Fresh and dried flowers

Here’s a scenario which might be familiar:  You are hosting a big party tomorow and on your list are a zillion things to do. As a couple, one of you will suddenly decide you need to sort out the playlist for the music on the night.  This job is marvellous fun. and will take hours and hours and the other partner will fume and hiss as they move furniture, vacuum floors and cook and cook and cook. Deadlines loom.

It’s a bit like that with flower arranging for me.  Guests are coming to stay for four days. There is a whole house to clean, beds to make, food to prepare.  And yet I find myself spending a wonderful time going out into the garden snipping blooms, choosing greenery. And all of it takes a lovely long amount of time.

Playlists for the music, flowers for the house. At least the results are lovely

So too are these dried flowers: peonies.  The experiment worked. I read about this in a magazine featuring a florist.  She was hanging garlands of gorgeous peonies on wreaths around a fireplace.

That looks fun I thought. And then promptly mislaid the article.  So when my ever so fleeting flowers bloomed a few weeks ago, I cut them, hung them on fishing line in between two bookcases in my office and left them alone.

The darker pinks work much better than the pale bloom. And the little ones at the top are roses which didn’t dry as well.  So that’s something fun to plan for when my bushes get larger and fuller.  Peony garlands or wreaths for Christmas.