One of my favorite ways to celebrate and appreciate my garden is by cutting flowers to bring indoors.
This is an especially helpful practice when we are hitting that mid-summer Wall of Discouragement, as I think of it.
You probably know the moment I’m talking about: suddenly it’s too hot, too humid, too buggy, and the garden has lost its spring freshness. At that moment, it is all too easy to see the things that aren’t going right, for instance, the rose buds devoured by Japanese beetles, the blackspot or powdery mildew, the worrisome signs of blight on the boxwood.
Sigh.
This is when cut flowers can turn our perspective right around.
Gardeners have a critical eye in their own spaces. We are drawn to the “not right” and easily pass over the “absolutely wonderful.”
When I cut flowers and bring them indoors it’s as if I put a frame around the garden’s gifts.
Flowers in a vase are the very best of what’s growing in the garden at that moment. Flowers in a vase help bring the garden’s best right up close where we can appreciate it and be nourished by it.
Did a raging storm knock down half the scented lilies?
Are insects devouring a favorite plant?
Is mildew or fungus creeping up the stems?
Each of these scenarios is an invitation to choose to see the best in our gardens and to make that our focus–indoors as well as out.
Here are some links to help you celebrate cut flowers:
Floret Flowers is a family-run flower farm in Washington’s Skagit Valley. Their website, blog, and books offer lots of beautiful inspiration for growing, harvesting, and designing with flowers.
A flower frog is a funny name for an amazing tool. Pop one in the bottom of your vase and use it to secure tall stems. Life-changing, I tell you.
Even if nothing seems to be doing well in your garden, the book A Tree For the House will give you new eyes to see the design possibilities of everything alive outdoors. You’ll be inspired by weeds and shrubs even when your garden flowers aren’t doing so well.
One of my favorite inspiring accounts to follow on Instagram is Swallows And Damsons.
Some tips on keeping cut flowers fresh longer from The Old Farmer’s Almanac.
Finally, even those of us who don’t grow many flowers can see the beauty we do have and celebrate it indoors. I love to add herbs to my bouquets, and flowering herbs especially are worthy of their own arrangement. A bonus is that you can keep your bouquet on the kitchen counter and use it in your cooking. Even vegetables can look amazing brought indoors.
What about a vase of glorious Swiss Chard?
What about a few branches from a leafy shrub?
The possibilities are almost endless.