August Garden Bouquet of the Month.

This month was a little more of a challenge finding flowers for a bouquet.  Yes, I do have quite a bit blooming, but with many of the flowers looking a bit ragged it was hard to make myself cut the ones that are in good shape still.  Most of the bouquets that have been in our home over the last month are tiny ones that the Littlest Gardener has picked.

I was kind of laughing at myself as I carried the bouquet around, posing it in different places for the best lighting.  For this month I have rose 'Iceberg', Scabiosa, Verbena bonariensis, Liatris and Hosta and Solomon's Seal foliage.

The deck had good lighting too, except that I had to keep moving all the toys and rain boots from the background.  You just never know what you will find when walking around the backyard, it's definitely obvious that kids play back here.

The Echinaceas are one of the stars of the garden right now.  Trying to take them from the bees was a tricky job.

The Rose 'Iceberg' is blooming again.  Verbena bonariensis are dropping their little flowers onto the petals of the roses.

Liatris 'Kobold' is another favorite of the bees right now.  I just love these unusual flowers.

And in the background of my bouquet "photo shoot" was Gracie soaking up the sun.  With Cookie the rabbit making the blog the other day, I thought it was only fair that Gracie show how she spends her time outside with us.  You can also see that both the Pine tree and the big Japanese Maple are dropping needles/leaves already.

Noelle from Ramblings from a Desert Garden hosts the monthly garden bouquet each month.  Visit her to see her pretty bouquet or to join in with your own.

Making my own sunshine - Monthly garden bouquet.

I really wanted to be sure to join in with Noelle for the Monthly garden bouquet this month, especially since I forgot last month.  I had visions of a bouquet of roses for June, even knew which ones I'd like to put together.  But over the last few days the rain and gloom really started to put me in a mood.  The roses are mostly beat up and the slugs have been feasting on every daylily flower that tries to bloom.  As I walked around and saw the weeds I thought that maybe I just will skip gardening this Summer.  But the more I thought about it, the more I decided that I really wanted to put together a bouquet to cheer myself up. 
So around the garden I went, ignoring the brown roses and weeds and started to get inspired.   I decided that pinks and purples would be my theme this month and found plenty of flowers that fit that description.
I'm very happy with what I was able to come up with:

 I'm calling this my "Sunshine bouquet".

 I'm really just in love with the Canterbury Bells (Campanula medium).  I plan to save seeds and will be happy to share them.

 Campanula 'Summertime Blues'.  While I was out cutting these I found that my Campanula 'Pantaloons' was blooming, but I'll save those for another day.

 Also in the bouquet are Scabiosa (Pincushion flowers), Bachelor Buttons, Nigella (Love-in-a-mist), Clematis 'Jackmanii', Penstemon 'Sweet Joanne' and one Heuchera for good measure.

 And here it is on the dining room table, it really brightened the room up.

So thank you Noelle, you really helped me to find my own sunshine right out in my garden under the gray skies.  Until the sun returns I'll just take the Vitamin D that my husband hinted I should take, he even put the vitamins on the counter to remind me, and keep making my own sunshine by bringing a few flowers in and looking just a little harder for signs of Summer.  Now I hope you'll visit Noelle and her beautiful sunny bouquets and see who else joined in as well.

April monthly garden bouquet.

I'm joining in with Noelle of Ramblings from a Desert Garden again for the April monthly garden bouquet. She started this fun idea a few months ago and she invites us to create a bouquet from our garden during the third week of each month.
This month was a little difficult because most of the flowers blooming now are small and I just can't bring myself to cut a tulip or a daffodil. So, I decided to try and create a color theme this time and focused on blue and white with a little green thrown in for good measure.

I've got more Spanish Bluebells than anything, but it looked kind of boring with too many of them. The Navelwort (Omphalodes cappadocica) 'Starry Eyes' is still blooming as is the White Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis).

Ferns, Sweet Woodruff (Galium odoratum), Forget-me-nots (Myosotis) and Columbines (Aquilegia) make up the rest of the bouquet.

Something I realize I have very few of are vases. I love using Mason jars or simple things like them to hold flowers, but wanted to find something else for this one. Looking through a china cabinet reminded me of this Belleek vase my Aunt gave me a long time ago. She was my godmother and had given me a few pieces of Bellek, a type of Irish pottery, for special occasions. It was fun to rediscover this vase and made me think of my Aunt who passed away a few years ago.

Visit Noelle to see her pretty April garden bouquet or to join in with her.

Monthly Garden Bouquet - March.

Last month Noelle from Ramblings from a Desert Garden... came up with what I thought was a really fun idea, creating a monthly bouquet with flowers that are currently blooming in our garden. She has had beautiful bouquets both months so be sure to visit her and see them. While I was choosing flowers to pick I remembered that I have a very hard time cutting flowers from my garden. Every year I vow I will pick more flowers and bring them inside, every year I find that I barely do. I think my reasons are: 1. They live longer outside and 2. I'm not very good at flower arranging. This monthly meme will hopefully help me to start bringing flowers into our home to enjoy more.

Here is my March bouquet. I used a small baby food jar (which are great for little flowers) and decided to put it in the terracotta pot. I've never tried this before, so maybe I'm already overcoming my lack of creativity!

I have lots of Bleeding Hearts (Dicentra spectablilis) blooming, but still could not overcome my not wanting to cut off more than a couple. Am I the only one that has a hard time cutting flowers off a plant?

I love little birds and find them at craft stores often during the Spring. I thought it looked kind of cute by the pot.

Pink Flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum) are just starting to bloom, so I found one with a few open flowers.

I have Pansies, Muscari, Pulmonaria, Bleeding Hearts, Navelwort and Pink Flowering Currant in the bouquet. Now this bouquet is sitting on my kitchen window sill.

I hope others will join Noelle in this fun meme as flowers begin to bloom in your garden.