Sunday, September 18, 2011

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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I look forward to visiting your blog in return.

28 comments:

  1. Beautiful bouquets, Pam. I understand why your guests would say you still have a bit of colour in your garden judging by what you popped into your vases. Loved the Nasturtiums, herbs and Echinacea combination. Your new camera has done a fine job ... oh and so did the camerawoman, of course!

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  2. Beautiful! Glad you got a new camera! I am in desperate need of a new camera but with 2 little ones I will have to wait a bit! You have inspired me to take pictures of what blooms and of my bouquets. This will help me create a better succession of blooms in my garden. Thanks for the great post and I am off to visit Noelle's blog!

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  3. Enjoy your new Coolpix Pam. They are great cameras. I have one in addition to my SLRs and it takes really good photos. I like the size of it and can take it anywhere I don't want to lug a bigger camera. Your arrangements are like GBBD, you really did not miss it. It looks like your brought in many of the garden blooms and got nice photos of them too, ala GBBD.

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  4. Hello Pamela,

    I love both your bouquets! What a great idea to create a 'herb' bouquet. I just planted my nasturtiums in my vegetable garden and cannot wait to see them bloom again.

    Thank you so much for promoting the Monthly Garden Bouquet. I will be posting the entries soon :-)

    Noelle

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  5. Hi Pam,

    Lovely Bouquets!

    Buddleja at this time of year??! Be nice if we still had some blooming tbh, but sadly they've all finished now.

    I've just picked myself a nice bouquet this morning; Sweet peas and some corkscrew rush. I already had some coreopsis in a vase that I accidentally ripped off a plant, and a dahlia bloom that was damaged so it's a nice mix of all colours - pinks, purples and yellow.

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  6. Beautiful flowers! I love the bouquet with the herbs and nasturtium! I would never think to put those in a vase, but they are so pretty.

    Glad to see you have a working camera again! I hope you have fun with your new camera, and I look forward to seeing more flower and garden pics!

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  7. Beautiful bouquets of flowers. Don't know about you, but the blooms of autumn are always more stunning that those of spring and summer. Enjoy your new camera!

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  8. What wonderful bouquets! There's nothing like going out into your own garden and picking a bucket full of lush flowers.

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  9. You have some gorgeous colors in your bouquet Pam. I love the bright zinnia's and mum's. Have a great week.

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  10. Congrats on getting a new camera! I know you've missed taking pictures. Such an important thing to a blogger! Love your bouquets. So cheerful. I am especially impressed with your herb bouquet! What a cute idea!

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  11. Can it really be bouquet time again? It sneaks up on me so quickly. One of the things I love about this meme is seeing the various jugs and vases people use. Often they hold a special memory for the owner. The bouquet of herbs was my favourite. Beautiful colour and I can imagine the smell must have been lovely.

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  12. Pretty, pretty bouquets! I love that you used your herbs for one.

    I have a lot of tidying up in my gardens to do as well! Seems to be one of the constants in my life!

    I bought and re-potted mums last week, so I have a few tiny bouquets on my kitchen windowsill, with the sprigs that broke off in the process!

    I'll have to check out Noelle's bouquet day post this month.

    Kimberley

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  13. I love the flowers this time of year for bouquets too. I just put one on my dining room table too. your flowers are all so pretty still. it's like they want to get one last show in before winter comes.

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  14. Beautiful! I have never thought of using buddleia in a bouquet. I usually think of them as offerings for the butterflies and bees. Now, I have another bloom for bouquets...thanks!

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  15. Great job creating bouquets Pam. Sometimes it seems a rare thing, even among gardeners. I especially love the kitchen bouquet, all the old valued, useful herbs(and the edible flowers) together in that dazzling glass. I believe that pitchers/creamers make the best vases, and pairing the cut glass with humble herbs was such a wonderful idea.

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  16. What wonderful bouquets. You really wouldn't think that autumn is on it's way with all that colour. Zinnias are one of my favourite flowers too, they make such pretty cut flowers.

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  17. Simply beautiful! I love the colours.

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  18. So glad your new camera is finally here so we could see those gorgeous bouquets.

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  19. Your bouquets are beautiful! It is hard to believe you have so many flowers blooming so late in the year. I love the pictures you took with your new camera, I think it is doing a great job!

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  20. First, I think it's a fantastic way to showcase waht's in bloom.

    Second, I love the idea of making an herbal bouquet for the kitchen. Ahhh, the fragrance! (Especially since I have 4 sick dogs right now and let;s just say, the odor is a tad rank,

    And lastly, I had to chuckle because I have the same vase you do sitting on my table right now! I adore that vase! I think I am going to go and fill it with a bunch of lavender. It will certainly be a welcome fragrance and may even settle my nerves LOL.

    Looking forward to seeing more of your bouquets!

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  21. Lovely bouquets, Pam! Thanks for your nice comment on my photography. I'd like to get a new camera one of these days.

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  22. Pamela, I love the bouquets, what a fiesta of blooms to showcase the end of the season. How pretty and what a lovely way to 'break in' your new camera.

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  23. These are beautiful! I do wish I had enough flowers in my garden to be able to cut some. I will have to think about flowers for cutting when I'm planning for next year ... another thing for the (already long) list of requirements! My poor little garden is going to have to work its socks off...

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  24. Your bouquets are beautiful.
    All the ones I've done just don't last that long. Did you say tiding the garden... grrrr.

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  25. Hi Pam,
    Your pictures are great! Thank you for sharing.
    Annie

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  26. Oh my - that new camera is doing some great work! For some reason, I especially love that little zinnia bud, and that first arrangement is beautifully put together.

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  27. Spectacular bouquets! You really know how to put pizazz in your arrangements.

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