Monday, July 30, 2012

flowers in the house


 Technically it's not even mid-summer, but it feels like it. My garden is a little raggedy, though the hydrangeas are calm and reliable. Some of the flowers look like they spent too much time on the beach, if you know what I mean.

I stopped at a farm stand on my drive home from the Catskills and got zinnias, which I love for their cheerful, unsubtle colors.

 Also sunflowers. Nothing subtle about them. Not having a container the size of a garbage can, I cut three feet off the stem. Flower people, what do you do with sunflowers?

I love them, but they look a little goofy close up...

Visit Small but Charming to enjoy flowers in the house from all corners of the globe.

Jen

25 comments:

  1. Love that vase and that hydrangea.

    I know what you mean my flowers look like they sohuld have gone home before last call!

    Sunflowers? Sometimes I Leave one tall and put it in a tall narrow vase with maybe one leaf, a hosta perhaps? Other times I did just what you did,cut them all off. Oh and i may take the biggest head, cut off all the stem then float it in a pretty flat bowl, nice on coffee table.

    Wow, TMI?

    xo jane

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    1. Just the right amount of info! Thank you.

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  2. I love your flowers Jen
    they are so pretty.

    I love sunflowers too but like you find them huge
    and the stems are so thick it is impossible
    to cut them!

    Hope you are having an enjoyable day
    it was lovely and sunny here earlier
    but now it's raining ..... again!

    x Fiona

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    1. Thanks, Fiona. Hope you get lots of sun soon!

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  3. Hello Jen:
    Summer is exactly the right time to introduce all of these bright, zany flowers into the house where they light up even the darkest of corners.

    Here in the countryside in the fields the sunflowers are at their peak - acres and acres of them, stretching as far as the eye can see.

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    1. Zany zinnias! I would love to see those sunflower fields--all flowers are uplifting but sunflowers could end wars. (Or is that wishful thinking?)

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  4. Ha, great minds think alike! Funny that I got sunflowers too because, as with you, my garden's in a little transition right now. I love your hydrangea in the kitten. Kittens, sunflowers...you're a mind reader today.

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  5. Sunflowers ... my favourites. I can't help but smile everytime I see them. M x

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  6. I like the yellow with the blue and white--very summer.

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  7. I love that hydrangea picture! It made me laugh its so sweet- kitty getting a nose-full! I adore zinnias- and your green-eyed sunflowers are perfect.

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  8. Hi Jen I love the sunflowers especially, I havent grown any this year but treated myself to a bunch at the weekend from the local shop and they are now in my kitchen. They always bring a smile to my face!

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  9. All our gardens are a little raggedy right now.
    The button zinnias in the round blue gray vase work so well together.

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  10. covet the pitcher!!! My first flower shop employer took home a Gigonzo sunflower and had no container big enough to hold it. She put it in the toilet tank and it lasted for three weeks!!!!

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  11. "Some of the flowers look like they spent too much time on the beach" is an interesting expression! I associated that they look have had a lot of sun bathing and look a little tired but never look sad.
    It's terribly hot here, I'm a little wearing about it.

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    1. That's exactly what I meant! Sorry you are having a heat spell--that can be exhausting.

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  12. Oh i love what you did with your sunflowers! They remind me of Van Gogh!

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    1. I was thinking of Monet with his blue and yellow decor. Forgot about Van Gogh!

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  13. Love your flowers especially the zany zinnias. We try and grow our sunflowers on the smaller and shorter size, they just work better in a vase.

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  14. Hydrangeas are very calm aren't they? I love them. But equally I also love those uplifting bright zinnias.

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  15. oh, i love your flowers. and i know what you mean.....it's been a long hot summer already! but i'm loving it.

    here's a sunflower story....20 years ago between living in michigan and living in paris, i was living with my parents for a few months. one of the farmstands was selling sunflowers and i bought quite i few. i tied them and hung them upside down from the big beam in my parents kitchen. and they are still there.....charming dried sunflowers, 20 years old, and looking amazing.

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  16. Sunflowers and zinnias. I agree, so nice and simple and bright.

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  17. I love your calling the hydrangeas 'calm and reliable' -- what an apt description!

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  18. I grow zinnias by the hundreds. I LOVE them! So bright and happy! I enjoy seeing your flower pictures. I don't have anything big enough for sunflowers either, but I like them anyway. I think yours look great.

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    1. By the hundreds!!!!! That must be amazing. Pictures please. :)

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