End of Summer Florals
August: Hydrangeas
This past August I was inspired to build a hydrangea piece for our mantel using limelight hydrangeas we have in our landscaping. Using a large vase and some chicken wire for extra support, I placed the hydrangea stems both up and downwards to create this stunning look.
The wonderful thing about using hydrangeas is that they dry beautifully and last for months. Some of my flowers dried better then others so I took mental notes for next year. I found the trick was to pick blooms that were already dry on the plant rather than newly opened buds. Although, even those dried well enough to still be used.
After my hydrangea arrangement on the mantel dried fully (and I was ready to switch things up again), I saved the dried blooms to be used in my first workshop at Silvertoooth Stables. I wanted to demonstrate to participants at the workshop that you don’t always need to purchase flowers but can use what you have in your backyard or finds from a walk nearby. Hydrangea blooms are what I had this season and so that is what we used to build beautiful dried fall arrangements at the workshop.
Visit my blog post Silvertooth Workshops to see how these hydrangeas lived a second life in those arrangements.
September: Sunflowers
Wild sunflowers grew in abundance this year along the roadsides in Kansas City. They laced almost every space that wasn’t touched by mowers for weeks! Driving down the highway was beautiful as it could ever be and I just couldn’t resist jumping out to grab a few for our living room.
Fair warning about picking roadside sunflowers— they drop a lot of pollen, a mean, a lot! To me the mess is worth the beauty but it does require a daily clean up around the blooms. I simply used a hand held vacuum to take care of the yellow dust each day.
Another thing to keep in mind when bringing in flowers and plants from the wild is to set them in water and leave in the garage for a couple of hours before bringing them inside. This will allow the critters to escape before bringing them indoors. I’m not sure why but after the flower is cut the bugs quickly leave. It’s almost as if they know to run away— just give them time to do so and they won’t follow you inside.
To style these wild sunflowers on the mantel I used shallow white bowls and a floral pin frogs. Floral frogs are one of my favorite tools to use for displaying a few dainty stems. For the coffee table I placed a large clump of sunflowers in a vase— purposefully not arranging the blooms in order to keep a wild look.
If you are inspired to bring in flowers from your backyard or from along the roadside, I’d love to see them! Tag me on Instagram at @silvertoothhome so I can see and share.
