mon bouquet du jour - it's the autumn

Caught short this weekend by a last minute invite to dinner, nothing left in my 'reserve' to take as a hostess gift, I had to scour the garden to see if there was anything left that could make a bouquet.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the sedum was still just red, not brown yet from the frost, and that hidden away protected beneath the lower branches of the hydrangea, there were a few last blooms half green half red.   I toyed with some rose hips, but they looked too orange, then turned to the ivy whose berries are beginning to turn from green to black. 

 Finally I added some sprigs of sage, which my friend may not totally appreciate, because it smells rather strong !! - I told her she could discard the sage if it got overpowering!

Not being a very organised person, I do not have a roll of florist's cellophane to hand, so my bouquet just had to be made up as a posy and held together with a ribbon.

What do you count on for last minute gifts? 

A pot of jam, a cake, a favourite book?

mon bouquet du jour - in cider bottles!

At this time of year, bouquets that come from the garden are more about texture than colour.  So this weekend I bought myself some ivory roses and tall ornamental cabbages for my flower arrangement.

I've been loving using small antique glasses for grouping individual flowers, and thought to do the same with some antique cider bottles I found recently.

I love the palette of subtle colours, the way that the indidual stems come together as a bouquet by being cut at differing heights before popped into the bottles.

It's amazing how the colour of these bottles changes with the light, I'll definitely be using them outside in the summer.

my first autumn bouquet du jour

Haven't been able to show you any bouquets for a while, August is a difficult month to keep the flowers going in the garden.   Now we have the first of the autumn flowers, dahlias, roses, sedums beginning to turn pink and with a couple of baby apples and some blackberries, the whole things melts in tones of pink and purple.

We are swimming in brocante fairs at this time of the year and I'm off early treasure hunting this morning - hopefully tomorrow I'll have a good loot shoot to show you!

mon bouquet du jour

Sometimes you don't even intend to create a bouquet, your mind a million miles from home, and the flowers just come together unassisted.  It's happened to you too -  out on a country walk and returned home with  a posy, you know how it goes.

Last week I was driving home from Paris and as I turned the corner onto our valley, I couldn't resist pulling off the road  and getting out of the car to admire the view.    From the sky my eyes wandered down to my feet and I discovered that there were all sorts of wild flowers growing on the road edge.

 It was irresistible: five minutes later I found myself holding a bunch of flowers that were simply plopped into an old French utility jar as a vase.  As I said , some bouquets are not even intended ....

mon bouquet du jour

Sometimes I enjoy the making-of the bouquet even more than the finished result. This was put together quickly one evening a couple of weeks ago, when the garden was at its best and giving generously.

I'm not sure if everyone is going to like this one, not very structured, rather busy, but at the time it just seemed gloriously lush, if rather difficult to capture on film!

As I walked around the garden finding suitable flowers for my vase, I carried them in an old wooden trug.  If there had been a way of keeping them in water in the trug, they wouldn't even have been transferred to a vase.

This bouquet was definitely as much about texture and contrast as simple colour and pretty flowers.

If you haven't entered the grain sack giveaway yet, there's still time!

click  here

my bouquet du jour

Greenery in a bouquet is vital for adding bulk and serving as a backdrop to the colour of the flowers.  Here I wanted a very quick bouquet on the terrace, didn't have time to scout around the garden looking for interesting foliage, turned around towards our enormous lime tree and   Bingo!

The lime tree 'flowers' at this time of year to the delight of the garden bees.  The pale flower or seed heads actually hang beneath the leaves on the tree, but for the arrangement I turned them the other way up, added some tiny apples, and my irreplaceable Pierre de Ronsard rose.  I liked the effect with the bottle of rosé wine, soft and summery!

when is a bouquet not a bouquet

Summer is here, school is out and the atmosphere has relaxed.  Friends arrive for tea and stay to dinner, meals with friends and family are spontaneous and fun, but you still want them pretty.  My answer to the quickest flowers ever on a table is individual flower heads in small verrines or low glasses.  Dot them all over the table, interspaced with candles and you're away.

And when they're not spread out over the table, group them up tight on a pretty tray and they decorate the corner of a room or a hallway.   Summer entertaining has to be this much fun.

 These rose and poppy heads were from a dinner last Friday - sorry I lost the pictures of the table laid up!   Two days on and they are still pretty, grouped on the tray they can be moved around and decorate to order! !

For a simple barbecue with the children and their friends, nobody wants a sophisticated table, but everyone likes a splash of colour.  I had a bouquet of these duo-coloured roses, and they worked well in single glasses.

I'm sure you have ideas for quick summer table decor, 

if you  send me a picture I'll add it to the post.

............

a few hours later .....  thank you to:

Gina from Art and Alfalfa for this colourful vase

and to Ulrike from In My Garden for her garden flowers in a jar

and to Linda in Denmark for this stunning bouquet from her wedding