Color of the Moment
September 7th, 2013
Coral pinks, rosy oranges, a touch of faded terracotta and some dark burgundy foliage.
The overall scheme of the flowers I played with this week is hard to name. I’ve come up with the following:
Terracotta Pink
Coral Pink
Peachy Apricot
Pinkish Orange
Faded Terracotta
I’m up for suggestions on how to describe these yummy colors!
Dan Pearson of Dan’s Dahlias grew the two types of dahlias – one leans more toward the pink end of the spectrum; the other is more like that faded terracotta color I mentioned.
The antique pink-hued Celosia were grown by Diane Szukovathy and Dennis Westphall of Jello Mold Farm.
As I was leaving the Seattle Growers Wholesale Market the other day, Janet Foss of J. Foss Garden Flowers handed me the bunch of alstroemeria as a gift. These little beauties have flecks of dark maroon on a pale orange-pink throat. I love the way they tie together the more solid colored flowers.
There is a peaches-and-cream (with rapsberries added) mood to this trio of vases.
I came home wondering what to do with these evocatove botanical elements. I pulled down three ivory vases – one is vintage Haegar; two are vintage Hull (from my recent trip to Iowa). It felt right to use these vessels, each of which has an eggshell-like color and texture.
I walked around my garden and snipped dark maroon foliage from the Ninebark shrub, which as you can see really helped to define the spaces between the flowers. I also snipped Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ in pinkish bud and a few sprays of an inherited chrysanthemum, the flower heads toned dark terra cotta.
A few more shots, showing the designs for my medium and small vintage pedestal bowls:
This little saucer didn’t have a lot of room for stems. So I used a hydrangea flower as a fresh “frog” to organize the other short stems.
A fabulous, creamy white vintage compote-style bowl, used with a cage-shaped flower frog for this color-intensive bouquet.
Everything seems to come together as a lovely gathering of a beautiful hue. The color of the moment!
September 7th, 2013 at 11:00 pm
Rosé Olé (Pink wine champion)
September 16th, 2013 at 10:34 am
Any special prep for the Ninebark, like crushing the stem? How long does it last in an arrangement?
Thanks – Love your work; so inspirational!
Thanks for commenting, Jan: The Ninebark stem shouldn’t be crushed; just use a clean, sharp knife or pruners and cut at 45-degree angle. Some professional growers treat this woody shrub with a hydrating solution, which home gardeners don’t have access to. Since I have a huge shrub, it’s not a problem for me to clip a few more stems and replace any that wilt. I just checked “Woody Cut Stems for Growers and Florists” (Timber Press) by Lane Greer and John M. Dole. They write that Physocarpus doesn’t need any special conditioning and that vase trials indicate stems may last 12 days. Hope this helps. — Debra