Your Home, Garden and Travel

There are now enough perennials in my garden that I've overcome my reluctance to cut the blooms to use indoors. Creating a colorful bouquet brings a sense of satisfaction. Doing so is even more fun when giving the bouquet to someone else. I carried this bouquet to a dear neighbor who hosted a neighborhood gathering.

All flowers used in my bouquet are perennials from my zone 7, full sun, deer resistant garden. None of these plants are protected with deer fences or repellents. However, the rabbits will occasionally nibble Dutch iris foliage or the chives.

False Indigo (Baptisia australis)
Dutch Iris (iris x hollandica)
Catmint (Nepeta 'Six Hills Giant')
Flowering Onion (Allium aflatunenense 'Purple Sensation')
Culinary Chives (Allium schoenoprasum)
Stick Verbena (verbena bonariensis)
Yarrow (probably achillea 'Moonshine')
Yellow Flag Iris (iris pseudocorus)

When cutting the bouquet, I carried the vase out to the garden with a few inches of water to keep the stems as fresh as possible. I clean my pruners to make sure there is no soil or bacteria on the blades. By creating this arrangement as I went around the garden, it was easy to cut as many flowers as I needed for a full bouquet.

I didn't grow these flowers with the idea of a bouquet—the bi-color Dutch irises provided the key to the color scheme and everything else just fell into place.



(Note: The Dutch irises are not as blue as shown in the photo. They are deep violet which two different cameras and several settings could not accurately reflect without washing out the other flower colors.)

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel.