September Bouquets

Yesterday, expecting company for dinner, I picked a couple of bouquets for decoration. I placed flowers from my cottage garden on the dining-room table and herbs from my vegetable garden on the kitchen island. I can't think of a more perfect way to display what is blooming in my mid-September garden than by showing you my two bouquets. I have to confess this is not an original idea, as Noelle at Ramblings from a Desert Garden has a Monthly Garden Bouquet post showcasing pictures of bouquets submitted by bloggers. She posts them on the 20th of each month. I urge you to check out Noelle's excellent blog.

For my bouquet of cottage-garden blooms I chose buddleia (butterfly bush), zinnias, marigolds, chrysanthemums, roses and tiny, white yarrow.

Yellow zinnia, pink chrysanthemums, and Knockout rose.

Purple budlehea, zinnias and mums.

Pink budlehea

Marigold

Knockout rose

Marigold

Purple budlhea and white zinnia

Zinnia bud - holds the promise that summer isn't quite over

 I placed my bunch of flowers in a white porcelain jug detailed with embossed-flowers. This beautiful vase was given to me (filled with flowers from her garden) by my dear friend, Karen. It was Karen who introduced me to zinnias several years ago, and they are probably my favorite annual. It is fitting that I have them in her vase now.

 

My bouquet of herbs was made up of curly parsley, mint, basil, and echinacea. I added nasturtiums for color. There were also some sprigs of flat leaf parsley, but I used them for the salmon spread I made for an appetizer. I placed my bouquet in a small, cut-glass jug.

Nasturtium

My favorite nasturtium. The delicate petals are almost transparent.

Echinacia

 The collage below shows, clockwise from top right, chocolate mint, nasturtium leaf, basil, curly parsley, and nasturtium.

 I missed Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day this month, in part because I was without a camera. As you can see, my new one arrived -- these are my first pictures taken with it. I was not able to afford the digital SLR I would have liked, so I settled for an upgrade of my old point-and-shoot (which I loved) and bought a Nikon Coolpix L120. One advantage is a greatly reduced learning curve, so I could begin shooting immediately, but when my ship comes home I would still love to own an SLR.

My garden is not looking its best right now, and I need to do some serious tidying of beds, as everything is flopping all over the place. When my friends arrived yesterday, however, they remarked that I still had quite a bit of color. And you, my gardening friends, can see that color displayed in my bouquets. I am now heading over to Noelle's blog to enter them for her Monthly Garden Bouquet post. I hope you will visit there, too, and consider sending Noelle some pictures. Her only rule is that the flowers are from your garden.

Wherever you are, whatever your season, I hope you are enjoying some beautiful blooms.

Pamela x

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