Happy Friday! I put together a quick and easy garden arrangement with flowers and greenery from the garden for a little flower therapy.
Endless Summer Hydrangeas are thriving and loving the abundance of rainfall we’ve gotten recently. . .
Butterfly Bush is blooming with pink plumes and butterflies. . .
And the soft, silvery stalks of Lamb’s Ear with their pinkish-purple colored flowers are buzzing with bumble bees.
To make an easy garden flower arrangement, gather some blooms and greenery. Cut your flowers and greenery in the morning when the stems are fully hydrated and not water-stressed from the heat.
Strip all the leaves from the bottom half to two-thirds of each stem removing any foliage below the water line to prevent decay and bacteria.
Cut the stems at a 45-degree angle one inch from the bottom for maximum water uptake.
Condition the flowers and foliage by placing them in a bucket of clean water and leave in a cool place for at least two to three hours or even better, overnight.
I used an enamel bucket that I grabbed from the Potting Shed, ideal for this easy arrangement, that lends a cottage garden/farmhouse touch, to enjoy on the porch. Place a wide mouth vase or smaller bucket inside a larger one, filling both with water. Add your larger leaves and greenery between the walls of the vase or bucket. You can use this method, using the containers or vases you have on hand.
I used a combination of hosta leaves along with greenery from the shrubs, laurel and kaleidoscope abelia. The greenery will form a base to support the flower stems, without having to use floral foam or chicken wire to build your arrangement, keeping the flowers and greenery loose and casual, with a ‘just-picked’ from the garden feeling.
Queen Anne’s Lace is blooming, free for the picking in the field next to my Potting Shed.
If you don’t have any commercial floral preservative to add to your water, you can make your own to help your cut flowers last longer. There are a lot of homemade solutions and theories about adding aspirin, vinegar, vodka, bleach, sugar, and pennies to your vase water to prolong the life of your flowers.
Here’s an easy formula I use to help prolong the life of cut flowers:
Mix one part lemon-lime soda (regular, not diet) to three parts water, along with 1/2 teaspoon of bleach. The citric acid in the soda help the water travels up the stems to the flowers more rapidly, while providing food in the form of sugar. The bleach helps fight the growth of bacteria, allowing the flowers to stay hydrated and fresh.
To help your cut hydrangeas last, use the alum-dipping method.
You can find more flower arranging tips, here.
“Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.”
~ Luther Burbank
What’s blooming in your garden?
Thank you for your visit!
Just picked look is refreshing
Beautiful arrangements and I learned some great tips.
Mary, thank you so much for your great tips. I love a loose, just picked arrangement. We had some needed rain yesterday and everything looks fresh and happy this morning!
Picking and arranging flowers from my garden is what I live for in the summer..it’s such a wonderful feeling of accomplishment when you go out and start cutting flowers that you grew!! I also add lots of herbs too!! Thanks for the arranging tips!!🌸🌺🦋🌼🌻🌹
Very organic, I like it. Thanks for repeating the homemade preserver recipe – I pinned it this time. I ran out of the grocery store packets this past week and knew you’ve posted this before. My butterfly bushes have just begun blooming this past week, along with black-eyed Susans and more coneflowers. Still babying transplants and encouraging annuals to fill in.
I love being in Maine these next few months as there’s always something in bloom that makes for easy arranging. Flowers from the garden make for a happy house, and judging from what you do yours is very happy!
Pretty arrangement. I adore queen annes lace and how nice it is free for the picking.Your butterfly bush has the most vibrant color.
I will be pinning about the homemade preservative proportions. Glad for the rain but I think we have had more than we need.
I love the carefree look of your arrangement, Mary. Using the container within the outer container is a great tip. Thanks for your method of keeping the flowers fresh. Happy weekend to you! xx
Mary, Your arrangement is so pretty — it makes me feel relaxed and very happy. The combination of blues, purples and assorted greens is one of my favorite. We are in the middle of peony bloom time right now, the allium are amazing, and the irises are trying to bloom (I cannot grow iris!!). The rhodies and white lilacs are just gone and the spirea is starting to open. My new knockout roses are blooming beautifully, and I’m holding my breath as I watch the buds growing on my hydrangea. I think they may be back this year!! If so I will try the alum you recommend. I wonder if that affects their ability to dry? All my lilies seem to have given it up after being munched on too many times by bambi and friends. Thank you for all the beauty and good advice! Linda
Thanks for the “sunshine, food and medicine for the soul” this morning. Beautiful flowers, and those blue hydrangeas are stunning!
What a pretty arrangement, I love the vase inside the bucket idea, with the added Hosta and greenery. Lilacs are done as well as my Iris, but the Allium are in full bloom and I just cut all my beautiful Peonies to save from the thunderstorm. I have 2 large vases full and they are so beautiful! My one Hydrangea bush actually has 6 buds on it and I’m so excited as last year it only had 2. My other bush is all leaves. :( The Balloon Flowers are growing fast and can’t wait for their fun buds to show and then I love how they pop open into pretty star-like flowers. Cone flowers and Black Eyed Susan should be coming along and then the Heavenly Blue Morning Glories! Even though gardening can be very labor intensive, it is so rewarding when the flowers bloom. Thanks Mary for the great advise.
I planted balloon flowers this year, and they are so much fun to watch going from balloon to such a
pretty flower shape!
Mary your arrangement is a wonderful pick-me-up. I also love to use what I have available in my yard and garden for my flower arrangements. Herbs can add in a nice touch to bouquets when you need some greenery and they have the added benefit of fragrance. Thanks so much for your thoughtful tips.
Lovely! Question – when I use Queen Anne’s Lace, I get white dusting/droppings from it when in a vase — I thought of spraying with hair spray to keep them intact, but haven’t tried it. Do you do anything to yours when you cut and use in an arrangement?
My “ungarden” is growing with daisies, zinnias, cone flowers, bee balm and black eyed Susans… I have herbs in there and sunflowers that are still growing, no buds…and lots of field grass low weeds. Next summer I will be retired and can tend to it more diligently!
Hi, Mary! Had to comment again from coastal Jacksonville…your arrangement was just the visual “pick-me-up” I needed after eye surgery yesterday! I love your free flowing floral arrangements…my hydrangea bushes are slow to show this year, so I will just enjoy yours! :). Always love checking your blog! Have a great NC weekend!
Every time I see your gorgeous hydrangeas, my heart skips a beat. Oh to have this growing in my garden!
Your tips and arrangement are stellar. Thanks for sharing.
Great tips, Mary. I love the enamel bucket and the bouquets, the mix of tamed and wild are so pretty. My hydrangeas have that awful rust-fungus, and I’m gearing up to remove/destroy the infected leaves and treat the shrubs with an antifungal. Have you had that happen? I just have to wonder if the early spring freezes stressed the bushes.
~Mary~
ohhh how pretty !! I realized the other day while taking a walk just how beautiful wild flowers are , and here we call them weeds :( not anymore ! Lets call them nature’s flower garden:)
Have a super weekend !
Paula
IN
You have such a wonderful cutting garden to create these most gorgeous arrangements. My hydrangeas are slow in growing…wonder if they were hindered by the late Spring freeze that we had…Have a wonderful weekend!
Just lovely, especially those hydrangeas. I miss so many flowers from ‘up north’ that we can’t grow here.
Beautiful colors together!! Wonderful tips, too. Thanks for sharing both, Mary.
I envy the array of beautiful blooms and foliage you have at your finger tips to play with Mary, you are certainly reaping the benefits of all your hard work this spring. I love the natural feel of this arrangement and I must remember to use hosta leaves, they are such a great filler, and it’s so smart to use the smaller vessel inside for stability. Your arrangement is so simply fresh and pretty, and thank you for all the great tips!
Jenna
My hydrangeas are budding but no blooms yet. My astillbe is flowering but that’s about all right now:( By the time I get this new garden established I will be too old to do anything :):)