Big Changes in My Summer Bouquets: Thank you Linda Beutler!

As I was picking my weekly bouquet for my physical therapy appointment.  I felt like it was a collection of just the same ol' thing.  Nothing too exciting.  

I took a big hand blown green glass vase that I found at Goodwill for a reasonable five bucks, filled it with water, a splash of seven up, and a few drops of bleach and stabbed in stems of bears breeches blossoms, zebra grass, lady fern fronds, bronze dill, and put a row of big wrinkled hosta leaves around the backside of the bouquet.  And I almost yawned.  So, I put in some japanese forest grass seedheads and a maiden hair fern frond in the front for some excitement and a variegated brunnera leaf.  And I wondered if I should bother to bring it in.  If they would be bored with it. 

Then I realized that my normal bouquet at the beginning of this summer was this.  A nice collection of herbs and flowers in a jam jar with a fringe of hosta leaves.  

It's charming and smells good.  Just the right size to put in a car cupholder for travel.  It's cute.  This was my comfort zone in June.  And now I'm making bouquets that range upwards of four feet tall that I load into my blazer at an angle and prop up with empty plant buckets and towels making transport interesting.

So what changed?  I read Garden to Vase: Growing and using your own cut flowers by Linda Beutler. And with her wise and informative book, I learned of the bouquet possibilities sitting in my foliage based garden. And her knowledge combined with my physical therapist Kelly urging me to take bigger risks with my bouquets has resulted in some really creative and fun bouquets.  As I tend my garden through the week, I keep my eyes open looking for new possibilities.  So, thank you Linda Beutler for your inspiring book! 

Even The Assistant has noticed the difference in my bouquets this summer.