Saturday’s Harvest

Dscn10261_2  Lucky for me–all of these plants need to be cut back so they’ll continue blooming.  This weekend’s harvest included hydrangea, catmint, lady’s mantle, daisies, coreopsis, sweet William, and alstroemeria.  I could have cut plenty more, but where would I put it?  And yes, I know that the flowers spilling out of the watering can is a dreadful gardening cliche, but hey, it’s the container that happened to be sitting around.

  And here they are ready to go indoors.  You can see that I’m a fan of what florists call "monobotanical" flower arrangements,Dscn10291_2  or vases filled with just one kind of flower.  For one thing, it’s easy, and for another, mixed bouquets tend to wilt at different rates.  (Throw some short-lived sweet peas in a vase with some long-lived alstroemeria and you’ll see what I mean.)

But most of all, I just like being able to admire one flower individually for what it is.  That vase of hydrangeas is on my desk right now, and I like to look over at it and just consider it all by itself, without any filler or competition.