Stop and smell the roses...

I have a new tradition. Every Monday I take a small bouquet from my gardens with me to work. I find I miss the gardens. This is the first summer in 8 years that I've had to leave them everyday for an office! I just have to take a bit of them with me.

The arrangement from last week included some of my favorite red roses, lady's mantel, willow branches and euphorbia sprigs.

Co-workers have asked... "Is it your birthday?" "Who are the flowers from?" "What's the occasion?"

A bit of home brings peace and fragrance to a tiny, modern, high rise office space. There is nothing like pulling your eyes and focus away from the computer screen to stop and smell the roses.

Tiki Ikebana

I recently did some fun floral arrangements for a girlfriend's fabulous Tiki party. They built a lovely retro outbuilding with kitchen and bar decorated with retro Hawaiian kitsch.

I enjoyed the challenge of taking flowers out of my Pacific Northwest garden to create some tropical floral arrangements.

The Ikebana arrangement above has large purple clematis blooms representing earth, euryngium sea holly representing man, and the delphinium spike representing sky. The accents are boxwood hedge stems, spanish lavendar, grass and lady's mantel leaves.

Peonies, giant hosta leaves, and a sprig of grass make a simple hula girl bouquet.

Me and three of my hula girlfriends.

Favorite Flowers of June

Today was a day in the gardens. Our giant Paul's Himalayan Mist rose is in full bloom over the garden fence. The fragrance of this rose is truely intoxicating. The wash of light pink blossoms with large clematis flower laden vines makes a stunning backdrop to our garden room.

One of the last drooping peonies.

Betty Boop rose always brings a smile to my face, as her colors start vibrant then fade to a muted pink and white.

I love to watch as this Impressionist Rose turns more golden as the summer days lengthen.

One of my favorite and most hardy roses, Hot Cocoa is just starting to open it's dark burgundy blossoms.

I adore cabbages, how they reach outward with such force, then curl tightly inside themselves.

These Euringeum Sea Holly blossoms are a stunning spiky mass.

T-pees of purple pea blossoms will soon turn into purple pod peas. Can't wait for this yummy snack!

I just love the spiked texture of these golden clematis seed pods.

Even the spinach is blooming. So, I harvested a bushel basket of spinach leaves and feed the stems to the chickens. Time to make a pan of spanekopeta greek spinach pie for dinner!