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Flowers In The House

I always feel that for me, taking pictures of flowers without much photographic skill is cheating. Too easy to get to pretty. High WASPs are not allowed the easy way.

It is a great pleasure therefore to be given permission for flower photos. Two permissions, if I stretch the term. First, Flwrjane organizes Flowers In The House blog postings, the last Monday of every month. Her photos are not cheating because she does flowers for a living. You can see the other participants, here. Second, I received a request from Grande Dame Faux Fuchsia for a High WASP gardening post. Her photos are not cheating because the woman’s prose could make the passage of a snail entertaining.

Let’s stretch the concept of gardening to mean wandering outside in one’s slippers, fully disregarding the dew’s impact on sheepskin, snipping some roses. Surveying said roses, finding them too drab for this Monday morning, venturing further into the backyard in search of a few bright pink lace cap hydrangeas. One might even call this pink, Faux Fuchsia, were one inclined towards homage.

I particularly like flowers in my house when cut from my own garden. Picked at random, they don’t all die at the same time. Telling contrast, bright pink petals, fallen flower parts, a little rot and shrivel. Upon closer inspection, I suppose flowers themselves must make an effort to get to pretty. Happy Monday, and here’s to productive toiling in the fields.

33 Responses

  1. I don’t know what I like better, the beautiful pictures of your own flowers or the accompanying prose.

    What the hey, it’s my party, I like everything about this.

    I wore flipflops. my feet got wet, but my slippers stayed dry.

    Thanks for inviting us over.

    xo jane

  6. Hmmm, you set some interesting hurdles for yourself, don’t you?
    I’m glad you navigated some permission for yourself today, at least, because these photos cheer my day. Cheating or not, and despite its dangerous proximity to triteness, pretty can be very good when it leads to simple smiles, no?

  8. Your bouquet of flowers is airy and I like your philosophy. Cut flowers from your o w n garden.
    I must confess, that flower posts, though pretty, bore me.
    As I have written before, I only like native flowers in our own house. Well, amaryllis at xmas time is allowed.
    And this is a swell time: Heather-time. I have bought them for the house and for the pots in front of the doors.

  11. The lace cap hydrangea is a gorgeous shade of fuchsia. I like how you have mixed it together with those white roses and that wee petal on the counter makes it all look so natural.
    It’s gale force winds and rain here and the rose petals are blowing in every direction :(

  14. Your flowers are beautiful. Sigh. I’m envious. You apparently do not dwell with creatures who consider them to be delicacies. Should I be so foolhardy as to leave out a vase of fresh-cut Chicago Peace, I inevitably return to find the vase knocked over, the water spilled everywhere, and my poor roses shredded and mangled beyond recognition.

    I have resorted to putting silk flowers around the house, which I acknowledge to be less than ideal, but I must have flowers of *some* sort. Their verisimilitude must be at least somewhat effective, as I have found toothmarks in the leaves and stems.

  19. Not only in the house–I own a private outpatient psychiatry practice serving children, adolescents and young adults. I always have seasonal flowers in the office–the waiting room, on the reception desk, and of course in my office as well as plants growing on the sunny window ledges of my office. This makes it pleasant and homey for both the patients, my office staff and of course myself. Occasionally if a young patient has achieved a special milestone I’ll pluck a bloom from a bouquet in congratulations as a tiny gift (the little ones and boys I give candies that look like rocks but are actually chocolates, or sometimes crystals or beautifully polished rocks depending on their maturity level.) It’s best when the flowers are from my garden but as I’m in upstate New York that’s only for a brief season.

  21. lisa these are gorgeous. and i agree with you re flowers from ones own garden.

    jane and ff are 2 or my fav-0-rite bloggers in all the blog world. they both definitely have a way with the english language.

  22. The hydrangea is so pretty, I’ve never seen a pic tinged one before, I have only 5 white roses left now, actually I may just bring them indoors to savour them all the more.

  25. Unlike that rude soul Madonna who snarkily told the world she loathed hydranegas, I am what can only be described as a Fan.

    Thank you for the shoutout.

    Because I garden in Old Testament Style conditions, my garden is quite dire but there are teeny pockets of loveliness about the traps.

    Do you have a gardener?

    xxx

  27. Yes, fake flowers have gotten much more realistic and better-looking. I’m still uneasy about mine, though. They seem inauthentic, somehow.

  28. Jane – These are really fun to do. Thank you.

    TPP – And to you, oh bearer of the pink torch:).

    Jan – They are an odd sort of hydrangea, if you haven’t seen them before. Thank you.

    Sandra – I do not! I wish I had a more specific plant list for my garden, but I had landscape designers do the original design and planting.

    Naurnie – <3.

  29. Mater – Yes. That I do. And simple smiles are good. If you read the next post about my trip to the Andaman Nicobar islands, you will see some more thinking about this…

    A Gift Wrapped Life – Thank you. Mondays are a good time for flowers indeed.

    Metscan – I’m not so disciplined as you, in terms of native/non-native, etc. But I do, in general, like natural vs. foreign.

    Lori – Thank you:).

    Susan – Thank you. The irregular and the natural are good.

  30. Hostess – I bet your gales have their own very wonderful beauty.

    Ida – Thank you. The glass vase is 20 years old, just from Crate and Barrel or some such. But I prefer glass vases always, to let the focus be flowers.

    Staircase – Ha! No, the only living creature who might consume flowers would be me, if I decided to put nasturtium petals on a salad:). I think you deserve the silk flowers special permit.

    Kathy – Thank you.

    Barbara – It was Crate and Barrel, 20 years ago. I find that glass is so beautiful, in a simple shape you don’t have to spend much money at all. I am happy you like it! And happy to have happy readers:).

  31. Terri – From my experience of aesthetics in China, I am sure you mean, “Japanese.” :)

    A Farmer’s Wife – Well boo! And thank you.

    Edith – That’s quite wonderful. I can imagine your patients incorporating your flowers into their healing.

    Cynthia – How fun. Great photostream. Where are these flower ladies located?

    Janet – Thank you. And here’s to writers everywhere, you included.

  32. Linda – Thank you! I would love to get better at taking photos.

    Tabitha – Never pink? It’s the soil, but what exactly I do not know:).

    Debora – So much the best time of the day!

    Parthenope – Thank you. I’m not a particular fan of silk flowers. That said, often I don’t even KNOW they are silk. Especially hydrangeas. So if that’s your best route to the feeling of flowers, have at it.

    FF – Madonna was rude. But we aren’t surprised too much, are we? I had a gardener before – and landscapers designed and planted the garden as it stands, but now I do the weekly maintenance myself. Twice a year I have people come over for the big cleanups. And see above for fakes. I would not have forchids in my house, they conflict with my style, but I think they align with yours very well.

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