Recently I made a few arrangements from the fall flush of English roses and other fall bloomers in my garden. The vase above includes 'Teasing Georgia' English roses (more apricot than yellow in fall), dark rose buds from 'Invincibelle Spirit' hydrangeas, green 'Limelight' hydrangeas, pale pink berries from 'Scarlet Pearl' snowberry, cream spikes of 'Autumn Bride' heuchera, plus willow stems, parsley and lady's mantle for greenery.
So many of the floral arrangements in stores feel static and stiff. I love the softness of these flowers together. Next time I do an arrangement like this, I'll substitute more muted greenery for the bright green parsley - probably some lemon balm (Melissa officinalis), which adds a nice scent. I also need to plant some Queen Anne's lace, then keep it from taking over the whole yard. Its fluffy white umbel flowers would work great in arrangments like this one.
Here is another arrangement with cream 'Crocus Rose' and mauve 'Charles Rennie Mackintosh' English roses added to the same filler flowers and greenery as the first vase. Oh, plus some pink spikes of Veronica. The 'Scarlet Pearl' snowberries are supposed to be a deeper pink, but the shrubs are newly planted this year so maybe they'll produce better color next year when they're more established.
These colors don't shout Autumn, but gardeners know the hydrangeas and berries wouldn't be around for June arrangements. 'Charles Rennie Mackintosh' hasn't made a nice looking shrub for me - it only gets part sun and hasn't ever received enough water - but the flowers are really nice in arrangements. I hooked up a drip line to give this rose more water next year, so hopefully it will finally get to thrive.
This arrangement includes 'Charles Rennie Mackintosh' English roses, 'Lady Emily' Japanese anemones, 'Little Lime' hydrangeas, snowberries, 'Thumbelina Leigh' lavender, 'Farmington' Michaelmas daisy, spikes from 'Big Blue' lilyturf, and 'Frizelliae' fern.
I've been trying to grow Japanese anemones for several years but have struggled to get them enough water and sun to bloom well. It's nice to finally have some flowers to cut. All of these arrangements were shared with friends, which is more fun than keeping them myself. Happy fall!
Just beautiful. As are you. Beautiful. Inside and out.
ReplyDeleteI love it that you can make beautiful arrangements from what grows in our yard. What a talent!
ReplyDeleteHi VW,
ReplyDeleteLovely vases! Lots of roses in bloom for you! Very few here, 'Harlow carr' is finally blooming again though and others are almost out. Very jealous of your Anemones as I too have struggled and had next to no success. In fact my whites which were 'ok' last year have produced only one bloom from three plants. Since I'm a sucker, I also bought some pinks (again) and I have had a few blooms off them - I even dared to cut one bloom! Go me.
My kitchen vase is far more 'minimalistic' than yours.... Ha ha. By that I mean I have some white roses in it and meant to cut some harlow carr this evening but forgot. I 'could' add lady's mantle, asters and Rudbekia to the mix though.
Very nice !
ReplyDeleteWhat gorgeous displays you've put together - I love softness of the colours you have used. Very summery feeling but as you said, we gardeners know what's in season :)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, beautiful blooms! They look heavenly.
ReplyDeleteWhat gorgeous arrangements!! I especially love the top one with the English roses and two different hydrangeas - just perfect! Flower arranging is one of the things I would really like to learn to do better, though maybe one of the problems is that I am loathe to cut my prettiest flowers out of the garden :)
ReplyDeleteIndie - the nice thing about planting shubs is that there are lots of flowers to cut! And my English roses send out these crazy-long shoots of flowers in the fall, so the shrub as a whole looks better when I just cut the long thing off and put the flowers in a vase.
ReplyDeleteSo lovely! I especially like the soft pinks with the 'Little Lime' hydrangeas.
ReplyDelete