Amaranth in flower arranging

Who knew?

Well if I was more on social media and had an Instagram account, I would be up on this.

But I have been shoving amaranth flowers (fruit?) in every bouquet of blooms this week.

And it’s all because the lettuce bed went mad. Bolting off into the going to seed mad. Too hot for lettuce in these hard times.

I sowed amaranth for the first time this year and interspersed them in between each lettuce.

Cue too much heat, not enough water and this is what I have.

And the deep red of the Amaranth are perfect for having fun with crops and making bouquets at the same time.

And the dahlias are starting to get lovely and glutty too.

Isn’t that one amazing? I think it’s Penhill Dark Monarch…

Hang on a mo, I’ll just nip out and check.

Yep. And it’s right beside the fab Burlesca which is going great guns.

And for those of you who find them a bit much (not everyone is a dahlia groupie) I’ve enjoyed being able to harvest lots and lots of foliage from my favourite Choisyia Aztec Pearl, and the fluffy asparagus fronds.

I really need a bench for all my flower arranging. I usually do it on the outside oak table, but it was a bit windy so I had to nip into the bread oven and make the bouquets there.

Shove in some flowering marjoram and some surprising second flush Gertrude Jekyll roses and everyone is thrilled to get the flowers.

Okay, enough with the showing off. Back to cutting back the spent santolina flowers. (A vile old job if ever there was one.)