Why buy flowers when you have a beautiful flower garden out back? Hand-picking flowers from your own garden will create a bouquet with more personality, more country charm and more thoughtfulness. There is also much more variety and potential while scanning your backyard. Whether your lover has had a bad day or you just want to impress for a date, there are many ways to create summer bouquets right from your very own flower bed.
Step one toward creating vivid summer floral bouquets is, of course, the planting. The best time to begin is late March in the West or May in the East, after the threat of frost has diminished. According to Beth Benjamin, floral expert at Renee’s Garden Seed Company, the best flower garden picks are cosmos, sunflowers and zinnias. In the front row of her garden, she’s planted purplish blue cerinthe, deep violet love-in-a-mist and phlox. Her second row is comprised of white cosmos flanked by chartreuse bells-of-Ireland and backed by white ammi majus as filler. In the third row, round colorful zinnias grow next to blue and red salvia. The fourth row hangs ardent love-lies-bleeding to the left and cherry pink cleome to the right, flanked by pink and rose cosmos. In the rear, tall sunflowers grow with strawflowers at each end.
Early morning is the best time to cut garden flowers, says floral industry consultant Libbey Oliver from Williamsburg, Virginia. She says that you should bring a container of water and sharp clippers while hunting for perfect blooms for your summer bouquets. A sharp cut will allow water to travel up the stem into the flower head, prolonging the lifespan of the bloom. "Choose blossoms that are newly opened and buds just beginning to unfurl. Cut flowers one at a time, and immediately place each stem in the water," she instructs. Before arranging floral bouquets, you should remove excess foliage so it doesn’t detract from your display. A few leaves here and there are okay, but if there are any leaves underwater, you’re just asking for bacteria to breed, shortening the life of the bouquet.
Summer bouquets can be colorful or fragrant, relaxing or invigorating, country or contemporary, depending on your selection. Nothing sets the mood like a bit of fresh nature in your living space. A recent Harvard Study found that people who had floral bouquets in their homes were generally happier, with greater productivity at work. They felt more compassionate and more energetic, the study found. "Other research has proven that flowers make people happy when they receive them," said head researcher Nancy Etcoff. "What we didn’t know is that spending a few days with flowers in the home can influence a wide variety of feelings."
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Posted under Home Gardening
This post was written by Noel D'Costa on May 17, 2009
