Tuesday, November 4

Such a pretty vase

Long-lasting arrangements from your garden

I went out into the garden this morning and cut what will probably be the last bouquet of the season. There aren’t many things that make me happier than a simple vase of flowers on my kitchen table. It’s one of the main reasons I started gardening. Over the years, though, I’ve learned that not all good garden plants produce good cut flowers. Many of the blooms from my favorite perennials only last a few days indoors. There are some, though, that can outperform their bedfellows in a vase and even a few shrubs and vegetables that make excellent, and long-lasting, additions to indoor arrangements.

Make them last longer

No matter what flowers you choose to bring indoors, there are a few things you can do to make them last longer. First, plan on cutting your blooms early in the morning while they are well hydrated. Also, choose those that are just coming into flower and are not yet fully open. Use a sharp knife or sharp pruning shears to make your cuts. Anything dull can smash the stems, preventing them from absorbing any more water. And, if you make your cuts at an angle, stems won’t rest squarely on the bottom of the vase, which in turn will help them to absorb more water, too.

To prevent bacteria from forming in your arrangement and cutting short its beauty, remove any foliage that will come in contact with the water in your vase and, when you fill it, use lukewarm water. (The exception to this rule is any flower that bleeds a milky sap. Plunge the stems of those into icy water instead.)

Adding a preservative to the water will also help to prolong the life of your flowers. To be effective this preservative needs three things: sugar for nutrients, an acid to prevent bacterial growth, and a fungicide to reduce the chance of disease. The following homemade recipe contains all three. Just stir the ingredients together and add to your clean vase.

Homemade floral preservative
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon household bleach
2 teaspoons lemon or lime juice
1 quart lukewarm water

Choices to consider

As you start thinking about next year’s garden, consider adding a few of the following perennials and shrubs to your borders. Then, whenever you gather a huge bouquet for your own table, smile a little smile for me.

Perennials

With proper care, the flowers from each of these perennials should last at least a week in a vase:

Achillea (Yarrow)
Alchemilla (Lady’s mantle)
Allium (Ornamental onion)
Anthemis (Marguerite Daisy)
Aster
Campanula (Bellflower)
Centranthus (Valerian)
Chrysanthemum (Shasta daisy)
Coreopsis (Tickseed)
Digitalis (Foxglove)
Echinacea (Cone flower)
Gaillardia (Blanket Flower)
Hosta
Lavender
Liatris (Blazing star)
Lilium (Lily)
Lobelia
Sedum (Stonecrop)
Solidago (Goldenrod)

Shrubs

In addition to flowers, many shrubs produce interesting buds and twigs for indoor arrangements. Suggestions include:

Buddleia (Butterfly bush) — flower
Cornus stolinifera (Red and yellow twig dogwood) — stems
Hydrangea — flower
Philadelphus (Mock Orange) — flower
Physocarpus opulifolius (Ninebark) — flower
Sambucus (Elder) — flower and foliage
Syringa (Lilac) — flower
Salix (Curly willow) — stems

Vegetables

A fellow gardener once told me about an arrangement she saw that included fresh-picked carrots in a clear glass vase. The orange roots, submerged in water, were just as eye catching as the lacy leaves that acted as filler for a few yellow ranunculus. For a variation on this theme, you might submerge cherry tomatoes or new potatoes in your vase.

If you want to use vegetables as ‘flowers’ in an arrangement, leave them whole for the longest-lasting results. Try the following:

Cauliflower
Broccoli
Artichokes
Asparagus
Peppers

Basic guidelines for any arrangement

There are a few basic guidelines for putting together any floral arrangement, but don’t forget to have fun and let your own imagination and sense of style be the final judge:

• Keep ‘heavier’ looking flowers (such as sunflowers, fully opened roses, large lilies, etc.) in the lower half of your arrangement to give it weight.
• Allow upright, spikey flower heads (such as delphinium and foxgloves) to reach above the bulk of the arrangement to give it extra height.
• Small flowers (baby’s breath, sea oats, plants with small berries, etc.) make good filler flowers. Use them throughout the arrangement for a fuller look.
• The finished height of an arrangement is usually 2 to 2-1⁄2 times the height of the vase alone.
  

As editor of Ornamentals & Edibles, Mary Ellen Smith combines 17 years of journalism experience with a life-long love of gardening.