small arrangements- flowers for today's photoshoot

Today was a l-o-n-g work day on a photo shoot!  From loading up furniture at 7:15 in the AM to leaving the lake at 7:00PM and arriving back home around 9:00 PM. As glamour as photo shoots sound- fluffing pillows and making things pretty. It is also hauling furniture into the house, climbing on bunk beds to arrange pillows, stretching beyond you comfort level on a ladder to hang something quite high in a stairwell and climbing stairs over and over again. Not to mention, endlessly nit-picking a space through the lens of the images to check for everything from stray threads to how open an open door should so as to read as a door and welcoming, but not look unintentionally left open, or so open you do not realize it is a door.

It is mentally and physically challenging. Thankfully, I was with great folks!

Here are some of the small flowers arrangements I did for the shoot.

Easy arrangement of hypericum, spider mums, and hydrangea in a stemless wine glass. The key to the arrangement in to use a little floral tape to give the flowers some structure.

Detail of the hypericum and mums.               

 

Simple arrangement of white lilies in a small necked vase with some greens for the yard. The key to these arrangements are something my sister taught me long ago about flowers... 

you cannot be afraid to cut the stem!

Scaring up Easy Autumn Floral Arrangements

Autumn is the best time for easy flower arrangements... even for those with the least amount of gardening experience. If you have a tree or a shrub near by, you most likely have a floral arrangement moments away. Sine floral arrangements do have have to be flowers, you can use leaves, bare branches, berries, and grasses.

The one- two- three of floral arrangements-

ONE~ choose your tallest spiky pieces for the center- no more that twice the height of the vase should extend beyond the vase.

TWO~ pick something from the outdoors that drapes in order to cascade over the edge of the vase

THREE~ Place a medium length branch (no more than one times the height of the vase should extend beyond the vase) , at a 60 degree angle to your work table. This piece is your "fill line" and your guide for the foliage extention area.


So your one- two- three formula will look like this to the left!



Now... what to choose!  Here are my picks for leave, berries and grasses! *Please know that none of the images below are my images and I do not have any claim on them as my own. They are used as illustration on for educational purposes.

Leaves-

7-bark hydrangea ( also known as oak leaf hydrangeas)- great reds to purples

maple- yellows, oranges and reds

junipers- adds lacy greenery and sometimes they have an ashy-blue berry


Berries-
Oak- if your acorns fall off before the leaves turn the color you want, you can glue them back in or wire them to the branch... discreetly!

Beautyberry- fantastic purple berries. If you grow them yourself, please leave some berry branches from your local birds to have some variety in their winter diet.

Nandina- if you do not have pets of small children (the berries can fall off and make very sick tummies)

Grasses

Cattails- once dried will keep for years!


Red fountain grass- great purple color

The first yard bouquet

Every year I get excited about the first yard bouquet for my desk. Being in Alabama, it will usually include hydrangeas and gardenias. Though my hydrangeas bloom first, it seems it is never worthy enough to create a bouquet until you have something that is scented. Once the gardenias bloom, the bouquets are ON!

One of the thing I love about hydrangeas is the  bigger they grow and the deeper the roots spread in the soil, the more contact they have with minerals that can change their color. Each year you can have a variety of color and they can change from year to year. Adding soil amendments can change the color, but I like the surprise of finding out what I will be getting each year.
Growing flowers for cutting gardens are beneficial on many ways. They provide you with an opportunity of enhance or alter your indoor environment with the addition of color. Additionally, the flower provide food for bees, hummingbirds and if they make berries, food for birds in the winter. Cutting gardens are a win/win for the indoor and outdoor environment!


"Yard" bouquests in your work space, like this one on my desk, provides for a place
for you eyes to rest when thinking. Allowing your eyes to rest on something from
nature "resets" you brain faster than resting on something man-made!