Bringing the Garden Indoors - The Scent and Colors of Summer

A hot orange 'Forncett Furnace' dahlia is the star of the big bouquet this week - with violet buddleia to contrast, and golden lilies to play off the dahlia's fluffy golden center.

When you pick flowers to bring indoors you look at them much more closely than when they're growing en masse out there in the garden...which is both the zen and the joy of flower arranging. With such close observation, such human/flower intimacy, sometimes one element of a single bloom can serve as inspiration for an arrangement...here it's the center of that old-fashioned, open-faced, endlessly vigorous dahlia. I could have cut an armload of 'Forncett Furnace' but a single flower is more effective played against the spikiness of budleia and the silkiness of the trumpet-shaped lilies. And there's a bit of alstroemeria, with its more petite flowers, tucked in there for a contrast in flower size.

The amber raku vase adds its subtle sheen, but with these showy flowers and intense colors, the vase definitely plays second-fiddle to the flowers.

Comments

[Chris]

Now that is one gorgeous, late, summer, bouquet! Those colors are so vivid and beautiful together! I think Dahlias are the queen of the summer garden!