Flowers for the House

‘Happiness is the art of making a bouquet of those flowers within reach’

BOB GODDARD

I know the above quote is meant to be metaphorical, but that really is happiness for me. Not going out and buying flowers (although that can definitely cheer me up too) but creating something with what it is I have to hand in my own back yard. A little bouquet that is a tiny snapshot of my garden in that particular season or month. Thinking carefully about the colours and shapes, and bringing them together in a way that is unique.

I have done this ever since I was a child. I was lucky enough to grow up with a gardening mum who created a beautiful cottage garden, filled to the brim with pretty flowers. She very rarely picked the flowers from her garden, unless one got damaged and then she’d pop a single broken stem into a small vase. Sometimes there’d be enough to make a small posy, often popped into an old teapot. But she occasionally allowed me to pick a bouquet for the house in the middle of summer, and it fulfilled my little creative soul.

I took this task very seriously, picking first the showy stars of the bunch - the roses, lilies, or dahlias, then some foliage for holding everything together, and then a few dainty flowers for colour contrast or harmony. I’m sure I remember mum guided me when I first started doing this, and then when I got a bit older she left me to it, and I loved proving to her that I could create a lovely display, in the same way that I tried to impress her with my latest piece of art.

Creativity and a love for flowers were passed down to me in abundance, and now as I wander around my own garden in midsummer picking a few flowers for a vase, I can feel her presence with me.

I was and still am very frugal with what I pick. That was probably instilled in me too. I only take what can be spared without spoiling the aesthetics of the garden or more importantly damaging the plants in any way. I have a tiny garden, a fraction of the size of the one I grew up in, yet I still manage to find enough material for a vase. The bouquets I create are haphazard and certainly wouldn’t win any prizes at a local show, but that isn’t the point for me. It’s about capturing a moment in time, to be admired and appreciated, and often for me, to be used as a still life for a drawing.

There’s a creativity in putting together a bunch of flowers, finding the prefect container, arranging them just so, placing them in the right spot and then another level of creativity in drawing or painting them. Which involves looking and really seeing those flowers in detail, or capturing a feeling of the whole arrangement.

I often intend to plant up a cutting patch on my allotment, but have yet to manage this. I will get around to it one day. But I do have plenty of self-sown flowers that I leave be where I can. Cosmos, sunflowers, and calendulas are the main ones. Some hollyhocks found their way over from a neighbours plot, and I managed to move them to a corner where they won’t get in the way of the veggies. I have daffodils and tulips in the spring. I have grown rows of sweet williams before, and would like to get these going again. And I have sown some nasturtiums below the courgettes this year, but they have yet to appear in the heatwave. These are all grown mainly to attract the bees, or deter pests, or to make the plot look nice, and avoid a monoculture.

I have grown sweetpeas on the allotment in previous years, but I have struggled of late to keep them watered enough to continue flowering. If we get a wet spring and summer they thrive better and do look beautiful in small vases around the house, but climate change means wet springs in particular are becoming rare. I may have to try growing them in a large pot at home next year.

The sunflowers are a better bet these days. You can’t give them enough sun, and they seem to thrive even if they don’t get watered too often. They are loved by the bees and also provide a feast for the birds once they go to seed. Those growing on the plot this year are self-seeded. Last year’s heads were laid on the ground for the birds or squirrels, and inevitably they have popped up in the same place, with no intervention from me except a little thinning out. They need no companions in a large jug. Beauty forever personified by Van Gogh, and who can argue with that?

Thanks for reading!

If you’d like to support my work you can buy me a coffee here which will be very much appreciated. I also have a shop on Etsy called Zoe’s Garden Prints that you might like to mooch through, or you can share this post.

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