Now that January is behind us, we can look forward to spring, knowing it is right around the corner. Until then, we’ve been satisfying our planting urges using late winter offerings from growers. We are determined to come up with something interesting on long winter days in the greenhouse!
Jamie found some wonderful lichen covered branches; they’re beautiful to work with. She positioned them on one of our cork pieces and planted around them, creating a visual feast of winter flowers – cyclamen, primroses, muscari, osteospermum and teté a teté narcissus – for a customer. The bright flowers of this piece and the addition of some ceramic mushrooms make it memorable!
I wired one large lichen covered branch that had an interesting shape to one a bit smaller, using bark wire. I then lined the opening that was created with waterproof foil and sheet moss. In this “container” I planted a simple fittonia and air plant arrangement. The size and shape make this one a nice coffee table piece…and it would be very easy to care for too.
Many of the succulent aeoniums fare better here during the winter months. They seem to dislike our excessive summer humidity (Don’t we all?), and the Aeonium ‘Kiwi’ seemed just right to work into some sort of arrangement. I loved how they looked paired with this frilly dark purple leaf ornamental mustard. If I could just work it into a container that could be moved in and out easily if temperatures dropped below freezing…
I chose a cork bark piece that complimented the aeoniums and mustard. With the addition of some creeping thyme and a couple of pots of species crocus bulbs just beginning to come up, I think it turned out pretty well!
Lichen branches and rex begonias…
We have more of these lichen covered branches available, if you’d like to use some for an arrangement of your own, or we can put one together for you.
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The greenhouse is so beautiful all year round, but it’s especially so in the height of the holiday season. In fact, sometimes there are so many flowers and new plants coming in almost daily that they are literally everywhere – on tables, on the floor around tables, and anywhere we can find a spare space. Never let it be said we don’t have a little something for everyone!
Autumn inspires us! The past month we’ve been designing with thoughts of fall…a copper container, a beautiful basket, a heavy stone trough, and even something as simple as a wooden box made wonderful starting pieces for a few of them.
This wooden box arrangement was done for a garden club – the customer brought in the antlers! This one was a fun change of pace. Those antlers didn’t want to stay put, and the box was a tad rickety…it reminds us that each day may bring different and interesting challenges!
We look forward to fall with its autumn hues glowing on gorgeous 
Bittersweet, arranged in a classic urn, gives us the quintessential look of fall. This piece is quite large, but the same effect can be achieved in a simple vase just as easily. I used dry foam with moss and added gourds to complete the arrangement.
Swan gourds here are grouped in a basket lined with moss and angel vine. If you let your imagination go, you might see an aviary family under the branch of a tree. Or, you might just see a natural composition encircled and overhung by bittersweet. There’s no wrong way to interpret this!
This summer’s wet, cool weather might have kept many of you out of your gardens, but we’ve managed to stay busy in the greenhouse putting together arrangements filled with orchids, succulents, houseplants, and so much more…here’s a peek at some of them. We regularly have folks who stop in just to see what we’ve been working on! All of these arrangements are composed of live plants, no cut flowers here.
Finally, the silver container was given in memory of someone…the longlasting and low maintenance houseplants of trailiing pepperomia and cryptanthus make excellent companions. It’s gratifying, also, to know that whoever is on the receiving end will be able to enjoy this longer than a fresh flower arrangement could ever hope to last.
For all of you 
Some people have asked why we don’t carry fairies and other inhabitants for our miniature gardens. For us, the garden is the key – creating a miniature garden world with plants that actually will grow for you…along with some judicious clipping when needed. (Fairies are there in spirit, not seen, and, if the garden has the magic of the creator’s touch, of course they’ll come.)
These miniature gardens have really struck a chord for adults and kids alike, and it’s so much fun to see the delight by adults and excitement of little ones as they browse (and play with) the tiny creations that can be used in their own gardens. Of course, any activity that stimulates imagination is certainly worthwhile! For children, it’s a make believe world; for adults it’s an outlet to grow plants in a different way.
All was well until the night the little girl had a sleepover party with a couple of her friends…you might well imagine where this story is going! Somehow the miniature garden, which she kept in her bedroom, was completely up-ended in the middle of the bed, an utter mishmash of soil, plants,pea gravel, stones and little accessories. It must have been like Humpty Dumpty falling off the wall in the fairytale! We helped rework the little miniature garden, and hopefully that little girl is still happily raking her pea gravel “path”…
Not long ago a parent, her daughter, and the girl’s little brother came in. The mother marched to the counter with the little boy and said that he needed to buy, with his own money, a stone for his sister’s miniature garden. Puzzled, I asked what kind of stone he needed. Well, the mother said, her daughter had a stone with the words “My Garden” written on it in her miniature garden. Evidently the little boy had turned it around and scrawled “bathroom” on the back! Of course, the boy’s sister wasn’t having any of that in her garden. So, we found the perfect stone, wrote “My Garden” on it for the little girl, and the little boy brought out his money to pay for it. Before they left, the mother gave the little boy the stone that he’d written on. Much later we found it hidden in the miniature garden displays and had a good laugh….he didn’t want it either!
Some of the fun things we’ve gotten in recently include a pair of ghosts (It’s never too early to begin thinking about Halloween!), wooden soda bottle crates with soda bottles, a wine basket with wine bottles, a metal tub (just right to put the wine and soda bottles in!), tiny turtles, frogs and one very fat cat, some pretty urns, a very realistic Celtic cross, a stone walking bridge, a triple trellis and more. And there will be additional miniature garden items coming in down the road too. It’s a good idea to pop in every now and then to see what’s new.
The last planting is shown to serve as an example of how you can definitely have color in the shade using foliage in addition to flowers…the ‘Garden White’ caladium in contrast with the golden carex and sunpatien really catches the eye! The planter at the top of this post is also one for shade, and, once again, the foliage is the star.
WOW! A customer brought this in the other day and I was the lucky one that got to plant it up! This clam shell is the real deal…a beautiful, large piece of natural art that had found its way to us.
And there are such pretty things to play with! This time of year, with spring in the air but not quite yet here – this is the time of hydrangeas, calla lilies and sweet alyssum – the soft colors of Easter mingling and overlapping with the brightness of other, more exuberant blooms of gerbera daisies, ranunculus and the first of the geraniums. So much to work with! So we begin to gather flowers and foliage and perhaps a few herbs to add their scent, color and texture to the mix.
This post isn’t going to be about design rules, because quite frankly, we sometimes break them. (Maybe we’re just rebels at heart!) No, this is about what feels and looks right to you. And, perhaps it’s more about not being afraid of making a “mistake” – with arrangements, container plantings or your own garden.
