Anatomy Of A Spring Bouquet

I really enjoy having fresh flowers and greenery in my home. And I do splurge now and then and buy flowers at the grocery. I’ve found, like lots of people that Trader Joes is the place to go. Both their selection and price are amazing. Come to think of it, I don’t believe I’ve ever bought actual food there. I’ve always come home with one of three things:

Flowers, wine and chocolate

Sometimes all three 🙂

OK, LOTS of times.

So this time of year, the Spring I much prefer to cut my flowers out of my own yard. Or in this case, out of mine and my friend Donna’s.

Here’s what I started with:

One jar of large blooms:

my peonies

One jar of more cascading blooms:

Donna’s incredible lilacs and my clematis.

And lastly one jar of greens :

My Hosta, oak leaves and euonymus

Once I chose a vase for my arrangement I started by putting the oak leaves in first because they are the biggest. I really enjoy using oak leaves in floral arrangements. They are big and sort of flouncy and they take on a whole new color and life in the Fall.

Next I poked in my longest Hosta leaves. I used three different Hosta in this arrangement: blue , green and variegated. You know sometimes in the Summer I do centerpieces for my dining room table with nothing but Hosta and it’s lovely.

Once I had a fluffy green base I began to place my largest blooms. I think peonies are my absolute favorite flower. I have three huge bushes if them.

The cascading lilac blooms were next. I love how they drape over the edge of the vase . I can now smell them throughout my home! If you can see, I also picked several stims of lilac buds. I did this for two reasons. They will stand upright while in bud and they are about two shades darker than the blooms.

All that’s left is to place the partially open buds and fill in any holes with the smaller Hosta and euonymus.