Just stick fresh cut flowers in a vase!

Haighr, those cactus are easy to grow....they are native to my state. They will grow in yours! All ya need is some really poor soil! They are winter hardy and beleive me, we get the snow here! I have paddie cuttings available just about all year. I wish I could find a similiar variety in pink or red to compliment them....

My mums are pretty hardy too. No slugs or snails here. The frogs take care of that problem!! At our old farm we used to have about 70 varieties of the hardys but the darned floods here killed most of then after we moved them here. This variety in the photo gets about three feet tall. Nice for a cutting flower.

My pets now are mostly daylilies....not much for a cut flower since the bloomers only last a day, but a wonderful garden buddy!

Enjoy!

Beeyoootiful!!

Scrumptious colors. Perhaps I will try the cactus one of these days again, I do have all the poor soil I can get my hands on LOL! Right now my tropicals have the room filled to the brim so best wait until spring has sprung again.

Fall stuck-in-a-glass photo:

Very pretty purples you have there ts flowers and welcome, nice to have you share your vase of lovelies. You should stop over and visit our cafe some time, bet you could sparkle the place up with those purples.

cough cough, what do you mean you are old Candee? and there you go galavanting in the woods this weekend again!!

Blossombuddy, your mums are really gorgeous! Next year I WILL plant more for late colour, Thanks for the lovely picture. Do you still have flowers in the garden now?

TsFlowers, Really nice arrangement, what is the red leaf? I like the way you have grouped / blocked the plant material, very much.Thanks for sharing your fall in a glass!

Hi Yardqueen! whats happening in your neck of the woods? Is your greenhouse full up yet?? LOL!

Ummm...that's not really an arrangement. But thanks anyway. I was just running around the garden quickly cutting a few more things to take to the farmer's market to fill in small bouquets and I just stuck them in a glass. They kinda fell in that way and I thought heck, that doesn't look too bad, so I snapped a photo. I make lots of mini bouquets for the farmer's market (usually at the market) and I just love using coleus foliage in my bouquets, or to border the bottom of the bouquet.

P.S. I just posted the photo here because of the title "Just stick cut flowers in a vase". And that's what I did, "stick them", except it was a glass instead of a vase.

I re-read your post terri and the stuff I think you are talking about is coleus foliage. Because of a high amount of traffic at the farmer's market, I couldn't back away from my table to get a good photo of this bouquet. It also has coleus foliage and the two colors combined great. However, I don't really like the bouquet and probably would do it over. [It sold though with no problems, so...] But I'm always pressed for time and usually put things together very quickly.

Terri,

Just enjoying the grandkids and retirement! Yes the greenhouse is full and I am aquiring more as we speak! one of these days I will have to cut down... I am trying to do more perennials, but I can't ever completely give up my tropicals!

How are things going you you? Any new baskets? Ooopps I sorry I brought that up! LOL

TS,

those colors really are great together! I really love those dahlias, and that coleus is a really pretty one. What is the cultivar? I have similar, but not exactly and it is really a cool one!

ts, those are beauties, great color.

Thanks...but I'm sorry I don't know the coleus variety off-hand. And I about cried after making that post, just then realizing that I hadn't taken cuttings of all my coleus this year. I just do not like the cold and was so busy while it was warmer that I just didn't get it done. I'm pretty sure I put the plant spike in the ground. If I happen to make it out there, I'll see if I can find the plant spike. Was an expensive new one this year, and I could kick myself for forgetting to take cuttings.

TsFlowers, The person who bought your 'stick in a vase' got a bargain! Nice coleus.
I would love to visit your stall and see all your 'stick in a vase' because you certainly have a good eye for combining colours and textures, this may come naturally to you because you have a talent for it !!
By the way, I don't like half the things I churn out, but someone else might 'see' somethiing in it that I don't LOL! Don't be too hard on yourself about the cuttings, there's always next year!

Hi Yardqueen, good to hear you are having a nice time and keeping well.
You are the basket case around here darling lol no one plays baskets anymore not fair!!!!

I don't think I have any new ones since last Christmas... I know last year we had fun playing dueling baskets!!! LOL

Thank you terri, that's a very sweet compliment. And that's funny that you say that, because that's what a lot of my customers say. I'm thankful because I enjoy it (except sometimes when I get *very* rushed and haven't had a good nights sleep because I spent all the previous day and night getting ready). I do think it is a gift from God because I've never had any training at all, although I would like that and think I could learn a lot. I don't know even much about forms or structure.

I don't know that I'd ever win any competitions for a floral arrangement, that perhaps you might because you have some very nice ones. But I've had to learn to work under pressure and speed. So if there were any competitions where buckets of flowers were set in front of you and you had to arrange all of them as quickly as possible into bouquets, perhaps I could win one of those. LOL.

I think you do a splendid job of throwing them together tsflowers. You have more talent than you give yourself credit. It is all in the eye and you have a good one whether you know it or not.

Thanks haighr, that's a very sweet compliment too! :)

TsFlowers, LoL love the idea of having a speed competition, that would be FUN!
Candee would be there all day LOL!!!
Have you used floral foam to make arrangements? that really helps with structure, as you are in control and the material 'obeys'!!! it should stay in the exact position you want it, if the 'mechanics' are done properly.
Stick around here TsFlowers we have fun trying out different ideas all the time LOL!



Queen of Yards! Basketcase! How about a basket makeover thread?????
Post your basket, then post the makeover? no excuses LOL!!

I only use floral foam once in a great while. I use *all* garden flowers that I grow myself (noththing commercial) and most have very weak stems and are a pain in the batoot to try to stick in foam. I guess I'm not patient enough (or actually no money in it) to sit and make holes with another object to insert stems. Always in a hurry because my work load is *very* heavy. Most times I actually arrange my bouquets in my hand and not in a vase. However, when my candelabra type lilies are in bloom, I generally always make short bouquets with those using floral foam. I dug up one of those lily bulbs one time and I bet the bulb was 5"+ in diameter...just huge. When they get that large they send up huge stems with many many buds, and many of the buds are on a 6" to 8" stem. I have Black Beauty (deep red), Rubrum (I call rose-pink) and Henryi (orange with green star center -- very nice). I arrange those in cups (with foam) or those small decorative buckets that I can get at Dollar General often for a dollar (and line those with plastic baggies and foam and some actually come with a short 2" liner). I of course have to sell those for more. In our area customers won't spend much on bouquets and many are college students but love to have flowers in their rooms. I try to keep my small bouquets at $3 or $3.50 so have to put them together quickly (and make a lot of them) to make any money. (And Walmart sells commercial bunches for $4 so have to compete with that.) The lily bouquets are a lot more expensive because they require more time and I have a lot more cost in them. For my small bouquets I go to the recycle and get various jars to put my bouquets in. I hate sending flowers home with a customer out of water, except for my single stem Asiatic, Oriental and LA lilies, or cockscomb bunches (both keep extremely well). And I have a lot of customers return the jars, so that is nice. So really, I have very little time to make *arrangements*. But I know I would enjoy that...seeing how creative I could be with what's available.

In fact, on the post about "last fall bunch", had I not dreaded the outdoor cold so much, I was tempted to go out and get some of that *dead* stuff (lol...as I heard another person post and had a good laugh) and see what I could do since the market is over for the season. Some of the shrubs have colorful leaves and/or berries.

Ah ha, yes I can see now how difficult and time consuming it would be to use garden flowers.
I have the same trouble with the garden stems, far too flimsy for oasis!!
It sounds like you have loads of flowers, it must be wonderful in your garden!

I bought a couple of bunches at the supermarket today, I'll be back later with them stuck in a vase!

This message was edited Nov 27, 2008 8:54 PM

My batteries ran out! charging them now lol.

Chrysanths

Solidago,Chrysanths,pearl bead sticks,underwater roses and gold ribbon tied onto the vase.

Very beautiful. Reminds me of fall bouquets that I do. I use yellow garden mums and coleus foliage that's a deep purple/brown with highlights of peach/orange and green and put spiky stems of ornamental millet in center. I thought I had snapped a photo, but can't find it.

And a partridge in a pear tree LOL! Stunning Terri and love the petals in the vase!

Thanks you too! I would love to see more of your bouquets TsFlowers. Next year maybe you will have time to take some pics the night before you sell? Do you have ornamental millet now? is that like wheat?
Glad you liked the petals in the vase, they WERE my lovely roses that someone put in the warmest room ever while I was out !!! mr nobodyowningup y'know!

Yardqueen, come back!! promise I won't mention baskets LOL!
Merry Christmas! How is the decorating coming along?

Carnations and Alstromeria stuck in a jug of water.

Orchid.

And Merry Christmas to you Terri! And to everyone else here also!

Decorating is basically done! Almost made a basket case out of ME though! I really still just have to do the dining room and the breakfast room and that is not too hard. I already did the lighted garland in the DR, but not the table. I still need to do the garland in the BR and the table also. Not a single present under the tree though! Not one gift bought! I kind of like my tree this year... I do it different every year, with maybe a repeat of one I really like every once in a while, but not the very next year. I always come up with some idea for something different. This years is basically pine cones, berries, holly & stuff like that with some red birds, and the topper is grapevine woven into 3 stars also decorated with holly and berries and pine cones. It was kind of fun doing it.

How about you? Is your decorating and shopping all done? Wrapping, too? If so, come help with mine! I will make you some hot chocolate and ginger cookies!

Oh wow, do I hear my doorbell ringing already?!?

Oh that sounds like a spectacular tree yardqueen. Please post a pic, would love to see it. I remember one year we put up a tree at our huntin cabin and Amy and I decorated it with pine combs, we stuck arrows in it and used some grunt calls and turkey calls and then strung bullet shells and berries to hang on it and we put some antlers together for the topping. It was quite a hoot!

No shopping here, we just give to the grandbabies and we do that at thanksgiving and then we head outta here! Just gotten to be too much hype and too expensive for our kids to worry about what to get for us, so we just quit doing it about 10 years ago. The kids all go to their inlaws and exchange with them and we just get the babies somethings special. So I guess that means I am free to help with your wrapping and such!

Hi Yardqueen!!!!!
Your decorations sound wonderful! love ginger cookies and hot chocolate.
NO! is the short answer, haven't done anything yet!! panic ahead lol!









ding dong!

Candee

The hunting tree sounds cute! Neat idea for the occasion! So you can come help me wrap? That will be great! I'll run & get some marshmallows for the chocolate...

Terri

You're here already! Hope you can help me shop first, cause I don't have anything to wrap yet! Sound like you need to shop too!

I will try to take some pics of the tree sometime Monday. My sister is here right now and I am quite busy with her till Monday when she leaves. Right now she is in bed. I need to get to bed myself as it is almost 2:30 am...

Night!

Found it, it was cute and forgot bout my orange cap!

That IS cute! LOL That tree is LOADED and ready to go hunting as soon as Santa leaves!

Believe it or not that popcorn strand is 25 years' old and still white as the day it was popped. Tasha, Tim and I made it with that stovetop jiffy popcorn in 1982.

Wow! That is some old popcorn!!! My kids and I did some one year, probably in the 80's also. It looked good for several years but I finally threw it away because some of the popcorn was starting to fall off the string. We also string some red berries, and they looked good for several years even though they dried up and were kind of black and red, but I threw them away also. It was fun stringing them with the kids though! Kids are all grown now... the youngest is 28! Maybe they will do that with their kids someday! I should have string berries for my tree this year. That would have gone well with the theme of the tree...

I will go and take some pics now...

Well, I'm back! LOL I took a lot of pictures! Just kidding... I forgot about posting them.

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