A few thoughts as the the end of my 52 week attempt at arranging from the garden  is closing in…….

I have enjoyed it immensely and most certainly learned a thing or two about my garden, my schedule, and my  arranging skills ( or lack thereof)

Looking back over what has transpired, I  guess I firmed up what I knew already regarding  how I like to display flowers which is usually quite uninspired and a little boring , but I like to think of it as natural . i really don’t care for manipulated arrangements a and  I never ever use floral foam so being restricted to vases and vase- like things I never compose anything artsy. Oh well, I am who I am

.Next year I will make an effort to try to get a bit out of my comfort zone and see what I can dream up.

I also learned that when the garden is at its most bountiful  is when I like to cut flowers the least. This mostly has to do with how busy I am out there keeping it all  at it’s best and less importantly but true all the same  the fact  that looking at it all day outside  means I am less inclined to want to bring any indoors.

Here are two more made using late season “stuff’  and making the most of the stands of chrysanthemums I grow as well as all the glorious Fall foliage.

An old bud vase filled with oak leaf hydrangea leaves, two  mums ( Wil’s Wonderful and Centerpiece), a single stem of yellow twig dogwood and a sprig of thyme that came back into bloom . It is standing in front of a rosemary plant and next to some coleus cuttings that are rooting in water.

This next one is a tiny teapot filled first with the burnishing foliage of small leaved azaleas,  some leaves and hips from rosa glauca, two stems from honeysuckle ‘Major Wheeler’ ( in bloom since May!) pods of Siberian iris, salvia,  mums,gallardia,  and the drying flowers of allium thungbergii ‘Ozawa’

Just in case you were curious, we have had many hard frosts and mostly  cold nights , a few down to the 20’s or even teens, but a recent week of warmer weather during the day has brought a few things ( like the salvia and thyme) back to life.