Flower Bouquet: Garden Appreciation Society

I rarely cut flowers for the house.  This wasn't always the case.  At our last house, I routinely prepared little bouquets of flowers, at least during the spring and summer months.  With our move to our current house 2.5 years ago, this activity slowed almost to a stop.  I'm not sure why.  I've now got a much larger garden and I spend much more time in it but I seldom stop to cut flowers and bring them inside.

However, while checking other garden blogs today, I came across NellJean's post on gardenias on her Seedscatter blog.  This post linked to Erin's blog, The Impatient Gardener.  Erin has suggested that gardeners need to take time to appreciate their gardens by bringing some flowers inside.  I decided to join in.  Here's my bouquet, cut from the garden as the sun was going down here.

Four different flowers make up this bouquet, 3 of which were chosen from plants currently in full flower.  I inherited a large number of Agapanthus with the house, one of which is included here.  They all seem to come into bloom at the same time but the flowers are fairly long-lasting in the garden, if not so in a vase.  The ruffled white daisies are Leucanthemum x superbum, selected from one of 6 plants gifted me by a good friend last year when I was going through a rough period.  The Alstroemeria is another plant I inherited with the house.  These are among its final blooms for the season as the plant heads back into dormancy.  The dainty pink/purple/white filler is Cuphea ignea 'Starfire Pink', which I introduced to the garden in several locations soon after we moved in.  It doesn't last long in a vase but I think it does a nice job tying the other flowers here together.

Thanks, Erin, for the prodding me to bring some of my flowers inside!  You can view other bouquets on Erin's weekly post of the Garden Appreciation Society.