Spring Flower Arrangements

My goal in gardening has been to create a landscape with more than one function. This helps your landscape create visual interest as it transitions throughout the seasons. For example, using a burning bush shrub creates greenery in the late spring and summer, fiery bursts of red in the fall, and an architectural form for snow in the winter.

So when I add flowers to my garden, I like to add ones that I can also use for cuttings. I love having fresh cut flowers in my home and office, and having your own from your garden creates a huge amount of self-satisfaction.

That said, I'm not always one to plant bulbs for spring blossoms, much as I love the happy nods of daffodils and the fresh scent of hyacinths, mostly because our springs in Ohio tend to be too wet to want to walk around for cuttings.

Previous owners of my home had a fondness for spring bulbs, and I chose to keep them wherever they were planted. Admittedly, the bulbs around my house have a very ad hoc look, but I'm not bothered by it.

This year, the tulips were amazing.

So for this year's first arrangement, I cut several tulips, found some daffodils and a couple lone hyacinths. While I love fresh flowers in my home, my sister is actually the florist in the family. But I was rather satisfied with the final look:

You'll notice the greenery in the back. These are actually my newly found pussy willows. I like the look of structure and architecture they bring to the arrangement. And I'm hopeful they will root so I can start a smaller bush for another area of the yard.

How does your garden grow?

Coming soon.....lilacs!