Flowers from yard to vase

Soils, the flowers in the garden are as beautiful as your arrangements. My "cut garden" looks terrible, esp now with the heat, but it looked sad to begin with. I've really enjoyed this thread, which has motivated me to keep trying.

Happy 21st to your son. Mine turned 2 in May.. . .just another 19 years to go.

Candee and Karma - thanks for the birthday wishes. It has been many years since I was twenty one too. He's my youngest - my two older girls have both graduated from college. I look back on the baby years with great fondness - so Karma and Candee - you have so much to look forward to, with your son and granddaughter, respectively. I don't have a formal cutting garden - I just try to plant perennials, bulbs, and self-seeding annuals so that I will have a splash of color throughout the yard at all times. I don't have the large drifts of colors that you would find in more formal gardens. - and love that arrangement with the astilbe and the purple iris (is it a Siberian iris?)

Bletilla striata (Chinese ground orchids) are not a very common cut flower, but they do make good cut flowers and are very easy to grow. They can take a variety of sun/shade combinations. The purple ones I have growing in morning sun/afternoon shade, the white ones are grown in practically all sun. They bloom earlier in the year so they bloom before the weather goes too hot (in April) so these set of photos are out of chronological sequence. Here is the purple variety

And here is the white variety. In this photo, they have a purplish hue, but they are pretty white. They add a nice understory to the white tree peony.

And the purple ones in a vase. Plants will die back in the winter, but comes back vigorously every year, spreading enough to pass to friends and family.

Soil, they are really pretty. Yes they are siberian iris, I like them a bit better than the bearded.

Ohhh gosh, just look at all these pretty arrangements! AND such a handsome young man. Happy Birthday to you! Have a wonderful life!
Soilandup, you have been busy. I love your Alstromeras, (wish I had some)! they last so long in arrangements too. The Callas are beautiful, like the way you presented the two vases with the complimentary colours. I haven't seen the ground Orchid before, very nice to see it close up in the vase, Thank you!
Candee, your vase of flowers says.... summer is here, Lovely, Thanks!

Thanks, I wish I had better luck with the astillbe. I must have planted 20 of those over the years and all different kinds and I am lucky to have about 5 and only the pink one is producing right now and perhaps will have one white in another week or two. I have also noticed this year that the jupiters beard (valerian) is not lasting long in the arrangements. In past years I have actually used it over again when all the other flowers in the vase had vanished, but now it appears to be one of the first to drop and die in the vase?

Terri - thanks for your kind comments. You should try the ground orchids. They are very easy to grow and spreads very nicely. They last 4-5 days in arrangements. They are quite delicate looking, so they can be overwhelmed by other flowers.
Candee - I have not used red valerians much as cut flowers in the past, but I remember that they wilted really quickly.

Easter lilies bloom in June in my neck of the woods. These are transplanted into the yard from potted Easter lilies and have been in the ground for several years. I have heeded warnings not to plant them next to other lilies to prevent possible spread of diseases, but I am not sure if that is a real danger or not.

And here they are in a vase. I have increased my bed of Easter lilies by offering to take the spent plants off of people's hands :).

Wow! Soilsandup, your vase of lilies looks so elegant and arranged with such perfect placement! Is that a Peony leaf? Really lovely. Thank you!

I don't really know about lilies, they either get the lily bug or the snails eat them here so I gave up with the oriental types
I will look out for those Orchids when I go to the next flower show at Hampton Court in July, they sell allsorts there!.

Terri-yes, those are peony leaves in the arrangement. I get a lot of slugs and snails too. Have to manually pick the snails all the time. For the slugs, since they are so tiny and slimy, I have to resort to snail bait.

Pale pink roses flowering.....

Geranium

Sweet Peas

Sweet scabious

I used some wire over a clear vase to hold the flowers in place.

The sweet peas smell nice!

Love those colors Terri, very posh spring. What are the pins sticking into and is that excelsior wafting around the vines? You know I had 2 huge bags of that from a fountain that we had shipped to us several years ago and I used some for swag arrangements of dried flowers and then after saving it in the top of the garage a few years, for some reason finally pitched it out and now I see it costs an arm and leg in the stores? Sure need my head examined sometimes!
Beautiful lilies, I agree it is so elegant. Good eye for that leaf ID Terri. I dont have a problem with slugs here and am so glad I don't cause they are some ugly!

Terri - I love sweet peas and their fragrance - but have not grown them in years. I keep forgetting to plant them. You are lucky to have them in your garden. Lovely pastel colors!! Are those pins , or are they beads threaded through the wires? The wires is a great way to keep the flowers upright and to add another layer of interest to the arrangement. I have used chicken wire in the past, but I normally have that covered up with foliage to hide it since it is not as pretty as the wires that you used. Candee - I envy your slug-less garden. The snails attack the plants from the top, and the slugs eat the bulbs underground. And the river rats vie with the squirrels and birds for the fruits.

Thanks candee and Soilsandup. Yes, the beads are threaded through the decoratve wire. They sell the wires in different colours, it's nice to experiment.
Candee, I don't know what you mean by excelsior??
My garden is really bad for slugs and snails, for some reason they leave the sweet peas alone.

Excelsior is a kind of packaging stuff that is like straw and is used in arrangements sometimes and particularly in dried hanging arrangements often used to hide the dried stems in arrangements or to spill out over a pot.

Thank you for the information! Never heard of it! Sounds a bit like sisel.

Here is one plant that was not what I expected when I first got it. I was looking for a medium-sized shrub, around 3-4 feet tall. I purchased this buddleja (I had always spelled it buddleia, then found out I was wrong) about three years ago. It has grown to over 10 feet every year (the fence behind it is 8 ft tall), and I have had to prune it hard every year. I did not know that buddlejas came in such a huge range of heights. I was fortunate in that I planted it in a space where it was OK for it to be bigger than expected, and it does give out a profusion of lovely purplish-pink spirals.

And here it is in a vase. I usually try to make the arrangements so that it reflects the look of the plants outdoors.

Beautiful Dianne, yes they do get quite large. I just transplanted one from one area to another and it was about 8'. I barely got any root with it at all as it was way too much for me to manage, but that was about 1 month ago and it is thriving heartily, so I don't think they are easily harmed either. We cut ours back to the ground every year and it just grows like crazy.

Good idea to reflect the look of the plant in your arrangement display. Nice one!

Happy summer Everyone! One of my favorite summer blooms is stokesias. Pictured here is a blue one, along with a peach-white one that I planted last year. To the right is a lavatera.

Had to do a mix bouquet this time since I didn't get around to cutting the flowers until it was past their prime. Since I don't have a separate cutting garden, I tend to leave the flowers intact while they are at their peak, and then cut them for arrangements towards the end of their bloom period. Kind of a dual purpose pre-mature deadheading. Two kinds of stokesia with larkspur and yarrow as fillers.

Happy Summer Dianne! Beautiful! Love the bucket too.

I must have just thought I responded to this thread, but was sure I had and here is what I recall I was going to say:
I am lucky to have stokesia that looks that good ever - let alone when it is close to being finished. Deadheading is not something I do as much as I should and so may keep this idea in my head for the next cuttings.
Very pretty and really like the bucket, and that is what I remember I was going to say when I saw your post last evening !

Thanks Terri and Candee. Summers are hot here and the varieties of flowers in bloom are dwindling. One plant that always provide a nice bright splash of color is the crocosmia. Pictured here with Russelia equisetiformis (firecracker plant). Crocosmias spread freely with lots of little bulblets. It is ironic that the one place that I wanted them to thrive - they died. I have them in three areas around the house - this area under the cherry tree is shaded most of the time. They do well in sun too.

And here are the two plants in a vase. The Russelia equisetiformis gives a nice drapey look to the arrangement.

Oh that is BEAUTIFUL> I love crocosmia! it's such a great plant, so many good parts to it. The leaves are great for weaving and the seed pods are great to dry and spray for winter arrangements and the flowers are lovely! What more could you want?
Lovely arrangement in the jug, just perfect!

It usually flowers in August/September here. I have a new yellow one, looking forward to seeing how that flowers this year.

That looks fabulous, oh how I wish mine had not croaked. Perhaps I will have to go find some somewhere as you Terri have really peaked my curiosity when you mention about the pods for winter arrangements. Don't believe I have ever seen them in yellow, be sure to post when yours bloom.
They really look great blooming in your garden as well sands.

Candee - If I remember, come fall, I can dig some up and send them to you. Send me an email to remind me sometime in Oct/Nov. I have tons of them. What I do now is when I pick the flowers, I just pull up the whole thing, and then throw the corms away.

Terri - I have not seen a yellow one either so am looking forward to see how yours do.

Dianne

My Daylilies have started to open....

Seeing your jug of Crocosmia reminded me I have a jug! First I jazzed it up a bit with some Day lily leaves.

Lilies and leaves..