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,
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.