Table Nosegays and Roses

I love flowers.

Flowers on dishes.

Both ways

on plate designs and

live garden flowers on plates.

Summer is here

and it's a beautiful way

to celebrate it.

Do you remember looking at the window

waiting for it to come?

I had an idea to put an assortment of nosegay

flowers, petals and fronds at each plate.

A little afternoon tea entertainment.

The weather has been fabulous.

Hope you are enjoying Summer!!!

Connecting with: Tuesday Garden Party 
and Between Naps on the Porch

 

Sedums For Everyone

Sedums are grown for their foliage and are getting more popular grown in pots. They look like succulents, but are very winter hardy, first to come up in spring and die down last in the fall. No green thumb needed.

Gather up a few different varieties and plant them together in a large pot or for the center of your outdoor table that gets full sun. They are super in sunny windowboxes. This year I am going to put a few cannas in the very center, for height, with the sedums. You could use ornamental grasses with them with wonderful results as well. Or a small topiary shrub. One thing about gardening everyone creates their gardens a bit differently and that is exciting.

My cannas I started earlier are starting to finally get going and stretch upwards. We've had so many cool rainy days the last two weeks that has almost put them back to sleep. Yesterday afternoon it got up to 80 and today is to be hot so they will shake a leg and get moving now. I think they give the garden a tropical exotic touch.

A Walk in the Garden Foliage & Cuttings

This cool 49 degree chill makes for brisk walking unless you are looking at perennials and shrubs. Then I dawdle a bit. I picked a few leaves and cuttings to bring inside. Rather holiday colors---the burgundy foliage and evergreens that I love. Burgundy and lime green are very catchy colors.

From bottom left moving clockwise in the ABOVE photo is euphorbia, hydrangea leaf, ruby fringeflower cutting, yew cutting, purple sage, bugbane, cedar cutting, coral bells leaf, cypress cutting.

I didn't bring in all the burgundies. That way I can flutter around, from plant to shrub, and gather another little "foliage bouquet" on my next walk. Why don't we wear foliage boutonieres? Or carry foliage nosegays?

After I took the picture I put them on the tablecloth and the red made the green color pop out. This is what every gardener does...walks around with leaves to match or contrast foliage. Some designers do it in their head, but it's so much better to actually walk around outside holding up leaves and comparing in the garden while the leaves fall like confetti on you and the woodpecker keeps a steady beat. The squirrels chitter-chatter and scramble up trees that no longer hide them.

Somehow in the fall the squirrels think the gardens are theirs! That is when our westie doggy boy is inside the house. They keep a very low profile when he is running with his nose to the ground. The ground that is still waiting for more tulip and daffodil bulbs to be planted...sigh

Orange Mums Burgundy Purple Coral Bells Foliage

Another variation of the orange and plum/purple colors. The mums are a burnt orange and the shadows in the flowers petals are the same plum color as the heuchera, "obsidian" coral bells' leaves. The same color combination as I showed from the day before, but different plants and intensities of color.

The Fall season really has alot going for it if you have contrasting foliage and flower combinations next to the oranges, reds and yellows! I have been a burgundy or royal purple, as some call it, foliage fan for years! The purple makes the orange seem more intense.

Pyracantha Red-Plum Fall Colors

Going outside and seeing the plants and their beautiful colors in the fall helps artists see some of the best color combinations! I continue to learn everyday and I keep taking pictures to help me remember the colors. The berries of the pyracantha shrub are red and orange now. The birds will feed on the plump orange lanterns during the winter. The plum color of the "mardi gras"abelia leaves and the orange pumpkin sitting there...luscious!


On the other side the blue-gray gravel tempers the colors, but it is still a nice contrast.

Why I like pyracantha also called the firethorn bush is because it is evergreen. Two, it has white flowers in the spring and these beautiful berries in the fall/winter. Birds can make their nests in it and be safe from the hawks. We have plenty of those in the country.

Yay for evergreens! Sometimes we don't appreciate them enough til everything else dies down. These are the bones of the garden.......and look the color, too!

HOT Burgundy Foliage Garden Colors

The colors just sizzle together; don't they? The burgundy foliage annual (for us in US zone 6) is an ornamental pepper called, "Black Pearl." The leaves are glossy and the color is "Hot!" Pair it up with orange and it's a smashing success. You could also choose an burnt orange crocosmia instead of an orchid.

(Do you think that this arrangement is up against stone? It is actually a chalkboard that has been erased over and over again and it has the patina of stone.)