Autumn Bouquet Abundance - The Garden Is Still Producing Flowers, Grasses, Pods, and Berries

I nearly broke down and bought flowers for a big bouquet I was making for Museo Gallery's opening party last weekend (It's the very cool Dot Show that'll run through October....).

I was afraid that with such chilly nights and nearly 80 days without useful rain, the garden would be depleted of good material to create something big and showy for the party.  But once I went outside with open eyes, looking high and low, I was amazed at the garden's continued vibrancy.

You can see the raw ingredients piled up on my kitchen counter (above) - I love that moment of perfect possibility, when I'm pondering vase options, with clippers and a mound of flowers and foliage at hand...

Here's the finished bouquet...

A fat, faded-to-chartreuse head of 'Annabelle' hydrangea anchors the arrangement. Sprays of sweetly fragrant flowering tobacco (Nicotiana alata) echo the color of the hydrangea. Achillea 'Terracotta' is warmly russet, Verbena bonariensis and sea oats grass (Chasmanthium latifolium) add texture and vertical line, and the spent, dark, curvy bugbane (Actea simplex) flowers are one of those bonuses you find if you aren't too quick to tidy your garden in autumn.

The flat, rusty pink heads of Sedum 'Autumn Joy', a few single, golden dahlias, hypericum berries, and the showy tri-colored foliage of a fancy-leafed geranium complete the bunch....I chose a heavy, dark ceramic vase for ballast, as the overall look is pretty airy despite the hydrangea head. And the vase gives visual weight to such a motley bunch of materials. There's some puffy Japanese lanterns (Physalis alkekengi) just showing color in there too although you can't see them in this photo.

Here are some close-ups...

I don't know why, but it was when I added the tall stems of nicotiana, with the sweet little pale flowers, that the whole bouquet came together....go figure....arranging flowers is always one big, joyful experiment...

Comments

[Chris]

Gorgeous!!

[DariaW]

I, too, have been pleasantly surprised with the results of what's left to pick, even after several light frosts -- helenium, sunflowers, tansy, smoketree foliage, Autumn Joy. The last couple sets of arrangements have looked very rich, satisfyingly warm.