Late Summer Flower Arrangements
As summer wears on, late season flowers continue to add vivid colors to the garden.
Down by my chicken coops in my former vegetable garden, I now have a space dedicated to annuals, where varieties could be organized in beds by size, color, and bloom time. All the flowers are started from seed in my greenhouse. Earlier this season, I had delphiniums, cornflowers, foxgloves, hollyhocks, snapdragons, and scabiosas. This week, the big showers are my sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos, amaranth, and celosia - all so pretty and perfect for indoor arrangements.
Enjoy these photos.
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- When I redesigned this garden, I wanted a space for raised beds where I could plant flowers by type specifically for cutting. This garden has such excellent, nutritious soil, I knew whatever was planted here would thrive.
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- I planted flowers that do best in full sunlight, meaning they get at least six to eight hours of sun per day.
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- These are the simplest of flowers. A favorite of my dad – zinnias. They come in extraordinary colors and sizes and shapes and are easily grown in one short season.
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- Zinnias are native to Mexico and Central America. The Aztecs originally called them “plants that are hard on the eyes” because of their colorful flowers. Zinnia is named after Johann Gottfried Zinn, a German botany professor who discovered the plants and brought them to Europe in the 1700s.
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- Zinnia plants range from six-inches tall to about four-feet tall. There are varieties with single or double petaled flowers in almost all the colors of the rainbow.
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- Zinnias flower mid to late in the season and are great for attracting hummingbirds, bees and butterflies. The large-flowered varieties provide pollen and nectar in late summer when native sources run low.
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- Cosmos are annuals with colorful daisy-like flowers that sit atop long slender stems. They attract birds, bees, and butterflies and come in a variety of colors including white and various shades of pink, crimson, rose, lavender and purple, all with yellow centers.
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- The lacy foliage and silky flowers bloom from midsummer to the first frost.
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- Garden cosmos measure three to four inches across, and may be single, semi-double, or double.
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- Sunflowers, Helianthus, are the popular and cheerful annuals whose round flower heads look like the sun. Sunflowers come in vibrant yellow, but they’re also seen in orange, red, bronze, and even white. I have large sunflowers growing around the perimeter of this garden. Young sunflowers turn to face the sun as it moves across the sky. They face east at dawn and then slowly turn west as the sun moves. During the night, they slowly turn back east to begin the cycle again. This is known as heliotropism and is due to the presence of auxin, a growth hormone in the stem. This process continues until the sunflower is mature.
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- Sunflower is the only flower with flower in its name. “Helia” for sun and “anthus” for flower. Sunflowers are also the symbol of faith, loyalty and adoration.
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- Enma cuts some of the long stemmed amaranth. Their velvety flowers are dense – some with drooping tassels. Blooms come in richly saturated harvest hues, and they hold their colors and shapes even when dry.
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- There are 2 main types of Amaranth grown for cutting – one with an upright growing habit where the plants produce spikes or plumes that add height and drama to arrangements. The other is a trailing type of Amaranth with a draping growth habit.
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- Celosia is a small genus of edible and ornamental plants in the amaranth family, Amaranthaceae. Its species are commonly known as woolflowers, or, if the flower heads are crested, cockscombs. The plants are well known in East Africa’s highlands and are used under their Swahili name, mfungu. Celosias thrive in full sun and require well-drained soil.
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- Enma cut lots flowers to bring indoors for arrangements.
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- After bringing the flowers inside, it is important to get them in water right away. Enma removes any leaves that would otherwise end up below the water line. Leaves and flowers that sit below the water line can rot.
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- She also holds each stem up to the vase to see where it should be cut to fit. The height of the flowers should be in proportion to the vase’s height. A common rule of thumb is that flowers should be one and a half to two times the height of the vase. Enma also cuts them at a 45-degree angle to allow water to flow up into the stem.
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- These dark pink amaranth flowers drape nicely over the vase. And look at the stems – they are thick cylindrical, fibrous, succulent, and bright colored.
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- Next, Enma works on an an arrangement of dark pink to burgundy colored blooms. One can stick to like colors when arranging to find complementary colors. This arrangement includes the zinnias, cosmos, and celosias.
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- All finished, this sunflower arrangement is displayed on a side table in my sitting room just off my servery.
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- This colorful arrangement is on the table in my foyer.
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- And this vase of gorgeous amaranth flowers is on the center table in my servery – in the colors of autumn, just a little more than two weeks away.
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