Monday Morning Blooms

Hello, and welcome to Panoply on this glorious Monday morning. It is a most special day, as I was invited to join my blogging friends for this June garden edition of Monday Morning Blooms!

Thank you Mary, Pam and Lidy for inviting me to join Monday Morning Blooms June Garden edition.

Since moving into our cottage home in October 2021, I have been nurturing the garden, plant by plant, bloom by bloom. The invitation to join the gals of Monday Morning Blooms gives me the opportunity to share some of my favorite blooms from my garden, as well as the opportunity to set a table to enjoy them!

Landscape gardening is in my bones, and has been for nearly forty years. My biggest project was a garden renovation we did in 2004 that resulted in a new hardscape / landscape design at our home. That landscape grew to maturity fourteen years later.  In 2019, we downsized to a city loft for two and a half years, breaking from gardening altogether (it was also part of the Covid years). That ultimately ignited a burning desire to get back into a house and garden - rightsizing into a smaller, more manageable property than our large home, but more spacious than the loft.

Today I've set a small table - commensurate with our current lifestyle - with a flower bouquet representing the final act of a beautiful array of spring blooms, before the heat of summer takes center stage. It's a table suited for two, and a bouquet primarily from my cottage size garden.

My floral arrangement began with a very small bouquet I purchased at our local Capitol Market, but the majority of blooms used ended up being my own. I've used a Blenko's iconic 384 water decanter as my vase today. Blenko Glass factory is part of West Virginia's industrial history, operating since 1921. The water decanter form you see here was first introduced in 1938, and still remains in production.

The flowers I used from the vendor include the tulips, stock, and ranunculus. Added to the mix from my own garden are purple bearded iris, peonies (four different varieties), yellow evening primrose, and love-in-a-mist (nigella). As you can see from the photos above and below, it takes viewing the vase from both sides to take in all varieties of the blooms used.

I tried the method of preserving my peony blooms in the fridge for the perfect timing of my bouquet. The method works beautifully, and each of mine opened fully within a day of cutting. To preserve your peonies, you simply cut the stem when the bloom is in the "marshmallow" stage of puffiness before the bloom opens. You then snip all the leaves off the flower. At this point, I individually wrapped each bloom in saran wrap, being careful to twist the ends to close. I then placed them in the refrigerator until ready to arrange in a bouquet. 

Here are each of the selection of flowers from my garden used today, in situ:

Purple Bearded iris

Bartzella peony

Coral Sunset peony

Karl Rosenfield peony

Chestine Gowdy peony

Yellow evening primrose

Love-in-a-mist (nigella)

For the table, I chose preppy pink and green as my primary colorway. The tablecloth is one I've had for several years, and reminds me of a garden room with the trellis pattern. The napkin rings are in an espaliered vine pattern, something I'd love to try in the landscape some day. Have any of you tried espaliering?

My dish stack begins with my vintage and trusty Homer Laughlin Greenbrier china dinner plate. I used Juliska's classic Berry and Thread salad plate, and a SeaGlass inspired recycled glass appetizer from Viva Terra. I was sad to see Viva Terra discontinued this line before I could get a collection of it. The berry bowl is a MacKenzie-Childs ceramic, in collaboration with Katy McFarlan.

It was only after I had set my table and my blooms were waning when I was perusing our antique mall where my sisters and I rent booth spaces. I came upon the cutest little teapot that coordinated with my dishes - so inexpensive - and I brought that little teapot home! I can now say I added roses to my table.  😊
I hope you enjoyed your visit with me today. I was thrilled to be able to share my garden in this, my third year in this home. I look forward to continuing adding more perennial blooms to my cottage plot.

Now, enjoy more flower therapy with your hosts of Monday Morning Blooms, using the direct links to their respective posts below.

Mary at Home is Where the Boat Is

Pam at Everyday Living

Lidy at French Garden House

Mary, Pam, and Lidy - again, with much appreciation, thank you for the invitation to the June garden edition of Monday Morning Blooms.

Monday Morning Blooms June Garden Tablescape Details

Tablecloth - Home Goods

Placemats - Pier 1

Napkins (Shabby Chic) - TJ Maxx 

Napkin Rings - Jaye's Studio

Dinner plates (Homer Laughlin Co for Greenbrier Hotel), Cut Glass Pitcher (American Brilliant Period) - vintage finds

Salad plates (Berry and Thread), butter pat / tea bag plate (Jardins du Monde) - Juliska

Appetizer plates (SeaGlass) recycled glass - Viva Terra

Berry Bowls (Katy McFarlan collaboration) - MacKenzie-Childs

Flatware (Wallace Napoleon Bee), Glassware (Ralph Lauren Glen Plaid) - eBay

Glass Decanter as vase - Blenko

One last footnote: after my table was set, my granddaughter was here one evening after daycare for a few hours. She immediately changed into a costume (estate sale find), and found herself a seat at the table, ready for a tea party. I look forward to having her as my guest at many more.

Thank you for your visit today! Happy June!

Rita C. at Panoply

(A special thank you to Linda from Life and Linda's Creativity Link Party #257 for featuring this post!)

Parties I Share With: Pieced Pastimes, Love Your Creativity, BNOTP, French Ethereal SYS,  County Road 407 Farmhouse Friday