Flowers in the House

Well, just barely!

A busy week and i missed the invitation.

Wednesday - flood in the kitchen

Friday - industrial fans and dehumidifier brought in.

Saturday - floor installer measured and estimated.

Sunday - fans removed and wet insulation pulled out from under the house. 

Still no contact with the adjuster, but we have hope...

... but, until a few minutes ago, we had no flowers. 

Fortunately, Mother Nature provided the most gorgeous purple iris - the kind that look like velvet - as well as the last of the woods hyacinths, and the first of the lilacs ('Miss Kim').

Thanks, Mom!

Please go visit Jane and all her other friends - you know, the ones who did their homework on time. 

Hot, hot, hot Flowers in the Housebll

Summer has returned to Central Virginia after an extending vacation somewhere in the middle of the country.  Yesterday the August heat and humid came slip sliding back into town.  How can I complain, tho, when it arrived on the next to the last day of the month?  It begs the question of what September will be like, but for now I shall proceed fat, dumb and happy and assume that September will be like .... well, September. 

The next question is: "So, what's in bloom in the garden?"  Answer: "Not a heck of a lot!"  

Most of the summer flowers are looking tired and spent and the fall blooms are still lying in wait for cooler nights.  In two weeks there will be plenty of chrysanthemums and some asters, but right now everything's just waiting - mostly for rain.

Except for the zinnias!  Wonderful zinnias.  The pinks that I put in as bedding plants in May are complaining of thirst, but the seeds are another story.  There's just one small problem ... they are yellow, and red and .... oh, horrors! ... orange! 

 I do not grow orange flowers. [And, i avoid red when I can.  Yellow is ok, in very small numbers and carefully placed.]  Last year they were  two shades of pink mixed with cream, but somehow I ordered the wrong mix this year.  They are gloriously happy in the cutting garden and brought a hot, hot, hot rush of color into the house. 

The only little bit of cool I managed to bring in was this bit of heliotrope that was growing in a pot on the deck.  Add a couple of tiny dahlias and some silver-white salvia and how much cooler could I want?  [I think the heliotrope will not last long in a vase, but the fragrance is worth trying!]

With Labor Day literally just over the horizon, summer is gone, but there is so much to look forward to in the fall.  Come have a cuppa on the shady deck and let's enjoy just one more hazy, hot and humid summer afternoon.  And, we'll still smell the heliotrope.

Thanks to Jane for hosting us again this month.  Be sure to stop by her house and see what's happening there. 

Flowers in the House

Finally!  It's flower time and time to invite you in for a glass of iced tea and a bit of floral fun!  

Our friends Elizabeth and Charles were here for the weekend, so we had more flowers inside than usual.

On the dining room table there's a pitcher of mixed flowers - Bee balm, salvia, snapdragons, cone flowers and yarrow with Solomon's Seal for greenery. 

On the coffee table, the only mophead hydrangea we have so far - Hydrangea macrophylla 'Bailmer' PPAF.  It's an everyblooming variety that I hope will bloom again later this summer,  but this was literally the only flower on the entire bush.

In fairness to the hydrangeas of the world, I also did a vase of the other one that is blooming.  This is another ever blooming variety, but somehow I have never felt any excitement about it.  Lace caps can be lovely, but this one hasn't much color and just seems dull. [Hydrangea macrophylla 'Lady in Red', with white and purple salvia, and angelonia.]

Finally, a few zinnias on the dresser in the guest room, just so they would know they were welcome!

So glad you stopped by.  Hoped to have a little sweet* to serve you ... but we ate it all this weekend.   Thanks to Jane for getting us organized and pushing us out into the garden to cut a posey or two. 

* 'Berry Shortcake Fool from Marie Viljoen's "66 Square Feet: A Delicious Life", page 99.  Plates were licked!

Flowers in the House

Jane's call to arms sent me out to the peony bed.  Despite heavy - and I do mean heavy! - rains and way too much wind over the past week, the peonies have just bloomed their little heads off!  Way too many blossoms have ended up on the ground, but I have been out cutting them as often as possible.

Even Mitchell noticed how good the house has been smelling. 

Am learning to cut them a little sooner than in previous years, and they seem to be doing well inside.  Today I added some native penstemon [penstemon digitalis] as well as agastache 'Ava' and some leaves from Solomon's seal.  There was one "odd" Dutch iris.  It's not one that I have ever planted, so must have been bird-planted or blown in, but I like it and it lasts longer in the vase than the rest that I have. 

 

There's one peony that I'm particularly interested in seeing "open".  It's the dark bud that looks a bit like a rose.  It has never bloomed before and so I don't know what it really looks like.  The bud is nearly as dark as the 'Scarlette O'Hara' peony that I love so much.  That one bloomed briefly, but got pounded by the rains and didn't make it to a photo shoot this year. 

Thanks to Jane at Small but Charming for hosting and organizing us!

Tulips in the House

Tulips - one of my very favorite flowers, along with ranunculus, of course.

And, this is the time of year when both are available.

So, out of my comfort level this month.  You know that arranging flowers is not a skill of mine - altho it is one that I am hoping to develop.

I saw this in the April "Better Homes and Gardens" and loved it.

Directions were included.

My version looks like this!  White tulips, honeysuckle vine and 'Blue Moon' phlox.

 Wish the directions had mentioned some moss to hide the oasis.  it would have looked nicer.

The left over tulips do well in a tall container.

And, did I mention ranunculus?  Not only are they available, but they are available on my back deck and next to my chair!

Life is good. 

Thank you, Jane.  You have really challenged me this time.  Hope everyone will hop over to Small But Charming and see who else is home today.

Flowers in the House ...

... for Valentine's Day. 

Another raw, gray day in a string of raw, gray days ... to be followed by at least three more raw, gray days.  

Thank goodness for Jane's challenge to bring in some flowers!

Keeping it simple and going with favorites.  How can you beat tulips and iris?  I can't.  It will still be weeks before much life returns to these parts, but what are a good reminder that it will happen. 

Hope you will visit Jane and her merry band of flower posters.  I'll have a pot of tea on for you, and am sure someone else will have scones, or muffins, or some nice treat.

And, happy Valentine's Day to all.  Hope you are with someone special!

Flowers in the House

With great reluctance i approached the garden Sunday morning.  No time to try to buy flowers - sometimes Fresh Market has nice ones - and the first colder nights have started killing the blooms. 

So imagine my surprise - thank you, Jane! - when I found hydrangeas!  seriously, hydrangeas in bloom.  And, even better .... [we need a drum roll for this] the Monk's Hood is blooming.  It never blooms.  Don't know why i didn't dig it up years ago.  This is only the second time EVER.

 

When i realized mid-June that i had chosen annuals for cutting that were all basically too short for a vase, i stopped paying much attention to the annuals, except to appreciate the color they added to the overall look of the garden.  And, they have been great - blooming steadily the entire summer.  The cold nights have finally killed most of the zinnias, but look what's left ... Globe Amaranth.  I've never grown them before, never cut them, and certainly not put them in a vase.  Look what I was missing!

 

And the roses must love these cooler nights, because they are blooming their little heads off.

 

There were actually lots of things to bring inside, and it made me happy that Jane had made me open my eyes and take a better look. 

If you haven't visited the rest of the flowers, please hop over to Small But Charming, and visit with Jane.  She often has a cup of tea ready, and sometimes a little something to eat.  If not, come back here.  Earl Grey's perking and i made a pumpkin souffle, so we can visit.  Jane, you can come, too.

Flowers in the House

The second best thing about Flowers in the House is how much it has taught me about my own garden.  I always panic when Jane says it's time.  Then I start strolling and suddenly see possibilities - this week two variations on the same theme.

  

It's still zinnia time but the sedum are really kicking it in.  So this week we have the version above on the dining room table.  It's sedum 'Madrona' which has a more rounded form and a creamier beigy-pink flower that will eventually turn to bronze.  For it i found zinnias that were also a soft yellowy pink and some so pale that they look grey.  Add a few Ladies Mantle, a white dahlia and voila.

In the living room sedum 'Autumn Joy' is holding forth with blue-pink zinnias and a fall ageratum.  A brighter, bluer arrangement.

The left-overs made a nice little bunch for the mantle, with the addition of a few salvia 'Black and Blue'.  Honestly, I seldom cut sedum for the house... why the heck not?

And, it wouldn't be fair to forget my little reading table by my chair.  The big full blossom that is David Austin's 'Sister Elizabeth' and a spray of a little unknown pink mini-roses.

Please hop over to Jane's Small but Charming house and see who else would like for you to come visit.  I have the tea pot on, so please come back soon.   

The first best thing, of course, is you!

Flowers, flowers, flowers in the House!

This  - finally - is what all that planning and planting is all about!  Enough flowers to just cut what I want and bring it inside.

After many years of leaving them all in the garden, I have finally started cutting my calla lilies.  Why have I let them stay outside, instead of enjoying them right where I can see them.  These are now on the coffee table - front and center!

And, no, this is not last week's bunch of posies!  Altho it looks very similar.  Mitchell liked the low rectangular vase so much that I used it again this week.  This time I added zinnias to the callas and monarda, instead of hydrangeas and salvia.  Next week, I think it will be zinnias and salvia.  I miss the touch of blue.   These babies are on the dining room table.

Another flower i seldom cut for the house is garden phlox.  These are the first blooms with some scabiosa, and a bit of salvia.  Why don't i cut these more often?

And last, a  single lacecap hydrangea next to my chair.  This is 'Taube' - so simple and so pretty!

 Go visit Jane and see what other folks have in their gardens and houses today.  And, thanks to Belinda for dragging me kicking and screaming into the cutting garden.  It's a lot of fun!

Flowers in the House

Oh, no!  Too hard! Can't do it!

Those were my first thoughts when Jane invited us over for a cup of tea and to see her flowers.  

All the action is outside, don't you know.  There's absolutely nothing to cut now.

So she forced me to take a little stroll around the house and to look at things a new way.

The last of the hellebores are still nice.  The woods hyacinths are blooming well.  The fothagilla is lovely.  And, there are a couple of my neighbor's lilacs hanging on my side of the line ....

Not my usual things, but who says you have to do what you always do.  They probably won't last long ... but that's ok. 

Join me for a glass of tea on the deck and we talk about the resilience of our friends in Boston, and about how we all need to support each other as we can.  Then please go over to Jane's and see who really has pretty things to share.

"No more hurting people ... peace."  

~Martin Richards, age 8

Flowers in the House

It's a challenge this time of year to get something from the garden.

But the hellebores seldom disappoint.

And, if I am lucky this beauty will be open before the day is out.

 

Life is good!

Be sure to stop by Jane's house and see who else is home today!

Flowers in the House!

It's Monday.

It's New Year's Eve!

And, it's Flowers in the House!

These will go on the dining room table, but don't photograph well against the cherry wood.

Three reasons to celebrate today.  Sadly, nothing really blooming in the yard - altho the hellebores are trying hard and will join us in a few days.  Maybe a camellia or two, as well. 

A new vase for Christmas - you'll see lots of it in the spring, I think.

So, it's purchased poseys for me - mini-carnations in the most shocking purple and a bit of white stuff, plus the obligatory rosemary from the garden.

On the coffee table with a mirror underneath for tonight.

I do like a little bling for New Year's Eve, so have mixed silver and purple balls (not even left over from Christmas, but purchased for NYE several years ago).

Bowls of balls - just wherever!

If you haven't already been over to visit our Hostess, Jane, please hop over there and see who else is joining the party today.  It promises to be Small, but Charming!

 

And, Happy New Year!

(Unauthorized) Flowers in the House

Near the top of my list of things I love at Christmas is the table: making an arrangement, deciding just how I want to set it and all that good stuff. 

This year there will be five of us: our friend from South Africa who has joined us for many years and a happy new addition.  One of the Lebanese teens we sponsored for immigration to the U.S. is all grown up and married.  He and his new bride will join us for their first "American" Christmas.  His parents are visiting family in Lebanon this year and his brothers are with family in other cities, so they will enlarge our circle this year.

I hope Jane will forgive me for sharing flowers on "her day", but I know she is working today and doesn't have time or energy to host a flower party this month.

She would be proud of me, tho, that I filled both containers with water and oasis last night and let them sit and soak.  Although I purchased the flowers in a ready-chosen bunch, I did gather the greens from the yard:  'Otto Lueken' myrtle, rosemary and some 'Blue Rug' juniper that grows as a ground cover by the door. (I cleverly used it to cover the oasis in the sides of glass bowl.)

 

When I got the greens in, I wanted to stop.  

 

I loved how they looked and didn't want to tackle the challenge of adding the flowers.  But I am glad that I did.  Here are the finished products.  The tall one (at the top) for the buffet in a milk glass compote that I bought recently just for this purpose.

And Mother's gorgeous glass dish.  A wedding gift to my parents during WWII that has survived children, moves and many Christmases.  One of my favorite things!  And, just think ... we only have to be good for one more night!

Noel!