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Green inspiration: Create bouquets with offerings from the yard

Published 1:30 am Saturday, August 11, 2018

By Vanessa McVay

Green inspiration: Create bouquets with offerings from the yard
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Green inspiration: Create bouquets with offerings from the yard
Adding single stems of coreopsis and lavender to each jar adds a little pop of color. When the flowers fade, take them out and the cedar will still last for days. (Vanessa McVay / The Herald)
Perovskia (Russian sage) with some spiky scotch broom in an old bottle. Vintage bottles used to be easy to find for a couple of dollars at yard sales. Not so much anymore, but there is always lots of fun glassware for small bouquets at your local Goodwill. (Vanessa McVay / The Herald)
The colors in three stems of fragrant agastache (hummingbird mint) and a couple of stems of sedum (“Autumn Joy”) and sea holly pick up the iridescent shimmer of a carnival glass vase that was discovered at an estate sale for just a couple of dollars. (Vanessa McVay / The Herald)
The varied shapes and colors of lavender, coreopsis and yarrow (Achillea millefolium “Paprika”) look lush in a pint-sized wide-mouth Ball canning jar circa 1910. In clear vases, especially, change the water every couple of days and the arrangement will be more visually pleasing — and last longer, too. (Vanessa McVay / The Herald)
Single fans of cedar snipped from a tree in the yard are the perfect stuffers for tiny old medicine jars. They’re small, but three together become a sculptural grouping for a mantel or windowsill. No cedar? Any sprig of greenery works, even some snips from herbs like curly parsley or that invasive scotch broom you can’t kill. (Vanessa McVay / The Herald)
The pastel shade and simple, vertical form of this ceramic vase puts the visual emphasis on graceful, complex cedar branches. The addition of English lavender creates a fragrant and exceptionally long-lived arrangement, as long as the stems get retrimmed and the water changed every few days. (Vanessa McVay / The Herald)
A lovely Raku pottery dish is the perfect platform for a sculptural air plant (tillandsia). Mini pine cones provide support. No water is needed in this arrangement. (Vanessa McVay / The Herald)
A Raku pottery dish with cushiony achillea (“Paprika”). Mini pine cones add support. (Vanessa McVay / The Herald)

If you’ve ever yearned to brighten your home with a bouquet from your garden, it’s easy to get intimidated.

Maybe you don’t have enough to fill that huge vase, or some of the blooms are past their prime — and how to arrange them so they don’t looked so crushed together?

The answer: Simplify.

These modest but interesting bouquets are at home in a collection of old jars, bottles and vases, grabbed at garage sales or thrift stores over the years. The only thing you add to create a lovely little floral “moment” are a few stems of whatever the yard has to offer. Don’t forget the greenery — and sometimes it’s all you need.

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