Current Lecture Topics by Suzy Bales

Garden Bouquets & Beyond

Celebrating each season by bringing flowers and foliage inside has deepened my appreciation of nature. Posies connect the outdoors to the indoors and me, on a more intimate level, to the garden. This talk covers the seasons of my adventures, exploring the garden year round, making beautiful bouquets, wreaths, garlands, mock topiaries, candle cups, toppings for gifts and more. The garden holds a wealth of material not available in floral markets.

Many gardeners don't utilize all of the plants available for cuttings from their garden, especially in winter, actually summer too. Many vines, clematis for example, make long lasting cut flowers. It is possible to create wreaths, garlands, mock topiaries, candle cups and more year round. There are many simple ways to prolong the bloom of cut flowers and foliage.  Understanding when to harvest flowers and how to prolong their blooms allows for cutting and arranging flowers a day or two before company is expected. Different flowers respond differently to the same treatments.

The Garden in Winter
Ironically, winter is when we need color the most but it is the season least planned and planted for color.  Although a lone flower blooming in a snowy bed gives my heart a jolt, it’s the complementary combinations of plants that make a winter landscape endearing.

Winter is a fascinating season, a time to closely watch changes in plants. It is when I have seen miracles and been confounded by mysteries. Everything has a story to tell and secrets to reveal, from the design of a snowflake and the patterns of frost, to the first flowers piercing the cold ground, their blooms resting on a snowy pillow.

The Down-To Earth-Gardener
Beware, I have been called a permissive gardener.  I break all the rules, that’s the only way to learn.  After all, gardening is a refined form of gambling—if you don’t take risks, break a few rules, you don’t have a chance to win big time. If you learn to look closely and to wait patiently, a garden contains more instruction than a library. Trust what you see, give common sense a chance.

A Garden of Fragrance
The fragrance of flowers offers a whole new world of pleasures.  There is an intimate quality to a scented garden that beckons you in, insists that you linger, and, at times, draws you down to its level to breathe its enchanting perfumes. 

But not all plants release their scent in the same way. And that is what makes it so interesting. Knowing which flowers perfume the garden and the house, how they disperse their scent and how to help them last longer will enhance your enjoyment of them.