The California garden’s on the downswing, gang.
White roses pinken, and brown. Pinken is a word. We say so.
Lavender drops its little petals.
Rose campion remains vibrant, but only from a distance. Up close, gnawed and tattered.
The Unknown Shrubbery steps up to help her faltering sisters. There’s strength in numbers.
Tell no one – summer’s on the way out. Don’t worry, it’ll linger some.
But flowers are so dignified as they age. Nobody ever questions the beauty of their decay. Now is the time, in the life of flowers, to cut, to group with friends, and bring indoors. Find some judicious side-lighting.
Spectacular all the way to dormancy, if someone takes a little time with the arrangement. Have a good week, everyone.
(Late breaking news: Aaargh! I forgot to link to Jane’s Flowers in the House! Go there please!)
44 Responses
A lovely garden, even as it starts to fade. And yes, fill your house with flowers. They never fail to make me smile.
Look at you making it all work and that piece of abelia ( previously known as unknown shrubbery) adds a lovely arc and I presume scent.
What is the orange flower?
xo Jane
It’s just an apricot-colored rose, in second bloom, and therefore with fewer petals I guess. Abelia! Hooray!
oh so pretty. my garden is waning also. i’m hoping the latest prune will yield one more bloom. i’m hopeful. isn’t that what gardening is all about? love your arrangement lisa, so pretty and natural.
xo
It is all about the hope, and the reward for hard work.
You have an eye for flower arrangements. Just lovely!
Thank you.
Great job with the waning garden! It’s sad when the drooping starts but clearly it can be made to work.
Found you at Gift wrapped Life…so glad I did. Sadly, my flowers are starting to fade as well….but like Tim Gunn says, “make it work”
Love the Gunn:).
Ours is doing the same thing, a bit worrying as we have a wedding to host at the end of August. (we didn’t choose the date!). Luckily, there are a few corners designed to shine as autumn approaches, some late bloomers, etc. Meanwhile, I’ll take a leaf . . . or rather, some flowers . . . from your book. The arrangement is charming.
Please don’t talk about the end of summer, when July isn’t even over yet! Your garden is still beautiful, even at the edge of senescence and sere-hood (we can have a contest in coining words). I am in awe at this display of your arranging skills, and I not usually a big fan of flower arranging.
–Road to Parnassus
Love the word sere.
You managed to create an artistic flower arrangement. Like the commenter above, the arrangements in general are ” too much ” for me, but since these are the best of the rest from your own garden, it´s ok then.
And what I ´ve seen of your interiors, they fit there fine.
Oh, but such an elegant decline.
I love your lavender!!! Like a sea to drift in! I love it all- gnawed and tattered especially.
could the unknown be Weigela?
Abelia, say the experts:). Of which I am not one.
My garden is starting to die off in a similar way now with the heat and I like how you salvage the end of their glory–I need to do the same! Hope you had a great weekend Lisa, so hard to get back to work today!
xo Mary Jo
I approve of the word pinken! In our area, with the drought, things look like late September, but I have my fingers crossed that the sunflowers will yet bloom. It’s a lovely bouquet you’ve put together.
Yes, pinken around here too, and LA hasn’t had much of a summer yet.
August is a month that the garden looks it’s palest here, nothing too pinken is left and the colours of fall have not made their appearance…
yet here you’ve come up with a pretty assortment of blooms which look very fine indeed.
May I suggest that you deadhead those rose campions? Then strew the pods near and far for a wonderful surprise at the beginning of your next growing year.
With apologies.
Summer is agoin out
And I for one am glad.
Get thee hence you sorry lout
Nuff sweat and heat I’ve had.
Labor Day and blessed Fall
I long that you draw near.
Oh lift this near opressive pall
Halloween, I hold you dear.
What a pretty arrangement from the last of summer’s blooms. Love the lavender pic with all its spikiness
Nice arrangement! I’m very impressed.
I find beauty in the waning of flowers, roses and lavender. They were enjoyed in their life and loveliness.
me too.
I won’t. I just won’t! I’m not reading another word. The photos are so pretty.. *sigh*
Please we are still awaiting Summer over here!
Pinken is my new word to try out. Ida
Hahahaha.
Lovely! Summer is escaping way too fast.
I always love the juxtaposition of still green and already drying plants in late summer. There is fascination in this decaying process. I love how plants lose their harmonious summer shapes to morph into something more mysterious and perhaps more expressive.
Lovely lovely arrangement.
Love California flowers…yours are lovely! :) xx
A lovely metaphor. If only we were better able to “live it” when it came to ourselves.
Wonderful post.
Your flowers look beautiful – which proves your point that flowers at all ages and stages still have a grace and beauty. Make the most of those still balmy long evenings – I’m pleased to see the days beginning to lengthen again here.
Promise is growing here, as we get closer to spring.
I do love every season though, and watching the garden’s stages, there is always beauty x
Lovely! Flowers indoors always make me smile. Yours are beautiful.
Your unknown shrub is Abelia, attracts many Hummingbirds and other polinators.
The hummingbirds have a veritable rock festival in those bushes.
If blog, google, twit, tweet, twitter and tweeter can be words, then so can pinken. Language is fluid and it appears we have a consensus.
It’s always All About The Lighting. Especially as we age.
ooooh yes.
Glossy abelia, to be specific. There are several varieties. Beautifully fragrant. Weigelia has the same shape flower, but it is larger, as is the shrub that bears it.
There is something quite beautiful about a garden moving into autumn. You’ve caught it beautifully.
The white unknown reminds me of forsythia. Happy someone ID’d it here!
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