One of the things I noticed the most about the designers in Europe is that they spend time in their studios creating just for the sake of practicing their art. Here in this world, I am so busy I rarely find the time to create for creations sake. I am going to make an attempt to change that. I have always thought it would be fun to make a design from the garden each week. Some weeks the challenge will be greater depending on the bounty in our yard. but I am going to give it a try. This weeks design came very easily to me, we have lovely things growing here. I love our home.

I decided to create the design in this wonderful black compote. I found this container when I was in NYC designing with Ariella Chezar. In spite of the fact that the vase is plastic, it’s a real looker.

I cut lavender clematis, asters, and lavender iris. This clematis is super special to me because my son Alex planted it for me. This clematis was in bloom when we brought Elijah and Samuel home from the hospital.

Iris, allium, lambs ear

Scillia, pink garden roses, and pink lilac.

Mock orange vine, and scillia.

Weigela and smoke bush

I started with the greens or foliage’s like the weigela, lambs ear and Nandina.  The compote is full of water and a small frog was used inside the vase. I did not use oasis for this design. Many of these garden flowers do not perform well in oasis. I forgot to photograph the nandina separately but that is a great greenery to have on hand.  Nandina also has lovely berries that we often use in designs. This shrub is easy to grow and available everywhere. It also often reseeds itself, we have several baby plants growing under the momma nandina plant.

The placement of the greenery is truly important, the greens will give the design shape and line. The greens are the bones of the design.

Next I started with some heavier flowers like lilac, iris, and allium. I also added in the smoke bush as I was completing the greenery part of the design.  Smoke bush is the wine red foliage, this is also a lovely addition to a yard.

When the design was nearly completed I added in my featured blooms. These blooms are the flowers I want to be the most prominent in the design. You will also want to place dainty blooms last or on top of the the greens or other flowers. If you place them first they will be lost in the greenery. Alex’s clematis, the scillia, the baby aster, baby roses, and the mock orange vine were used last to create this design.  I was thrilled with the look of this piece and I was also glad I took the time to create!!!