Wedding flowers on the way!

I got up early with my buckets and scissors and headed out to the garden yesterday morning.  I carefully selected and trimmed each flower and tucked them into my buckets.

The best of the best went to Belle Fiori for their addition to the table and church arrangements.  Zinnias were definitely my go to flower for this was my most heavily planted as well as the most seasonally select in my garden.  The hydrangea bush still had a few blooms on it with a nice pink blush so those went in as well.  I had some statice and Mexican torch flowers that added to the bright colors my daughter desires for her fall wedding.  To round out the selection, I tucked in some previously cut and dried hare's tail grass.  Michelle did not like this from the seed catalog description, but I ordered it any way.  When she saw them hanging in the basement, she had to agree that they were going to be sweet additions.  The women in the flower shop were most intrigued by the grass of all the things I brought.

I get to see how things all came together tomorrow morning when we pick them all up.  I can hardly wait!

Cutting flowers, keeping them growing

It has become my challenge to cut and dry the flowers that are ready for the wedding.  It has also been a challenge to keep up with dead heading and keeping the fresh flowers looking fresh.  Taking a week away from the garden made that job a little tougher, but I do not regret a week of camping during the beautiful fall weather.

Some things that have dried nicely so far are statice, hare's tail grass, and straw flowers.  I also dried some bells of Ireland and the dried effect is pretty nice.  I have hung up hydrangeas but the ones kept in water in an upright state seem to look better as they dry.  I cut some of the Autumn Joy sedum tonight in hopes for something interesting.

The zinnia crop is still looking good on the fresh cut end.  Some varieties are getting powdery mildew while others are not as bad.  The cosmos looks pretty good, but it wants to go to seed and keeping up with dead heading is becoming tough.  I would like to have some seed for next year, so it may not be in the flower arrangements.  If we have nothing come through, it really doesn't matter as the florist will just go with what we ordered in the first place.

I have a veil to sew, so I better get to it.

Dried flowers

Some of the flowers I put in are ideal for drying.  I have straw flowers, Statice, Celosia, and hare's tail grass in the annual bed.  I also have a Hydrangea which is in beautiful bloom this year.

My preference for drying is to bind bouquets of the same flowers and colors with rubber bands near the bottom.  I hang them from my clothes line in the basement upside down.  The rubber band is the best fastener as it contracts with the shrinking stems as they dry.  String and wire remain the same size and flowers can start dropping out when the loop loosens up as the stems dry.  I use spring-type clothes pins to fasten the rubber band to the line.

I have also dried flowers in a container filled with borax.  This is good for flowers that are not ideal for drying.  Some flowers will droop and sag.  In borax, they stay flat (like daisies) or round (like roses) as the powder holds them in the original shape they you picked them in minus the water.  You do have to carefully take them out as they are brittle at this point.

One other method for drying flowers is a flower press.  Two boards of the same size, cardboard cut to fit, and paper towel to absorb the moisture.  Bind the boards together with strapping or belts that can be tightened down with a friction type latch that will hold them tightly together.  A heavy weight on top will also do the same thing just not as portable.  A more elaborate set up would be long bolts on each corner with washers and wing nuts to tighten it all down.  You can pull the petals from flowers with a large center to use in cards and pictures.  A bit of clear drying glue or laminate will keep them beautiful for a long time.

Seed catalogs often have a separate category for dried flowers.  If you are a crafty person who likes to garden, this can combine two hobbies into one.  Check out different kinds of plants to see what works and rule out those that aren't your style.  The hare's tail grass was something I had never seen before.  It has been a pretty little addition to the garden and has dried very well.  My hope is to incorporate some of these dried flowers into a floral arrangement at my daughter's wedding.

Flower gardens are on the rise

Picture 1

The flower gardens are really coming into their glory right now.  I have LOTS of zinnias in several varieties and colors this year.  It is so much fun to see all the things that started as seed in my basement become leggy beauties in the flower beds.

The goal of the flowers was to have some additions to the wedding flowers to give it the personal touch.  Some of them will find their way into vases to celebrate the shower that is being given by her sister.  I have also enjoyed some fresh bouquets in the kitchen.  Zinnias have some real staying power in the fresh cut flower arena.

The cactus flowered zinnias are interesting in that they have a much more pointed petal as you can see with the bright pink flower in the lower right corner of this picture.

I have also been pleased to see the mono-colored Polar Bear and Green Envy are quite nice.  You almost can't see the green zinnia in the flower bed but there it is in center frame of the second picture.  I think they will show up more in a bouquet.

Anise hyssop

One of my pleasant surprises was some of the new herbs I added to the garden this year.  The anise hyssop has been blooming for weeks and still looks as beautiful as it did when it first opened.  The bees love it and so do I.  I love to run my hand over the flowers as I pass by (it is right next to my stairs) and enjoy the scent that comes back to me.  I have to do a little more research on this one to see how I will be able to capture that as a dried herb or seed later on.  I also have two of my stand-by plants.  Pineapple sage and lemon verbena are a must if only to crush the leaves and breathe deeply.  I also keep around several citronella scented geraniums for their scent as well as their ability to detract mosquitoes in the yard.  (Yes, they really work especially if you cut up a few leaves and let them lay in the grass around your chair.)   There are also all the regulars which are just as pleasant to touch and smell as all the others.

Now this is a plant most people stop to look at.  I bought a four pack of all eight varieties that Milegar's carried this year.  The smaller one got lost in the pot but the rest are blooming beautifully.  They open with spiraling petals and some are even double.  This is the lisanthus I consider a must buy in the spring.  It is not for the home gardener to start from seed unless you can keep them warm and free of fungus gnats.  The seeds are very small and the plants stay in an almost microscopic state for so long (which is why fungus gnats can take them out so easily).  Purchased as plants in May are a much easier option for me.  I also get a nice variety to try out.

The cosmos are just starting to bloom, so they are pretty green yet.  I also have no Mexican sunflowers (tithonia) yet and the Prairie sun coneflowers are struggling against the slugs.  Lots of rain has kept up the numbers on those.  The cerinthe has grown well and the foliage is beautiful,  The small tube like flowers are not easily seen with their turned down heads.  I am hoping that they make a good bouquet filler.

The dried flowers are doing well.  I have Celosia cristata, statice, and hare's tail grass.  The grass is blooming in the sunny spots and doing well but without flowers where the shading is heavier.  I may have to start cutting and hanging some of the full blooms to dry to keep the plants blooming through fall.  The coral gardens variety is very bright for the Celosia.  The statice is more of a pastel shades.  

I will have to fertilize the beds soon to keep the blooms going as long as possible.  If I want to have flowers in October, I will have to give them everything I can.

Tomato countdown, seeding day

My journal entries have been less than regular of late.  I have a dental procedure and bad weather to thank for my hiatus from gardening.  Milwaukee has seen nothing but rain day after day.  Rivers are over-flowing their banks and gardens are reduced to mud.  We have been soaking up a slow seepage of water in one corner of our home due to the saturated soil around us.  And, it has been cold.  40's are no temperature to garden in.

Today is T-day.  The day that tomatoes need to be seeded in hopes that the weekend following our Memorial Day the soil will be ready to have them take root.  I have some flowers to seed also.  I am doing a second round of hollyhocks this year in the hope that these biennials will provide me with blooms every year from alternate year crops.Asters, Statice, and Thithonia are also on my seeding calendar to be done 6 weeks before last frost.  Some seeds could be direct sown, but I want to have some plants to have a head start this year.

The onion crop is still in a seed tray.  I started hardening them off and then the cold came with the ceaseless rain.  I gave up and will trim them back, again, in hopes that next week will be warm enough to set them out during the day.  Maybe next weekend I will get them in the ground.

That is the thing about gardeners.  We always have hope for the future to be just a little bit better.  We look forward while learning from the past.  Sometimes plants die and plans go awry, but there is always tomorrow to start again.