October 18, 2011--farewell summer

This little arrangement was created by Eliza Binns, my almost-12-year-old granddaughter. We walked around the garden yesterday afternoon looking for what she might pick and I shouldn't have been surprised that she was underwhelmed by the roses, unimpressed by the coleus, and unmoved by the mums. What she loved, as she always does, were the tiny flowers--especially these pink salvia flowers (I think they're called Lipstick) and white fall asters.  I was thrilled that she gravitated toward the asters, because they are one of my favorite fall flowers, too. My friend Rosanne Shalf's grandfather taught her to call them Farewell Summer, which is one of the most poetic wildflower names I've ever heard.