* This page may contain affiliate links. This means that I may receive a commission if you click through and make a purchase (at no cost to you). Thank you so much for connecting with me in this way. I'll be saving my pennies to rescue some precious little mini-ponies and buy them all Icelandic sweaters.
Most of my beautiful Spring flowers are fading around here, the pretty Spirea, Deutzia, Lilacs, and Forsythia. All I am left with is my Endless Summer Hydrangeas, all 40 of them, which are finishing up their first big flush of the season. I have Marigolds coming up in the garden, but Marigolds take forever to bloom. In my desperation, I am turning to arranging summer branches and weeds.
I'm still working on styling those built-ins, and painting the new bead-board
I'm not saying that's a bad thing. Actually it's quite nice. All around the garden, Sassafrass is growing. At first, I thought we might have figs since the floppy Sassafrass leaves are a dead-ringer for fig leaves- and Boscobel was know to have figs in the late 1800's. Although they were located in the front of the house and our garden is located at the back of the property.
A couple of years ago, with this in mind, I waited patiently for figs to grow. I checked every day, all summer. Once I finally accepted that there would be no figs, I figured out it was Sassafrass.
I love Sassafrass for the underside of the leaves. It is a silvery gray green, and hello...that's my favorite. In the older days, they used Sassafrass leaves to make tea, and the roots as an ingredient in Root Beer. We now know that the leaves and roots are carcinogenic. We can still enjoy them though, if only we are arranging summer branches and weeds.
I added in a weed called Fleabane, the daisy like flowers are growing at the edges of my vegetable garden. Like most weeds, they are prolific growers in the summer heat and tolerate whatever mother nature has in mind. I put it all into a pretty antique ironstone vase in the family room. I love large branch arrangements because they really add depth and interest to the room. Since we have a larger property, hunting down pretty branches is fun and there are always branches to be had. There are pretty weeds all over the place, and well...weeds are plants too. Especially if they are flowering they can make a nice arrangement inside.
If you don't have access to a lot of branches, take a walk. Weeds love growing on the roadside, and branches too. Before you know it, you will be arranging summer branches and weeds.
What are you working on this summer? Are you desperate for fresh foliage indoors? Connect with me in the comments below!
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* This page may contain affiliate links. This means that I may receive a commission if you click through and make a purchase (at no cost to you). Thank you so much for connecting with me in this way. I'll be saving my pennies to rescue some precious little mini-ponies and buy them all Icelandic sweaters or those pony pajamas I keep seeing on Pinterest (big cheesy [thankful] grin from me).
Over the last three years, I have planted nearly 40 hydrangea bushes around the foundation of our house. This is the first year I will be able to reap the rewards of my hard-won endeavor with fresh hydrangeas in every room.
Lucky for me, year-round, our local gourmet grocery carries bushels of hydrangeas. Even in winter, I can arrange fresh blooms in the kitchen and enjoy them for a couple of weeks. They always come three stems to a bundle and I buy two, giving me 6 stems total to work with.
My favorite way to arrange them is in an old Southern Living At Home Acanthus Centerpiece filled with classic farmhouse style mason jars. The Acanthus Centerpiece is no longer available but you can find them from time to time on sites like Etsy or Ebay. I have linked to some pretty alternatives at the bottom of this post.
I always use flower food in my flower arrangements. Some people dip the bottom half inch of the cut stem into Allum to help with water uptake. I find that an extra cut vertically up the stem really helps. These stems can really drink a lot of water and it is easy for your vase or mason jar to dry out quickly, leaving you with wilted hydrangea blooms.
The blue ball mason jars would be so pretty with this mason jar hydrangea arrangement, I think I might hunt down a few to try next week when my 40 Endless Summer hydrangea bushes are blooming. I am so glad that I invested the money in the Endless Summer variety so that I can enjoy these beautiful flower arrangements all summer long!
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