"One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it brings."

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

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.
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50 comments:

  1. what a gem I have found in landing on the blog site....awesome picture and little jewels of information!! Stan Horst
    Publisher: BetterBenches.com

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  2. Lovely! I don't think I could ever have enough dicentra, white or pink.

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  3. What beautiful flowers and you are so creative!! I do think you have a might green thumb! Thanks for sharing!

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  4. It's a lovely bouquet. So cheery and just the thing for inside. I'm like you in that I find it difficult to cut flowers. I do enjoy them inside though so I'm trying to do it more. My problem is with the upkeep inside. Cutting stems, changing water. blah blah blah. That is the hard part but worth it. I have a big vase full of hyacinths that are 'stinking' up the dining room. Daffodils are there too so I'm determined to have flowers inside all year. This meme will be good for it. Noelle does have some great flowers.

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  5. Beautiful flowers! No wonder you don't feel like cutting them. I have the same failing. I cut flowers from the plants which are planted in unseen corners.

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  6. Catherine--what a lovely spring bouquet!

    I always says I'm going to cut more flowers too, but they're so pretty outside! But I do have a happy vase of daffies on the dining room table. It's a shot of moveable sunshine!

    This year, I should start a small cutting garden....it's meant to be cut, right?

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  7. What a beautiful bouquet! I do think possibly you have a greater variety of flowers right now than I, sitting here in Florida. Your bleeding hearts are clearly superstars in any setting!

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  8. Beautiful flowers, with contrasting colours, something we don't have here. Ours is more of green and green with patches of little colours here and there. ~bangchik

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  9. I bring in flowers I can't see very well from inside. If I can enjoy them while at the kitchen table or walk right past them on my way in and out of the house, I leave them in the yard.

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  10. Beautiful bouquet Catherine! I especially love the bleeding heart and hyacinth!

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  11. Oh Catherine, it is absolutely gorgeous! I love the close-ups of the flowers as well. One thing I am going to love about this meme is the many different types of bouquets we will see :-) Thank you so much for participating!

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  12. Beautiful Catherine. I have a hard time cutting my flowers too. I hate to see them die in my house. I'd rather see their longer life in the gardens. However I will cut some anyway when I have something to cut. I hated when I cut my hyancinth last month and put on my kitchen table. It smelled so good.

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  13. Absolutely stunning arrangement!! Love the dicentra, I have some huge ones but have never thought to bring them in. I also have a VERY hard time cutting flowers, other than from my heliopsis which grows profusely. But I enjoy having them in the house. :/

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  14. It's a lovely bouquet! I'm the same way; can't bear to cut them!
    Brenda

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  15. I can relate all too well! A fun way to encourage a little enjoyment inside the home. Clever idea of using the baby foods jar inside the pot! Your arrangement is colorful and nicely done :)

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  16. Jumpin' over here real quick before I head outside. Your blog is always a delight. Your neighbors surely must love that you bring such a slice of heaven into the neighborhood. Have a great last half of the week!

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  17. Oh what a colourful spring bouquet Catherine and you have so much to cut already ! Like you I am reluctant to snip from my own garden but I do buy bunches of flowers to bring home with me :)

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  18. Hey ya done good! I think you are very creative since your bouquet is so beautiful. I do have a hard time cutting my flowers - I feel I don't have enough of each one to do that - otherwise I wouldn't mind but I want SOME left outside to enjoy. Bob and Yvette, on the otherhand, don't seem to be bothered by this at all and will cut bouquets all the time. I do love them inside too though.
    In a perfect world I would live close enough to the Pike Place Market to go and buy (every week) those huge HUGE (very heavy huge) cheap CHEAP bouquets they sell! LOL

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  19. Super beautiful...what alovely arrangement! I find when flowers get real lush and overgrown it is a great tieme for bouquets..also i have a designated area for "a cutting garden" which is it's purpose ..to make and share bouquets for freinds and family and all my tea parties/dinners....so for me I enjoy it..but I leave alone my main garden which i dont wish to disturb!so thus..the cutting garden!
    Have a super day!
    Kiki~

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  20. That is a heartbreakingly beautiful little spring bouquet! I love bleeding heart & I need to plant some somewhere. I'm always focusing on veggies & forget about flowers. I do have some, though, and I do have a difficult time cutting them!

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  21. What a nice idea. I am rubbish at cutting flowers from the garden for the same reasons as you. Is there a certain day we are meant to do it?

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  22. What a lovely post! Your flower arrangement is beautiful and your little bird is very charming. Thanks for sharing - great idea!

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  23. I need to force myself more to do this. Like you, I do not enjoy cutting my flowers in the garden. I would rather buy them at the store than cut them.

    Eileen

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  24. Catherine, I often struggle with the "to cut or not to cut" dilemma. I love cut flowers in the house, but I also love to sit out in the garden and enjoy the blooms. So I usually only cut them when I can cut a few and still have plenty more left in the garden. I've never thought of cutting bleeding hearts; they're lovely in that arrangement. -Jean

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  25. Thanks everyone! I wondered if it was just me with cutting flowers, but it sounds like I'm not the only one.

    Helen - I should have mentioned when, Noelle said just during the third week of the month. I think I'll plan on the third Monday of the month to do my bouquets. I hope lots of others join in too!

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  26. Catherine, your bouquet is really great...I love the colors and various shapes. Great selection! I like the way you've displayed them too. Really captures spring! I'm especially fond of your little bird. I collect bird decorations...they clutter my home inside and out!

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  27. Very nice Catherine..the best way to arrange a bouquet is to not over think it...

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  28. Your bouquet is darling!

    You are definitely not the only one who has a hard time cutting flowers. Maybe if I had a special cutting area --- but I look at my daffodils this time of year and think that if I cut them to bring inside, then there will be no flowers outside.

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  29. What a lovely bouquet! It is a good way to enjoy the tiny blossoms up close.

    I made a bouquet of some Erlicheer daffodils that the rain beat down and the dog ran over. It was so fragrant I had to leave it in the greenhouse!

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  30. I love the colors of spring bouquets! Yours is so pretty! I, too, hate to cut those bleeding hearts, but aren't they beautiful in a bouquet? Now you can enjoy them inside as well as outside.

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  31. You've convinced me that it's ok to go ahead and cut some flowers to enjoy them inside, Catherine! Until now, I have very rarely ever done it either! Something about wanting to see them filling up the yard and also the cost of the perennials is usually high enough that it's made me think twice. Your bouquet is so sweet and springy...really pretty!

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  32. You did a great job Catherine! If I was to put together a bouquet from my yard right now it would be nothing but dead sticks. hehe!

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  33. Gorgeous! I would never think to cut bleeding heart, but it's great idea and why not! I have hard time cutting flowers too.... the only flowers I cut and bring inside are the peonies because they flop over even with staking and at least inside I can enjoy them.

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  34. You are in good company Cath, Apparently The Queen has one of her staff do the same thing in the gardens at Buckingham Palace! a fresh bouquet from the garden, year round!

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  35. Your bouquet is stunning - I love those bleeding hearts. They are quite unusual. And the terracotta pot is really lovely for you flowers.

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  36. Catherine the arrangement is beautiful! The Dicentra really makes it stand out, although I love all of the flowers in it -- you don't see most of them in a usual bouquet.

    As a rule, I don't do the cutting flower thing either, unless I think the flowers will be cut down by cold.

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  37. For one that does not claim to know how to arrange flowers, I think you did a wonderful job! The bird adds a nice touch as well...

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  38. Simply beautiful, what a wonderful idea. I find it difficult to cut my flowers to bring them in which is why I am planting a cutting garden. Last year I put tulips in with the garlic for the sole purpose of cutting. Getting excited as they are almost ready.

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  39. I think you did an awesome job Catherine. You are way more creative than you're giving yourself credit for! If I tried to cut a bouquet from outside right now, it would be very pathetic looking. It's so fantastic you have so much to include in yours.
    I prefer to purchase bunches of flowers for indoors rather than cut from my own garden. Isn't that the strangest thing?

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  40. What a lovely bouquet for March Catherine. You have such a wonderful array of gorgeous bloomers.

    FlowerLady

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  41. Like you, I have a very hard time cutting my flowers for bouquets! But I do take a few now and then. Just a few!

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  42. Lovely Spring bouquet Catherine! I too have a hard time cutting flowers and that is a bit nuts since I make part of my living as a flower arranger! It is hard to take them from hummers, bees and butterflies. One a month sounds good to me though. ;>)

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  43. Hi Catherine~~ You are so not alone on this topic. This is always a difficulty for me. Usually it's the fragrant flowers that I pick to bring in.

    Your bouquet is dazzling. Nice job, even if you don't think so. :)

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  44. I just popped over from Noelle's blog to admire your bouquet. It's lovely - those bleeding hearts are amazing!

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  45. very pretty bouquet friend!!! happy spring!

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  46. This is what I call an "Obra Maestra". Really lovely collection. There is something about flowers that amazes the eye of every woman. You have a good eye for floral designing. :)

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  47. How beautifully charming. Not only is Spring upon us but Easter as well. These colorful beauties are testament to the season. I love the little bird too :)

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  48. You arranged a perfect country bouquet dear. I am a bit jealous of your bleeding hearts since I love them and seem not able to grow them!

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  49. Catherine, you underestimate your flower arranging ability. This little bouquet is gorgeous! I am just like you about picking the flowers :)

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