stargazers

The stargazer lilies have been blooming again this August and they are, as usual, stunning!!

 Stargazer lilies are the look-after-themselves perennial treat of the late summer garden just like peonies are the look-after-themselves perennial treat of the early summer garden.  After I plant them, I don't have to do anything....they just come up on their own year after year, looking awesome.  Such a smart investment for a cutting garden.

This arrangement was made to fill an order for a special wedding anniversary.  In with those gorgeous lilies, I mixed limelight hydrangea, grapevine and grapes, golden hops vine, fennel flowers and grasses, all found in the garden at this time of year.  Yet another example of "whatever grows together, goes together"!

Some stargazer bouquets that I made last weekend for a bride and her maid of honour.  They wanted something not too big and crazy yet still special and also natural and a bit wild looking too.   These have almost the same plant and flower material as the large anniversary arrangement, just a lot smaller.  I think they're beautiful and they seem to have what I think is an ideal feel for a Mayne Island wedding.

Here the lilies are mixing beautifully with pink and green flowered gladiolas, amaranth (green tassels and love lies bleeding) and polygonum (kiss me over the garden gate).  This was a special order for a honeymooning couple 2 or 3 summers ago.

When I use these lilies for arrangements, I remove the anthers from the filament of the stamens because they are full of a powdery pollen that stains like crazy when it gets on your skin or on fabric.  

On days when I'm working with these beauties and I'm too lazy to bother to get my gloves when removing those anthers, well, I end up looking like a chain smoker who rolls her own.  

oh great, now it's on my jeans....if you ever get this nasty stuff on your clothes never wet it!!  The best way to deal is to try to pick it up off the fabric with sticky tape, or try to blow it off and I've also heard that placing the stain in the sun does wonders too.  Water, it seems, sets it into the fabric and it may never come out after that.

Apparently, removing the anthers makes the flower last longer too.....

Anyway, I wish I didn't have to remove them for arrangements and bouquets because I think they are a most amazing part of the whole design of this gorgeous specimen (they look naked without them!)....but, at least we can enjoy them intact on a stroll through the garden.  Just don't get too close and brush up alongside them!

hmmmm...have I mentioned the fragrance?

out-of-this-world.

hollyhock

I have not noticed before how the centers of some hollyhocks have a perfect star embedded inside them!

It has been a very busy summer here in the garden.  Stop and smell the flowers.....or at least look at them!!...really look at them!

Hollyhocks are an edible flower and there are so many different types and colours.  Don't these look nice with the grapevines on this wedding cake?!  From a wedding I worked on last summer.

late spring flowers

So much has happened in the garden and I haven't been posting here on the blog for such a long time...and I just don't know where to start.  So maybe I'll just stop and smell the flowers.

This little white clematis has been blooming for a while now and it smells amaaaazing.

                           

I love how it's getting old enough and big enough to ramble up onto and over the shed roof.

It's growing with a rambling rose vine.

I like how it helps connect the cob wall that we built a few years ago with the shed that was here when we got here....(sort of ugly but very practical and useful shed)....and I also like how it connects the wilder forest that surrounds us here with the cleared and cultivated garden area.  Everything's starting to blend together and look like it's meant to be there.

The orange honeysuckle at the front gate is beautiful right now, especially when the sun shines on it in the early evening.

so fragrant!

I like using the little white clematis as an accent flower in bouquets.  It doesn't last  very long as a cut flower...about 2 days before it starts looking a bit sad but that's fine for wedding flowers.

Especially bridal bouquets that I make the morning of....this one's in progress.  All things that bloom now: purple smoke bush foliage, pink peonies, viburnum, lady's mantle, new fern frond growth, and the little white clematis flowers and vine.  It smells divine.

And speaking of peonies, they're beautiful and fragrant right now too.

unfurling....

 pink!

Can you smell the fragrance yet?

...taking a deep breath...

a summer wedding on Mayne Island

Most weddings on Mayne Island happen in the summertime when couples can take advantage of the beautiful natural landscape and warm sunshine to gather outdoors with their family and friends for happy times.

Michele-Lee and Clint were married at Oceanwood last July.  The ceremony circle was on a grassy clearing looking south to the ocean.  I created four flower arrangements that represented the four directions: North, South, East, West using four colours: red, purple, yellow and white.  We placed another neutral green arrangement in the center of the circle where the bride and the groom stood with the officiant.  Guests all stood around the four directions creating the circle while a special couple (parents and siblings) stood at each direction and read something they'd prepared for the event.

Michele-Lee's bouquet was mostly orange (her favourite colour) with chartreuse which worked well with all the other ceremony arrangement colours.

It was really pretty....what a beautiful day!

Behind the scenes:  the table centerpieces in process.  From the garden: sunflowers with grapevine, lady's mantle and feverfew for a sunny day at a casually stylish afternoon wedding reception.  Loved it!
The tall arrangement adorned a table with the guest book at the entrance to Oceanwood. Salal with berries (a flora ode to Mayne Island), astilbe, hydrangea and green tassels amaranth.

All boxed up and ready to be delivered.

A table centerpiece decorating the dessert table at Oceanwood.  Very Mayne Island natural.

I really dig these iron urn arrangements.  White astilbe flowers and spearmint with clematis vine, flowers and buds.

Michele-Lee, Clint and I got together the day before wedding day to map out where the four direction arrangements and ceremony circle would go.  We measured and set the direction points.  Then we wanted to create the outline of the circle to subtly and naturally lead all the guests to gather around it.  We began by setting down pebbles to join the directions and create the outline.  Clint had the idea to gather some dried grass that was lying around after being cut a few days before and he set it down along the outline of the circle.  Brilliant!  It looked great and felt beautifully natural. ....and I was thrilled to be having a bit of an Andy Goldsworthy moment too!

A couple days after the wedding M-L and C dropped in at the garden on their way to the ferry to say goodbye and thanks with a lovely card, a bottle of wine and a gift certificate for dinner at Oceanwood.  Wow!  So nice.  They made me feel very special.....I'm so lucky to get to work on weddings here on Mayne Isl. Thanks M-L and C!!

photo #1, #2 and #5  by Valeskca Photography.
If you're considering a wedding on Mayne Island feel free to contact me with any questions you have.  I'd love to help!
More photos of last summer's weddings to come.

seeds and sweet peas

It's always fun when a seed order arrives in the mail. 

I discovered Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds a couple years ago and this year, I made an order for the first time.  I ordered their new book too. (take a look!)
So much good stuff from these folks, especially for those who want to learn about growing open-pollinated varieties so they can save their own seed.

(by the way, if you live in my Canadian neck of the woods, there are lots of local heirloom seed sellers to discover at Seedy Saturdays in Victoria and Vancouver) 

Seed is hot stuff these days!

I like how Baker Creek sells a good selection of sweet pea seed in individual colours rather than a lot of  mixes...good for me when I'm growing for market. And the heirlooms have a stronger fragrance. So as soon as I got the box, I was in the greenhouse sowing the sweet pea seed that I found inside.

 I hope to have lots of lovely colours this summer for the Farmer's Market and for the early summer weddings.  I offered up little bundles like this one at the Farmer's Market last summer.  They sold out  in the first hour.  Beautiful and oh my....the fragrance!  I plan to have lots more this year!

Striking, bold colours are my favourites.  When I first started gardening, I had a bad attitude about sweet peas...didn't like 'em.  I only really ever knew of the pastel mixes but then I saw some of the these rich beauties and now I just can't get over them!  Real eye catchers both in the garden and in bouquets.

well, ok some pastels are beautiful too when in a bundle all on their own  : )

Last year I ordered my single colour sweet pea seeds from Thompson and Morgan.  The above colours are 'Midnight', 'Matucana', 'Apricot Sprite', and 'Orange Dragon'.....love the names!...almost as good as paint colour names.  

The lighter lilac blooms were from seeds I picked up at the garden shop 'Dig This' in Victoria (impulse buy!)  They're from Renee's Garden, 'Mary Lou Heard'.  

This year, I'm starting 'Black Knight', 'Miss Willmott', and 'King Edward VII'.....and a few others.....

If you want to grow some of these gorgeous, frilly, fragrant beauties, now's a nice time to get them going inside for a good start...I soak the seeds overnight first.

Happy New Year!

Mid-January is here and things are getting organized for another busy year in the garden.  And I'm really looking forward to it!

The Christmas season was a bit frantic with so many orders of winter bouquets and plants and wreaths.  Mayne Islanders were decorating their homes with Christmas bouquets and giving them away as gifts too...so much fun!....and also very overwhelming for me.   I get deep-down anxious when I can't keep up with my orders.   But I did it, working past dark right up to Christmas Eve!  I'll have to be much more organized for next year.

These arrangements in vases are all packed in their boxes and waiting to be loaded up into the truck for delivery.

Beautiful orchids were a new addition to the winter bouquets this year.  I just love them!

Many more winter white bouquets this year too.  White tulips, white mums, white waxflower, and green carnations (love those green carnations!!) with cedar, fir, salal and twigs.

This year I potted up paperwhites with twigs and moss.  They sold quickly.

Also potted up red, white and pink amaryllis this year..always a hit at Christmas time and a favourite gift to give too.  Here they are displayed at a little Farmer's Market sale in December at the Ag Hall.

Creative chaos!  I was so lucky that the temps didn't go down below zero before Christmas.  It made it a lot easier to get to just leave all the plant material out there.

But after dark, arranging happened inside in the garden kitchen.....my fingers got just a little too cold outside!

Stems of orchids making the dark winter night time in the garden come alive!

More wreaths this year and this time, I got to use Mayne Island grown grapevine for the forms too.

                            
I brought a couple truck loads home in November, collected at Deacon Vale Farm.  Grapevine is amazing, so bendable yet strong.

I also really like them just plain and simple, with no decoration....I sold quite a few of these to do-it-yourselfers who wanted to have the fun of decorating them.

...yet another truck load of flower arrangements and amaryllis plants.  

It's so rewarding to see people enjoying what I do.  Thank you to everyone on Mayne Island who ordered florals from me at Christmas time....and also to everyone who chose my products throughout the year!   This little island-garden-micro-business wouldn't be any fun without you and simply wouldn't work at all if y'all didn't choose to buy the things I grow and make.  Thank you for a great 2011!! I really appreciate it  : )