Sept. 7, 2011--hunk of honeysuckle

Yesterday, it was so much fun finding a nice big hunk of honeysuckle blooming in the garden--in the pouring rain! Brought it in and stuck it in a vase. This is just one central stem of honeysuckle with multiple side shoots--some blooming, some just leafy. I thought it would look pretty whereever I put it, but I can't seem to find a proper home for it. First photo shows it on a kitchen windowsill. second shows it on a bedroom windowsill where I like it much better. Second arrangement also includes a couple of sunflowers with their petals removed. I stole them from another windowsill arrangement just to help anchor the honeysuckle stem in the blue pot, but I think they also add something to the design.  Part of the problem with both arrangements  is that the longest leafy stems are so long they require an uncluttered background to show them off. It's hard to find that on a windowsill, but I seem to be unwilling to cut them off!

Sept. 6, 2011--hibiscus in holder

On August 17, I was wondering whether or not hibiscus flowers last more than a day. Learned they don't.  Also learned later, from Louise Witherspoon, that there is a glass container called an hibuscus holder that is/was used to hold hibiscus flowers out of water (where they last pretty well for about 12 hours). The vase itself is shaped like a flower, and Louise has two of them (see below).  I will definitely be on the lookout for an hibiscus holder at antique shops from now on! Or maybe they still make them? These were Louise's mother's, I think.

Anyway, photo and arrangement below are by Louise Witherspoon--hibiscus in hibuscus holder in windowsill (with okra)! Thanks, Louise!

Sept. 5, 2011---better than yesterday

Well, I took the flowers and okra from yesterday's disaster and used them differently in a different windowsill.  I like this much better. With much shorter stems, the sunflowers weren't as uncooperative.  The petals of some of the sunflowers had wilted, so I just pulled them off and used the seed heads with green bracts in the middle vase. I like this little lineup of sunflowers and okra at different stages of development. And I like that fact that it wouldn't have happened without yesterday's failure.

Sept. 4, 2011--uncle

I guess if scientists should report negative results, flower arrangers should, too. Today I tried to add some sunflowers to yesterday's okra ladder. In my mind's eye, the yellow sunflowers formed sort of a ruff around the base of the okra. However: the sunflowers I was using had been toppled by hurricane Irene, and they had incredibly wacky postures. I used stick stilts and crutches and all sorts of techniques like wrapping them behind the okra stems to get their faces to look up, but the harder I tried,  the worse the results got. This just flat out didn't work. And yet,  I'd still rather look at these sunflowers in a bad arrangement than look at them on the ground in the garden. Second photo shows me trying to coax the sunflowers into better postures with my hand.  I finally gave up, cried uncle, and moved on to making supper. Please let it be more successful than my arranging!  

Sept. 3, 2011---okra ladder, etc.

The flowers/gourds, etc. that were in the kitchen windowsill on Aug. 28 are still there---including the yellow zinnias I thought were spent on Aug. 28! They seem to be drying in the vase. And the okra pods in the middle vases are drying and spilling seeds.  In the process of adding more okra pods to those vases, I discovered some toppled okra plants on the ground in the garden. Picked them and put them in tall glass vase to form the okra ladder in second photo. Okra pods are just so interesting to look at. I grow them for the pods (to use in arranging), but I guess I've got to learn to cook them someday!

Sept. 2, 2011---zinnia leftovers

These zinnias were the ragged and broken-stemmed ones leftover from a larger arrangement I did today.  I cut their stems shorter, added a couple of stems of blackberry lily (at pod stage) and a small sunflower with all its wilting petals pulled off, then pulled them together into this tight-lipped jar. All these colors, in  real life, look sort of subdued and antiquey, which I like. In fact, I like this arrangement better than the big one I did first with the "good" flowers!

Below is the bigger arrangement from which the leftovers came.

Sept. 1, 2011--through John's eyes

Today the Flower Camp garden is probably more lush than it has ever been. I'm not kidding--every time we have needed rain here this summer we have gotten it, and hurricane Irene didn't reach this far inland to any significant degree. We're still without power in Ashland (day 6), but here you'd never know Irene had struck. So when John and I surveyed the garden this afternoon, I was all a-twitter with things I wanted him to see.  But I tried to stay quiet and see through his eyes instead of mine. In vase below are the two things, In an expanse of about 1/4 acres of cut flowers, that impressed/interested him most. One was the Rudbeckia triloba  that I've been using over and over again this summer (a very small-flowered black-eyed Susan) and the other was he skeletonized leaf of an artemisia. "I wonder what's eating that?" John wondered. I think it's flea beetles, but what does a flea beetle look like? I don't know.

The amazing thing about the "arrangement" above, is that it's what resulted from the most lush, almost over-abundant, cutting garden I've ever had. I decided to allow myself one photo to show how amazing it was, but, of course, my camera doesn't see what my eye does.  Below is bad photo of a beautiful scene awash with sunflowers, marigolds, tithonia, marigolds, celosia, artemisia, etc. And at least half of it is flowers that I didn't plant, including the Rudbeckia triloba and artemisia---things that seeded in from last year.