Helping You Grow Your Summer Bouquets
Summer’s here and your flower garden has never looked better with sunflowers stretching taller than the garage, roses sprouting up in reds, yellows and whites, yellow snapdragons and tulips offset by purple forget-me-nots and hyacinths. It’s a butterfly paradise! Many people choose to bring some of this fragrance and beauty inside to create summer bouquets to be used as breathtaking centerpieces.
Step one toward creating vivid summer floral bouquets is, of course, the planting. The best time to begin is late March in the West or May in the East, after the threat of frost has diminished. According to Beth Benjamin, floral expert at Renee’s Garden Seed Company, the best flower garden picks are cosmos, sunflowers and zinnias. In the front row of her garden, she’s planted purplish blue cerinthe, deep violet love-in-a-mist and phlox. Her second row is comprised of white cosmos flanked by chartreuse bells-of-Ireland and backed by white ammi majus as filler. In the third row, round colorful zinnias grow next to blue and red salvia. The fourth row hangs ardent love-lies-bleeding to the left and cherry pink cleome to the right, flanked by pink and rose cosmos. In the rear, tall sunflowers grow with strawflowers at each end.
For perfect summer bouquets use sharp clippers to make a clean break that won’t crush the stem. Given the right cut, water will be able to travel up the stem into the flower head to make your bouquet last longer. Another trick is to give the flowers a second snipping underwater, by filling your sink with several inches of water, which will send water up the stem, rather than air. Before arranging, keep the blooms in a cool, dark spot for a few hours. “There are many old wives’ tale recipes for flower food,” says floral consultant Libbey Oliver. “Flowers fresh from the garden really don’t need extra nutrients. Instead, every few days re-cut the stems and change the water in the vase. This will prolong their life more than anything added to the water.” Florists do offer small packets of nutrients as well.
Summer bouquets can be colorful or fragrant, relaxing or invigorating, country or contemporary, depending on your selection. Nothing sets the mood like a bit of fresh nature in your living space. A recent Harvard Study found that people who had floral bouquets in their homes were generally happier, with greater productivity at work. They felt more compassionate and more energetic, the study found. “Other research has proven that flowers make people happy when they receive them,” said head researcher Nancy Etcoff. “What we didn’t know is that spending a few days with flowers in the home can influence a wide variety of feelings.”
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Tags: floral, floral bouquets, florist, flower garden, summer bouquets, the flowers
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