Almost all the garden work I do is done in frantic bursts. I rush outside and sprinkle some lettuce seeds in a square section of one of our raised beds. I run out and weed the herbs for fifteen minutes. I quickly mix up some rose spray and douse the bushes before I take a shower. Often, I am spurred to action because the forecast calls for rain and I want to get a new plant in the ground first so it can take advantage of that heavenly watering-in or I want to get some herbs harvested before they get sodden.
We are supposed to get significant rain over the next few days, so this morning I rushed out in the beginnings of it to cut some cilantro for the tortilla soup I plan for tonight’s supper. While I was at it, I grabbed some blooms for a simple bouquet.
I might as well – heavy rain will make one of my rose’s blossoms “ball” (they won’t really open) – and the rest will get bedraggled to one degree or another if they stay outside.
Bloom is just getting started on the roses and peonies. I took care to cut stems with only one bud – on stems with multiples only the central largest one is advanced enough to open once cut, and I don’t want to lose the future blooms on the tightly closed buds.
I’m no expert at floral design by any means – my arrangements are very casual. I do follow a few guidelines:
1. Gather odd numbers of each flower – here I have three David Austin “Brother Cadfael” roses, three D. Austin “Wm. Shakespeare 2000” roses, three nameless medium pink peony buds, and so on.
2. Each stem doesn’t need to be a bloom. Lambs’ ears make very nice “filler” for bouquets. I love the silvery, velvety texture they add to the blooms and other leaves.
3. Make the bouquet “in hand” before putting it in the container. This method seems to work better for yard flowers than trying to stick sometimes crooked or bend-y stems individually into the container. I just place the stems into one of my hands and “build” the arrangement that way before plopping the whole shebang into my pitcher or jar or whatever I’m using.
4. Beauty is in the eye… if I think it’s pretty, it’s pretty. Don’t over think.
I don’t always take time to cut flowers for the house, but when I do I’m always glad I did.
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