All of a sudden flowery bouquets and even the hot colors of mid-summer look....past. The light has changed in the past week; it's more slanted and shadowy. Pockets of sun seem brighter and more glary, and the shade deeper.
The autumn equinox may be 18 days away (it clocks in at 10:49 a.m. on September 22 this year) but in our bones, despite the warm weather, we already feel the shift toward shorter days, longer nights, and chillier mornings and evenings.
So while we're not into the ripe colors of true fall when purples and plums, rusts and mahogany tones hold sway, there are plenty of spent, interesting pods, to plump up bouquets.
In the casual little arrangement below, fat poppy pods, faded to an ethereal pale blue, play off the striped pods and lacy foliage of love-in-a-mist (Nigella), and the bright crocosmia flowers and buds.
The waxy green pods are from the blackberry lily (Belamcanda chinensis, above), and are nearly as charming as the speckled orange flowers that have been blooming away since early July. I wrote about these bulbs in an earlier post when I mistakenly identified them as tigridia - a blog reader sent me the correct name (thank you....) I have no idea where and when I got them (really, I was sure they were tigridia, except they've proved to be hardier than that)...the blackberry lily is spreading politely but persistantly, and with its starry flowers, long bloom, and gorgeous pods, I'd be happy to have it take over the late summer garden...check it out in bouquets...the shape is almost like rose hips, but the texture is glossier, and the emerald color a standout in bouquets.
The nigella pods look almost like sea-creatures here...the pods are almost prettier than the intricate little flowers on these self-seeders...
