers in the morning, condition them in a vase of warm water with floral preservative and put them in a cool, dark place, a refrigerator, a basement, an air-conditioned room, for several hours or overnight so their stems fill with water.

Green water picks, plastic tubes that are rubber capped and pointed at one end are readily available from florists and craft stores. Fill them in a bucket of water, set the caps on, and poke them in a sheet of Styrofoam to stand them up. Recut the flower stems right before you use them to 2- to 3-inches long. Push each stem carefully into the picks standing upright in the Styrofoam.

To assemble the wreath, first hang it in place. Add extra bits of green if needed to give it a full belly and completely cover the rope. The frame must be thick and firm to hold the flowers.

Hold the greens with one hand and add the flowers with the other by carefully pushing a water pick, point down, into the foliage. Place the largest flowers in the center, creating a bull's-eye. Group the flowers as if you are painting with colors to create the overall look.

August 3, 2009

Dwarf Gladiola 'Flevo Kosmic'

 

Every year a few new flowers catch my eye and I add them to the borders or the cutting garden. This year I planted a bunch of dwarf gladiolas, chosen for their unique red and chartreuse blooms. When I cut three for a flower arrangement they became the center of attention.

To make this arrangement, I first filled the glass rectangular vase with clear marbles to hold the flower stems in place. I cut the gladiola stems short. Only 4-inches of their stems were under water. The arrangement was designed for the center of a table and I had to keep them short,  under a foot so the guests could see each other across the table.  Blue scabiosa, purple cosmos, red zinnia, yellow butter and eggs, red crocosmia and purple snapdragons completed the summer mix. The gladiolas are available online from Brent and Becky bulbs.

July 27, 2009

Shake It Up With Clashing Flowers

 

If you really want to let everyone know there is a party going on, arrange a bouquet of brightly colored flowers—red, purple, orange, yellow—and set it on your front porch when guests are expected.  I filled a green vase with moist floral foam to hold the flower stems firmly in the place I set them.  In the arrangement are red and orange crocosmia, yellow lilies, yellow and red roses, purple phlox, purple and white dahlias, orange and pink zinnias, yellow black-eyed Susans, pink Japanese anemone, and purple butterfly bush.

July 23, 2009

Greening of Bouquets

 

Since most flowers have green foliage, green is often ignored as a color with pizzazz of its own. That would be a mistake. Green flowers, especially chartreuse ones, are arresting in arrangements. They enhance their cohorts and point all the attention their way. Even alone, a vase filled with limy-green flowers is unique, unexpected and sophisticated, but it is oh-so-much-better in mixed company.

In this bouquet, lime-green nicotiana trumpets and disc’s of zinnia ‘Envy’ combine elegantly with the blue balls of echinops, purple plumes of butterfly bush and the circles of scabiosa. One branching stem of lemon monarda with its lime-green dusted foliage and pale purple flowers holds the arrangement together.

July 8, 2009

Wedding Flowers

 

A friend’s son was married last week and I was luckily enough to be asked to arrange the bouquets of flowers that lined each side of the aisle inside the wedding tent. The bride’s colors were purple and white.  I set six large bouquets in metal plant stands.  The plant stands added height to the bouquets so they would be noticed. It also made them easy to move around. I first lined each plant stand with sheet moss to hide the plastic containers filled with moist floral foam.

 

To set the shape of the bouquets I cut long branches of a white rambler rose from my yard. Then I added iris and fool’s onion from the garden and purchased flowers—roses, stock, lisianthus and Queen Anne’s lace. 

 

After the wedding the bouquets were moved to the stage in the dinner tent. The following morning the arrangements lent their beauty to the brunch. It was at the brunch where I snapped a picture of beautiful Grace checking out the flowers.

June 30, 2009

A Country Bouquet

Roses and clematis are natural partners in the garden. I often plant a clematis at the outer skirt of a large shrub rose or a climber and let it weave its way up through the canes.

I don’t know why they are so rarely combined in the vase. I think they compliment each other everywhere. In this combination the long stems of the rambling rose ‘Bobby James’ are mixed with purple ‘Jackmanii’ clematis and mauve Clematis viticella ‘Purpurea Plena Elegans’. The combination makes a lively country bouquet. I cut the flowers on Wednesday and they were still looking good on Sunday. Although clematis are not often cut for bouquets, they should be. They are long lasting in water, sometimes looking good for two weeks. Each flower is on its own stem connected to the main branch so it is easy to clip a few flowers without disturbing the vine.


April 28, 2009
New York Horticultural Society Benefit

 

I was honored by the New York Horticultural Society at an event on Tuesday night. Each table at the party was created by a different floral designer. They are true floral fantasies.

February 25, 2009 Singapore Sings With Flowers In January I visited Singapore for the first time. I was enamored with the flower arrangements that were in expected place like the entrance to Raffles Hotel and unexpected places like the counter at the airport check-in.

In the hotel lobby of Raffles a combination of Rothschild lilies and orchids is arranged with a ruffle of foliage at the bottom.

At the top of the stairs a simpler arrangement featuring orchids and foliage was also beautiful.	Even at a Singapore airport counter where we checked in for our flight home there was an arrangement of orchids and carnations.

 

 

January 12, 2009
Bali Hi 

It is pure luxury to bath with flowers.

Bali Hi Spending this week on the beautiful island of Bali, I discovered here, flowers are an intricate part of everyday life. When we arrived in our hotel room, flowers were floating in our bath. They decorated bowls of fruit throughout the hotel and were even placed in the basket of our freshly laundered clothes.

The bowl of oranges and plumeria are set on wooden pedestals.	Elevating an arrangement puts the focus directly on the flowers.

I delighted in the plumeria perched on oranges on a poolside bar. Oranges and plumeria—go figure!  The arrangement was mesmerizing, architectural and thought provoking.  When I noticed the heliconia blooms arranged in the shape of a Christmas tree in a restaurant, I couldn’t take my eyes off of them.  It must be wonderful to have so many for cutting.

Heliconia flowers arranged in an orange pyramid.

Visiting the local market we saw bushel baskets of petals and flowers for sale. In the temples we noted offerings of flowers were placed daily on the stone deities and they were also an integral part of the services.

Baskets of flowers and flower petals are sold in the market daily.

So many of the young girls wore flowers in their hair, I’m not sure a lady is properly dressed without one.  This is a custom I’d like to import to America.

Fragrant flowers and petals enhance the beauty of a Balinese girl.

December 29, 2008 GREENS, GOLDS AND BLUES Our winter garden takes us back to the bare essentials, as if to remind us to appreciate fully what is to come. I have also learned to enjoy winter’s quiet beauty when textures and shapes move to the forefront in the garden. Evergreens and conifers in coats of many colors—green, blue, gold and silver—brighten dull days both inside and out.

A classic winter centerpiece with everything cut from my garden.

Now is the time to look out your windows and about your garden to discover where to plant an evergreen in the spring to cheer next winter's view and add to winter bouquets. I've planted evergreens in the garden over the last ten years and I'm still finding places for more. Many of them are dwarf and fit snuggly into small garden spots. Snipping tips for bouquets doesn't hurt their appearance a bit.

 

In late December and January before the winter bulbs and early shrubs bloom, I make centerpieces of evergreens to brighten indoor tables.
 

A low narrow arrangement for a rectangular table or a fireplace mantle is simply made. Place a moist brick of floral foam on a low oval platter or tray. Start by adding a long tip of noble fir to each end and shorter tips along the sides. They should be dense and long enough to completly hide the platter. Cut each tip on a slant and remove the needles one inch from the end of each conifer so it easily pokes into the foam. Build the arrangement layering from the outer edges to the inside.
 

I added golden tips of Oriental spruce ' Skyland', blue spruce, blue Atlas cedar and variegated holly. For a flourish in the center I poked in a stem of the broadleaf evergreen Nandina 'Wood's Dwarf' that blushes red in winter.

This simple arrangement of evergreens from the garden's greens last for almost three weeks in floral foam if the foam is moistened every day or two. It can also be accessorized with flowers from the market. The flowers usually last five to 7 days.

Red and white roses add holiday cheer to the evergreen arrangement.

For a New Year's party, Tracy Vivona, the floral designer of Designs by T. Alexandria, picked sprigs of conifers from my garden and poked them into a floral foam wreath. She combined blue spruce, variegated chamaecyparis, tiger-eye pine, golden false cypress, and white pine. White hydrangea, lilies, roses and a glittery candle completed the wintery wreath.

An evergreen wreath with white flowers is a classic arrangement for winter dinner parties.	Allium snowflakes hang from the chandelier over evergreen wreaths decorated with snowy white flowers for a New Year's Eve party.

 

December 19, 2008

Allium Snowflakes

The heads of dried alliums (Allium aflatunenses) make wonderful winter decorations. If sprayed white and dusted with silver glitter they resemble snowflakes. Each of their thin spokes ends in a flower shaped pod that is clearly visible when highlighted with white paint. If spray-painted another color, red is a favorite, they resemble Christmas ornaments. Surprisingly, they are not as fragile as they look. I hung a dozen in a tree two years ago and they looked good all winter, despite the storms.

Spray-painted white and hung from a tree, assorted alliums resemble giant snowflakes.

The ones I used indoors last year were reused this year.  Here are few of my favorite ways to use them.

 

When a conifer died over the summer, I tossed it on the compost heap. Several months later it had lost its needles but not its shape so I spray painted it red and dressed it up with balls of alliums.
 

I recycled a dead conifer as an outdoor Christmas tree. It certainly entertained the neighbors.

I have also hung some allium balls from the chandelier, in a swag and on a small indoor tree. For more ideas, look at my book, "The Garden in Winter."

Dried allium seed heads, sprayed white and dusted with glitter dance on a noble fir swag.

 

December 15, 2008 Winter Hanging Baskets Once I start filling outdoor containers and hanging baskets with evergreens, I can't stop. It only takes minutes and makes such a difference in how the garden looks through the winter. Here are some other containers I've filled. For more ideas, check out my book, "The Garden in Winter".

Golden conifers add sunlight to winter's dreary days. Nandina 'Wood's Dwarf' adds a punch of red.	Tiger Eye' pine, holly and Orienta l spruce 'Skyland' glow in a hanging basket.	A window box is filled with winter berries, magnolia leaves, dried echinops, and assorted greens.

 

December 10, 2008 Winter Containers Nothing says, "dreary, cold and depressing" more than leaving empty containers sitting in the garden. So I warm up winter by filling up outdoor containers with boughs of evergreens and berries. Most years I decorate our outdoor pots earlier in the month. It is certainly easier to poke branches into the pots before the soil freezes, but this year I was caught by an early snowfall. I filled these containers when they were covered with snow. Despite the frost, the pots were not frozen solid and it was a pleasure being outdoors surrounded by so much beauty.

An empty container in the winter garden emphasizes that something is missing..

 

The winter berries add bright color to the pots filled with rhododendron and conifers. A coral bark maple and Pieris glow in the background.

December is for pruning. I pay no attention to the experts. It makes more sense to prune the rhoddies, Nandia 'Woods Dwarf', winterberry, and conifers when I can put the cuttings to good use in holiday wreaths and containers.

Soil, although rarely used this way, is as effective as floral foam for holding stems in place and nourishing them. If a warm day pops up unexpectedly during the winter, I water the pots. Mostly, I leave them on their own. Between the freezing weather, the frequent snows and rains, they easily last three months. I have the daily pleasure of seeing them out my living room window. It assures me the garden is alive and well, although tucked in for its winter nap.

 

 

November 17, 2008 Thanksgiving Getting ready to welcome all our kids and assorted relatives home for the holiday, I dressed the dinning room mantel in fall foliage and bittersweet. The oak leaves had been sprayed with a satin shellac so they will last indoors.
	Fall foliage and berries are festive.

I hung a simple garland of bittersweet, oak leaves and Nadina 'Wood's Dwarf' on the porch. I used a rope for the base and wound floral wire around the branches of foliage and berries to attach them to the rope. The cold air will keep it looking good through the end of November.

Garlands aren't just for Christmas.

The only downside is I picked the bittersweet along the roadside and I came home with a terrible rash from poison ivy. Poison ivy twines with other vines and is difficult to distinguish once it has lost its leaves.

November 16, 2008
Late Bloomers

Many flowers bloom on after early frosts.

When I look out the window at the garden, it doesn't look like there is much left in bloom, but when I walked around with pruners and a basket, I had no problem putting together a bouquet of flowers. Borage and pineapple sage came from the herb garden, dahlias from the cutting garden and the roses, monkshood and Mexican sage from the flower borders.



November 11, 2008
Wahoo

Wahoo fruits compliment pink roses.

I noticed lovely pink fruits on the Euonymus atropurpureus, better known as eastern wahoo, and picked them to combine with a nosegay of roses. Wahoo fruits are fascinating up close in the vase. They can be hard to see in the garden among the evergreen leaves of the euonymus.

November 4, 2008
The Gardener’s Best Friend

Roses and monkshood are happy companions.

If properly vetted, roses are a gardener’s best friend.  My advise is to throw any demanding shrubs on the compost pile. Why put up with tantrums from hybrid teas when there are easy going roses, such as ‘Abraham Darby’, ‘Heritage’ and ‘Scarlet Meidiland’.  They are indispensible to me for their long bloom in the garden and in the vase.

Look at the bouquet I picked in early November, after several frosts. The shrubs had lost many of their leaves but the roses continued to bloom. I combined the roses with monkshood, a bright blue fall bloomer.

The monkshood bloom for three months in the garden, and last for a week or more in the vase. All parts of them are poisonous, so you might want to wear gloves when you handle them, although I admit I never do. The good news about poisonous plants is they are deer proof.

A Floral Color Wheel

It is amazing how many different colors of flowers bloom in early November.

I was amazed at all of the different colors of flowers in the garden in early November. I combined them into a floral color wheel, proving that using all the available colors in an arrangement is tacky, yet mesmerizing. I picked green nicotiana, hosta leaves and ivy berries, blue pansies, monkshood, salvia and ageratum, pink roses and Sheffield mums, red roses and sedum, orange and yellow zinnias and dahlias with a few ornament peppers thrown in.

October 27, 2008
Color Peaking Indoors

Swamp maple and sweet gum tree leaves bring the joy of the season indoor where their peak color remains for a week or more. Pineapple sage, dahlias, Mexican sage and the pink berries of the Korean mountain ash (Sorbus alnifolia) all strut their stuff against such a lively backdrop. If placed where the sun or a light shines through the translucent leaves, they glow.

I cut and arrange fall foliage the same way I do with any greens, removing any leaves growing below the water line and placing the stems in water with a floral preservative added.




October 22, 2008
Mums the Word

Shetffield mums (Chrysanthemum koreanum 'Sheffield') don't look like mums at all, rather salmon-pink daisies with a yellow center. Their color mixes well with other flowers in the garden and the vase.

In the vase they go on and on, for three weeks or more long past needing dusting. Each stem is its own bouquet branching at the top into numerous flowers.



October 18, 2008
A Bouquet of Fall Bulbs

A teapot of three different varieties of colchicum, 'Lilac Wonder', 'Giant' and 'Water lily' is a lively addition to a coffee table. The fleshy-white, soft stems of colchicum brown after a day or two and are unsightly but the flowers don't mind staying fresh for a week or more. Consequently, it is important to hide the stems in an opaque vase so they don't distract from the beauty of the flowers.




October 9, 2008
Dahlia do or Dahlia don't

Dahlia dames range from the brassy, to the outspoken and even sweetly shy. They might explode in fireworks of petals or bear a shape that is neat and tidy. For sheer drama I love the plate-sized blooms. Each is a work of art, worthy of attention and needs only be displayed in its own vase.

This time of year, dahlias dominate the cutting garden. I snip weekly bouquets. That's how long they last. When I have time, I like to experiment with the same flowers in different vases to see what looks best. It is child's play and often I get silly.

Yesterday I cut a bunch of orange, yellow and red dahlias on long stems. Their heads are so heavy I thought they might balance better with longer stems. Consequently, I cut off a number of buds that were attached close to the open flowers. Most won't open in the vase but the colorful buds do add interest to the arrangement. By cutting the buds, I wasn't sacrificing much as dahlias are so prolific.

I filled a tall, rectangular glass vase with cold water and floral preservative. After bunching a domeof flowers in my hand and trimming all of their stems slightly higher than the vase, I plunked them in. To assure each smiley face couldbe seen, I gently lifted a few up an inch or two.


As I looked at the arrangement, I realized the vase was a little tall for the flowers. Anyone sitting at the table, would see too many stems. The stems distracted from the flowers. I hadn't arranged them perfectly in the water. So I cut some hosta leaves, removed the flowers from the vase and curved the leaves around the insides of the vase before returning the flowers to the water. I thought it looked good until I spotted a slug lying on the bottom. I didn't have to do my usual thumb and forefinger squish. It had already drowned. I scooped it out. Is there anything more satisfying in a gardener's life then when another slug bites the dust?

Later in the day walking around the garden, I admired the blue of the monkshood. Garden blues don't get much brighter than that, so I cut five flowers to add to my vase of dahlias. A deep orange and bright blue pairing lights up an arrangement with new found energy. Each color makes the other pop. Perhaps I got carried away draping a garland of porcelain berries, Ampelopsis brevipedunculata, across the front of the tall glass vase.


The following day, I decided to simplify the arrangement and cut the stems down placing them in a shorter, square glass container. One flower broke off its stem so instead of tossing it in the garbage, I laid it on the table knowing it would look good for a day or two. I think I prefer the shorter vase. Looking into the flowers faces from above, I notice their individuality and admire their beauty more.

When it comes to displaying flowers, there are so many choices. There is no right or wrong. Each of these arrangements brought the flowers' beauty to the table for family and friends to see up close. Let me know which arrangements please you.

September 2, 2008
Lazy, Daisy Days, Bouquet

Although I’m past the age of plucking the petals off a daisy to see if I am loved, daisies still transport me back to more carefree days. It is easy to succumb to the charms of these unassuming flowers—their disarming innocence, their humility and their cockiness. They ask for nothing as they pop up along roadsides and dance with joy, unaffected by the rain.

Some of the sunniest countenances belong to Shasta daisies and the gloriosa daisies I picked in a meadow in the Adirondacks. I combined them in a vase with the fragrant flowers of hosta ‘Royal Standard’ and put the vase inside a hollowed-out log I found in the woods. The log had rotted leaving the circle of bark intact—a great find I will use over and over again for rustic arrangements. For a similar look gather the pealing bark from Birch, often found in the woods by downed trees, and glue it around a container, even a soup can.

Flower Arranging Tip: If you add at least one fragrant flower to an arrangement, it will increase your enjoyment. Fragrant flowers more readily release their perfume in a warm room. Flower fragrances have the power to change moods and stir memories of other times and places. For more information about hosta ‘Royal Standard’ click on the summer garden tour, August 28, 2008.

August 30, 2008

Gatherings From the Forest Floor

Over labor day weekend on one of our hikes through the woods everyone picked up something that interested them along our walk. The treasures included mushrooms, birch bark, clump moss, hobblebush leaves and berries (Viburnum alnifolium)and assorted wildflowers—dark purple ironweed, light purple fireweed, white Queen Anne’s lace, and yellow goldenrod.

Goldenrod, least you sneeze at the thought, is not the culprit of hay fever, as many people think. Its pollen is too heavy to float on the breeze and falls to the ground. Look at the table under a flower arrangement and you see what I mean. Ragweed usually grows near by and it is the guilty party.

Step 1	Step 2	Step 3

Once back from our hike we amused ourselves by making a centerpiece on the picnic table with the bark as its base. Moist floral foam sitting in foil was placed in the middle to hold the flowers. Moss and bark hid the foil.

Flower Arranging Tip: Floral foam can be cut to any shape and size. It should always be placed on something that is waterproof, a deli container, aluminum foil, a plate or bowl, to keep the water from leaking onto the table. Floral foam can be rewet as needed to keep the flowers fresh. It also holds them in place. Flowers can be poked in straight up or at an angle to make the arrangement more interesting.

August 12, 2008
A Gaggle of Sunflowers

Sunflowers have such happy faces, I grow an assortment every summer. They are so long lasting in arrangements they almost need dusting. Usually, I put them in a large vase and cut them with long stems but this time, for a change, I cut them on short stems and poked them into a brick of floral foam. I used the foam to help them stand up straight. Such big heads are heavy and could pull them down and out of water.

Tip: If you plant giant single stemmed sunflowers they grow quickly. I tied a ribbon around the stem when it reached my six- year old daughter's height. Over the next month or so we watched it reach for the sky, towering over her. The ribbon reminded us that the sunflower had been her height once upon a time.


With flowers it's possible to have your cake and eat it too! Rather than depleting the flowers, picking encourages them to re-bloom. It is the kindest cut. The more I pick, the more they flower. Otherwise, they stop blooming and quickly go to seed. Although written for the professional cut-flower grower, Specialty Cut Flowers (Timber Press, 2003) also helps home gardeners prolong the life of their cut flowers. As Dr. Allan Armitage debunks myths, many conventional beliefs fall by the wayside.

One of the most surprising findings is that freshly picked flowers should be placed in cold water, not warm. Warm temperatures increase their loss of food and water, often resulting in dehydration.

If I'd only know that before I wrote my first book eighteen years ago, I could have saved readers a lot of anguish. I cringe thinking of all the flowers I unwittingly brought to a premature death. It just goes to show, question everything!







August 7, 2008
Chinese Basket of Flowers

An arrangement in a basket is easily portable. This arrangement was for a friend's birthday party. I lined a Chinese basket with a plastic deli container fitted with floral foam then poked in pink garden phlox, purple cone flowers, pink Japanese anemone, pink alliums, blue ageratum, pink lycoris, blue vitex, roses, crape mertle and sweet peas.

Tip: Vitexagnus-castus flowers are long lasting in floral arrangements. Vitex blooms for three months or more in the garden providing cut flowers for months. I discovered by accident it is also one of the easiest shrubs to propagate. I cut back my shrubs to a foot high in January and save the branches for staking other plants and to make a fence in the spring for beans to climb. Often the branches sprout foliage and sometimes even flower the first year.


August 2, 2008
Breadbasket Centerpiece

For a dinner at a friend's house, I lined a breadbasket with a plastic bag, then added a moist brick of floral foam. All of the flowers and foliage were poked into the foam. The hosta leaves around the edge of the basket hid the floral underpinnings and much of the basket. Tiger lilies, zinnias, marigolds, and black-eyed Susan's add the color.

Tip: Hosta leaves last for a week or more in floral foam and even longer in water.


July Bouquet

What's one to do when presented with a magnum of Champagne? How could we possibly chill it? How many people does it take to drink it? It won't fit in the fridge, unless everything else has been removed. The only solution is to ice it down in a trash can and have some fun doing it. Then throw a garden party.

The morning of the party, Dr. Bill Barrick, a good friend and a house guest, decided to make a garland to decorate the can. His doctorate in horticulture came in handy. Bill draped a rope around the can to measure the length of the garland. Then he wired flowers and foliage freshly picked from the garden onto the rope. Balloon flowers, yarrow, daisies, roses and everything else he picked lasted into the evening and for much of the next day. The garland was finished in about a half hour and it was the highlight
of the evening party. It just goes to show, nothing is too trashy to be dressed up.


June 2008

When company is expected, I like to hang a welcome wreath on the garden gate. It makes it look like there is a party going on.

I keep floral foam rings (Oasis ^TM ring holders) on hand for just this purpose. Each foam ring is mounted on a sturdy but lightweight plastic tray, making it easy to handle. After it is decorated, I twist picture wire around the top of the wreath to hang it on a gate. The wreath can also be used as a centerpiece set on a table with a candle in the center. If used this way, protect the table from moisture by placing a plate or a placemat underneath it.

Floral foam rings are available in craft shops, florists and on the web (www.afloral.com and www.save-on-crafts.com) in a range of sizes from 6-to 24-inches. They can be completely covered in blooms when flowers are plentiful. If flowers are few, a ring covered in an assortment of foliage in different shapes and shades can be a thing of beauty on its own or brightened with a handful of flowers tucked in.

I often use pachysandra, America's most popular groundcover, as a backdrop. It is not a particular favorite of mine in the garden but it is wonderful for hiding the floral foam and letting the flowers shine. Its foliage grows in whirls, a few inches apart along the stem. If the top whirl is removed, usually two more remain and the bed doesn't look like it has been plucked.

First saturate the ring by free-floating it, foam side down, in water mixed with a floral preservative. Cut stems short, an inch or two, on a sharp angle so they can be inserted easily into the foam without breaking. Poke the stems into the middle of the foam where they can take up water, not out the other side or touching the plastic. I completely covered the form so no foam is peaking through before embellishing it with roses both single and sprays Sweet William and Triteleia 'Queen Fabiola', my favorite summer bulb.