Easiest. Arrangements. Ever.
Start with the flowers that are threatening to take over your garden. Pick bunches of them, stripping off the lower leaves as you walk. Fill the larger vases with those flowers. Remember, just one kind of flower per vase. They all match; they look great together; they’ll all wilt at the same time. That’s it. You’re done.
Now you’re left with those odds and ends — that individual lily or rose, that hydrangea with only three presentable blossoms, the clematis that is only just starting to bloom. Resist the temptation to gather them all up and stuff them into one vase as a sort of floral all-you-can-eat. Instead, just put a single flower into a single vase. Repeat. Repeat again.
Florists know that repetition is what makes a flower arrangement work, and you can use that idea to your advantage. One little flower placed on every windowsill in your house will make it look like you have a house full of flowers. A row of little flowers in little vases running the length of the dining room table is far more interesting and effective than one giant centerpiece.
Oh, and one other advantage to the single-flower-in-a-single-vase arrangement: It is the easiest thing in the world to toss one withered rose on the compost pile and replace it with another one. This is something even I can manage.
So that’s your handy garden tip for the month. And speaking of flowers, bulb season will be here before you know it. Many of the bulb companies — Brent & Becky’s Bulbs, Old House Gardens, White Flower Farms — will reward you for ordering early by giving you a discount. It helps them by letting them know how many bulbs to order, and you can often get interesting and unusual varieties that will be sold out later in the season.
So: Vases. Flowers. Bulbs. Get out there. You know what you have to do.
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