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.

Meconopsis grandis...

I want to grow this wonderful blue flower again. It is the most amazing blue sky color!

I took this picture years ago, and came across it while making my "I want this plant list" for spring. I used to have one of these lovely blue poppies growing in our front garden. The plant lasted a few years, but got tromped or lost when we remodeled and I had to move all the plants out of the front garden.

Plant friends, if you happen to see these lovely meconopsis blue poppy while out plant hunting, grab one for you and me!

A Mon Seul Désir

Years ago, in the Cluny Museum in Paris I stood in front of the famous set of unicorn tapestries which represent the 6 senses. Days ago, the last in the series of six tapestries caught my attention at a lovely wedding we attended. It was quietly hanging above the fireplace, as a silent symbol for the wonderful wedding celebration below.

The lady appears in front of a tent bearing the inscription "A Mon Seul Désir" (To My Sole Desire), and seems to place a necklace in a box which her servant is holding for her.

The meaning of the sixth tapestry (the 6th sense?) is harder to grasp than the other five in the series. But at this wedding, the meaning was subtly obvious. It hung as a silent tribute to the elegant married couple Chris and Lorien and their understanding of each other and that of the heart.

The bride found this cute robot cake topper on Etsy. Oh how I love Etsy!

Robot Secret Agent in Top Hat with Ray Gun and Bride Holding Hands Lilly Bouquet Wedding Cake Topper.

I covet these vintage glass candle holders, which flickered warm candle light during the ceremony.

The elegant bridal boquets were amazing. Some of the flowers included were rose buds, seeded eucalyptus leaves, green chrysanthemums, white stock and my favorite detail was the raw fiddle head ferns also called monkey tails.

We were so impressed that the groom knew the wine cork stuck in the bottle trick. Matt had never met someone who could figure it out until Chris! Good man!

Moi et mon seul desir.

A winter arrangement...

It is always a fun challenge this time of year to head outside with a pair of clippers and camera in hand, in search of color and texture.

The other day I took a walk around the property, hoping to find a little something to make into a winter arrangement for our tokonoma. Nature was full of colorful and simple surprises.

Try this at your place, and you might be surprised at what you can find. Little snips of colorful branches, berries, and evergreens work well in an ikebana style vase.

Sweet little cyclamens

One of my favorite little plants for winter decoration: cyclamens. These sweet little plants have delicate patterned leaves and adorable little flowers which come in great holiday colors. I found some sweet miniature red blooms at Molbaks. They are perfect in antique pots.

They are also a great plant for terrariums.

White cyclamens fill two mantel terrariums for holiday decoration.

And some varieties grow wonderfully in my woodland garden. I can’t wait to see their sweet little blossoms early in the spring.