That's really pretty!

I like to keep flowers on my kitchen windowsill as often as I can. Also sometimes keep another small vase on the stovetop and in one of the bathrooms. I never do large arrangements, but it's fun to bring some color into the house where it can be enjoyed up close.

CMK, what a beautiful collection of flowers in the bowl!
Natal, I LOVE your kitchen window and assorted vases.

The only time I do a couple large arrangements is when the peonies and baptisia are blooming in the early summer. I just love that combination. It's so simple and so beautiful. I do cut flowers here or there to put in bud vases in the kitchen. I did have some great bloom from my tree peonies this year so I actually cut some and put them in a vase. I usually leave those babies on the plant!

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Thank you! Great bouquets guys!

-Natal, what a lovely kitchen and sill to put flowers on. Can you see your garden thru your window??

-thyme2dig, oh I just love that yellow peony! Do you know its name by any chance?
CMK

Yes, I cut one bouquet a week for the table and from time to time, little ones for my kitchen, too.

Simple Spring Bouquet - Damask Roses in an old blue creamer

Each season has its own beauty to bring inside and enjoy.

In the fall, it might be fall flowers, rose hips, dried grass plumes, wheat, cattails, twigs, bittersweet vines or autumn leaves; harvested fall fruit and squashes (pumpkins etc). Assorted Gourds are pretty too. If I am able to get peacock feathers in July, those go into my fall and winter bouquets with dried grasses, and etc. Mosses are pretty tucked in here and there at the bottom.

In winter, it can be all of the fall items mixed with evergreens, Nandina berries, Snowberries or Holly berries, interesting twigs or just wooden bowls or baskets of pinecones or assorted fruit.

I love being outside, and when I can't be outside, I bring it inside with me.

Most of my flowers will make more blooms when I cut them, so I get blessed twice!

Yours are all lovely.
This is a great post.
Keep 'em coming!

~Annie

I forgot to add this link.
This one is on my table today.
It's a "Welcome home" bouquet for DHM.

Here is a link that might be useful:

I love making bouquets !! This weekend I will be making some as we are having a small get-together and we are also going to a BBQ at my husband's grandma's so I will make a big bouquet for her. Luckily the lilies are still blooming and that scent is intoxicating, so I will be putting lilies in her bouquet. I really enjoy making mixed bouquets with many different colors. I have my 2 main gardens divided into one for hot colors and one for pastels, so it is easy to color-coordinate within a bed. I will take pictures of this weekend's bouquets and add to this thread to show you the results. I also like making smaller bouquets to thank people at work for tasks, or to celebrate their birthdays, or just to have on my desk. That makes me happy !

...just when you thought all the extra vases you had lying around should go in a yardsale...

These are beautiful! T2D- GORGEOUS peonies! Where are you in NH?

Ever since someone told me the 'secret' to zinnias (cut, cut cut!!!), I do bring those in for vases, but rarely anything else.

When I was growing up, we had hayfields, and in them were various grasses & wildflowers. My great-aunt would bring in a handful of hay & wildflowers and put it in a vase. What a lovely combination! I'll still do that occasionally if I can find some, but the wildflowers no longer seed themselves down back since the hay is cut earlier :(
It's just not the same when you pick them out of an "on purpose" garden.

Yep I do. Cut 'em and sell 'em.

Here's one:

ThinMan

Thinman, I do think cosmos are my favorites outside and in. All I have this year are some very tall self-seeded orange and yellow ones....must plant them next year.

I love the small arrangements in the windowsill....alas, mine is too narrow. I need to make a small shelf to fit over the sink for them. I seem to spend most of my life there!

Peonies are wonderful inside and make the room smell so good.

Annie, will he notice the flowers? Mine would not unless I pointed them out to him!

Love the shallow bowl arrangement too. I like to do single clems in a bowl like that.

I don't bring them in nearly as often as I should...I guess because I am out there amid them most days.

I guess you could call this my kitchen bouquet. This is the HB bed I see when I stand at the sink....I can also look across the drive and see the grass bed and the cellar bed.

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Thyme, your tree peonies remind me of camellias. No peonies down here, but I remember my mom used to float the blooms in a bowl vase.

CMK, no, that window overlooks the courtyard and the house next door, but if I turn 90 degrees I can see the garden through these windows...

Annie, how long does the lantana keep its flowers for you? I've never had luck cutting and bringing it indoors.

Thinman, love that combination!

Gldno, that's a great view! What's a cellar bed?

CMK, I think I bought the yellow labeled as 'High Noon', but I don't think it actually is.

Sweetannie, your summer bouquet is absolutely beautiful!

MMQ, I'm in Goffstown

Thinman, that simple cosmos bouquet is soooo pretty!

Gldno1, who needs a bouquet at the sink when you have a view like that!?! Beautiful!

Natal, for some reason I couldn't see the picture in your last post. I do love camelias and wish I could grow them up here. Perhaps some day someone will come up with a cold-hardy variety.

Thyme, I grabbed the pic from a password-protected album. Let me try again. And I should confess that the pic was taken back in May. Most of the tomato plants are now gone and I'm dealing with a mole who's enjoying my garden a little too much. â¹

I have no talent when arranging flowers so my bouquets suck! And besides, my kitchen table is usually such a mess you wouldn't be able to see it anyway! So I usually leave the beauties in the garden but will cut a few here and there (especially broken stems etc.) to bring in and enjoy.
You all have lovely bouquets.

Beautiful bouquets, everyone! I LOVE to cut bouquets, but unfortunately am not able to do so very often, as one of my kitties likes to gobble them up!

Here is a photo I took today of a bouquet of my pink Shining Hope roses, along with Glynnis's Cottage Garden Rose Petal Syrup...

Becky

Wow guys, what beautiful pictures.
I love having fresh cut flowers in the house. I have a collection of small bottles that are perfect for showing off a simple of what is in bloom at any given time without destroying the display in the garden. But I also like making larger bouquets for my family to enjoy. Often using flower that would otherwise be destroyed by rain or are close to being spent. My family knows how much my gardens mean to me and I think it shows how much family means to me when I bring my treasures in for everyone to enjoy. It makes my six year old daughter so happy when she finds a beautiful arrangement of flowers in her room. she says "They make me feel like a real live princess Mommy." And I must say some of my most prized bouquets have been carefully chosen wild flowers the children have pick for me.

Love in a bottle, that's what I say!

Here is a picture of a bouquet I made with some roses from my garden.
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Margaret Merril, Garden party, Morden Blush and Alba Meidiland.

Carrie B.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Its so nice to see your cut flower bouquets. Hope to see more.

THere are always bouquets in my house especially my Mom's room. My sister comes down twice a week to help care for Mom and she has free reign of my gardens and will do a fresh bouquet for her room and if any are left over then a smaller arrangement gets made for the kitchen table. She will use absolutely anything any given season including the dead of winter. I have no talent for arranging so I grow em' and she arranges em' and Mom looks at em' - it is a win-win-win situation :) ......

Lynne

Lovely bouquets. I'd bring flowers in more often except I also have a kitty who likes to eat them. So I have to put them on the mantel or in a birdcage. Since the best part of my garden is visible from the kitchen/breakfast area I don't have to cut to enjoy. I will do a mixed bouquet of whatever is blooming when we have company.

DH sometimes cuts wildflowers for me which I actually appreciate more than from our garden.

Since I was a florist in my previous career, my first thought is to cut, cut, cut! My preference is a large bouquet - the bigger the better - of all one type of flower. I have to take care that I don't deplete all the color in the garden. Lupines are high on my hit parade.

I have a small dahlia bed in the far corner of my garden which pretty much solely for cutting - and I have blooms on the table and windowsills from August til frost (which can often be as late as mid October). Otherwise, I too prefer to leave the flowers on the plants, unless something has broken off.

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Sorry, not sure why that last one comes out small.

Here are the pics I promised earlier. The large pastel one was made for my hubby's grandmother and the smaller orange one was for the kitchen island this weekend.

I do cut the flowers to bring them inside sometimes. But I must confess I only cut those that are abundant in the garden and make beautiful bouquets, like cosmos, shata daisies, dahlias, or cereopsis.
Here're some of my bouquets I made when we had a lot of those flowers blooming.

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Xuan

Wow Everyone, I'm so excited after looking at all of your beautiful bouquets. I haven't done this for years but my siter's FIL will be 96 this Sunday and we plan on having a birthday party for him. Hopefully I can come up with a bouquet out of my garden for the party.

I use to always have friends over for coffee or dinner and made sure I had fresh flowers around our home. Sad to think I have been so busy the thought hasn't crossed my mind for several years. Sigh

Love coming here to see all the eye candy and inspiration. Thanks so much to all of you for sharing on this forum. Punk

I did it. I went out and cut some flowers and took them in for the Birthday Boy. I was off one year, he's 97 today and still has a sharp mind. He loved the flowers. Thanks so much for this post.

I have a funeral service this week so will be sending my own bouquet with a personal plaque thanks to all of you and your great ideas. I will try to put together a better looking bouquet for the service.

Here's a picture of the one I made today. It's not the prettiest one but it was enjoyed and I'm glad I put it together cuz I will probably try to take him one every two weeks. Punk

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Oh how lovely, I've really enjoyed seeing everyone's gorgeous bouquets! I've come back again and again to peruse the beautiful photos---wish there was scratch and sniff! :-)

VERY adorable kitties, too!! :)

Phonegirl, that bouquet is so cheerful, I am sure you are brightening up his days immensely!!! Very, very thoughtful and sweet of you.

CMK, thank you so much for starting this thread! I did see your beautiful Bouquet photo a while back, but it is not showing now. Did you remove it?

Cheers everyone,
Becky

What beautiful bouquets!

and cats.........

glenda

Great pics guys!

-Becky, you are very welcome :-) My link was destroyed when I moved stuff around on my photobucket albums. I hate it when that happens! Here it is again in case anyone should want to look at it again.

Here is another pic I found from spring. A broken daff and carnations. I like the lighting in this photo- almost makes me want to break out my brush and paints...

Spring and early summer are my best times for bouquets. Callas, iris and freesias in the spring; roses, hydrangeas, glads, lilies and alstroemeria in the summer.

I love having flowers in the house but sometimes just let them stay on the plants. Depends on how much color I've got in the garden - if there's not too much, I leave it be.

Here's a small slideshow on Photobucket:

Here is a link that might be useful: Bouquets

This is a beautiful thread. I thank all of you for sharing. I usually cut only flowers with broken stems like a fallen gladioli, in danger of frost, or wonderfully fragrant like a gardenia.

Nell

When I was young, I always had a bouquet on the kit and coffee tables. When we moved here, the KT. Now, I have gardens right outside every window, so I rarely cut, since I have a huge bouquet outside most every window, except for company or celebrations. How life changes.
gramma jan

I should have added: I take garden bouquets to friends who are hospitalized or home-bound. We get the the tiny bouquets made, of all kinds flowers blooming at the time, to test what will keep the longest for them.

A couple of weeks ago, at a bride's request for a bouquet from my gardens, I made a bride's table bouquet. Lucky thing it was right at the time my Muscadet lilium were blooming--white oriental lilies with small red/fuchsia dots in the throat.

I couldn't find the right container, but did find a long narrow ugly brown one for the long narrow table. About 15 coats of white paint and it was ready to go. The neck flared a bit, so I added a necklace of braided pearls with wire ones sprayng out in every direction.

Filled it with the huge lilies (about 10) and one starting to open bud for a bit of contrasting form. I topped it all off with pics I made of wired sprays of pearls for a bit of height.

It received lots of very positive comments: "You should make a business of it" "They're prettier than the professionals." I had been so nervous about it--not the kind of reaction I like from gardening. I had so feared everyone would think it not up to par that this pleased me greatly.

It was the only arrangement the bride wanted to take home. Not to brag, but...chuckle
gramma jan

What beautiful pictures - - I'm going to go out & cut something now! I always bring bunches of lilacs in when they're in bloom, but have never really thought of doing it with any of the other flowers - - until seeing these pictures!! :-)