RICH REDS I’ve made more than my share of red, white, and blue centerpieces for patriotic-themed parties, and it’s not an easy combination. Blue flowers are rare, and forcing those three colors into one arrangement can give some pretty garish results. It’s better to combine reds and whites in a bouquet and bring in the blue with a tablecloth or placemats to create a more natural Fourth of July look. The greens provide a neutral backdrop and a more casual […]
There’s something magical about blue flowers. True blue – real blue – is not easily found in flowers, and they don’t seem to grow just anywhere, or for anyone. A morning glory is such a simple flower, with its delicate Madonna-blue spirals, but when was the last time you saw one? They favor sunny spots, moist soil, and a rusty mailbox or old copper downspout to climb to make them perfectly happy. They flourish in the summer, when their color […]
If you’re going to be spending some time at the beach, it’s always nice to add a few simple blooms to your house to cozy up the space. A blossom or two in a simple container brings the outdoors inside and can add a gentle fragrance that will always remind you of this special vacation time. And isn’t that what we remember first and most fondly – those little moments of perfect happiness when the blue delphinium fluttered in a […]
Aren’t they tempting, those fresh-looking bouquets for sale at farmer’s markets? The bounty, the color, the variety! And there are always flowers you won’t find at your local florists, because they are seasonal and local, and so much more appealing because of their rarity. It’s impossible not to be happy with a bouquet of farm market flowers in your tote – until you get them home and they start to wilt before you can get them in a vase… What […]
One of my favorite summer activities as a kid was making flower crowns out of wild flowers. I would pick daisies and sweet peas that grew in the apple orchard behind the barn, and braid them together into long chains, which I fastened into wreaths with a piece of grape-tying wire from the barn. The barn was fascinating too – old millstones, dusty steamer trunks from when my grandparents came to America, rusty tools, and always the aroma of homemade […]
