merry christmas!

merry christmas to you and your loved ones!  

loyalty amaryllis (dark red), barbados amaryllis (red white variegated),
cambridge fringed tulips and japanese sweet peas

rose gold holiday

i feel like a terrible girlfriend.  i somehow managed to close a door on pete's pinky finger and give him food-poisoning...on the same day!  we watched a movie last night and a character said that accidents happen for a reason according to freud.  the poor guy thinks i have it out for him.  i don't.  seriously.

the holiday season is winding down.  i'm grateful that i finished my christmas shopping early this year.  now i just need a way of getting the presents to their recipients -- where's santa when you need him?  aside from presents, i have an arrangement to deliver and then my year will be wrapped up.  onto planning for 2014 weddings and travels abroad….

a friend gave me these lovely blush colored roses, haiku.  and i struggled a bit to make pink look festive (i also struggled with trying to get lady gaga and r.kelly out of my head, but that's a story for another day).  my local whole foods is running a special on poinsettias, something like $6.99 for a six inch pot.  and it seemed cheap enough to clip and add to my flower arrangement (just make sure to sear the cut ends of the poinsettias with a flame or boiling water before adding it to the arrangement).  who doesn't like a little gold for the holidays?

haiku roses, paperwhites, poinsettias, ranunculus and dusty miller

snow white

it snowed yesterday, some 4-6 inches supposedly but most of it melted with last night's rain.  it may have ruined santa con for the b&t santa-costumed crowed, but the snow and rain made for a peaceful night on the bowery.  with all the santa(s) and snow -- here's to christmas....

white fringed tulips 'cambridge', alabaster roses, japanese sweet peas and viburnum 

white fringed tulips 'cambridge', alabaster roses, japanese sweet peas, narcissus and viburnum 

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thanksgiving 2014

thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year and then everything goes downhill until new year's.  i'm not a big fan of christmas -- too much frenzied shopping and gift giving and seemingly less about family.  i suppose there are things that i do enjoy such as tree trimming, the smell of pine, poinsettias and amaryllis.

i'm recovering still after cooking my annual thanksgiving feast.  like other years, we prepared all dishes from scratch but unlike most years, we largely used ingredients found at farmer's market or locally grown.  our menu included:

roasted red bourbon turkey

cornbread stuffing

homemade gravy

cranberry sauce

orange cranberry sauce

steamed haricot vert

roasted brussels sprouts with pancetta and pomegranate

roasted lemon sage cauliflower

whipped butternut squash

apple pie

sweet potato pie

it would be a dream to be able to grow most things for our meal, then it would feel like a true harvest meal.  maybe someday....  

left:  low table centerpieces of white peonies, red tulips, 'titanic' pink roses, protea and seeded eucalyptus

purple

the days are starting to get colder and the days shorter.  but there are flowers blooming somewhere, just not here.  i miss my local product but having a bouquet of clematis, vanda orchids, white peonies, sweet peas, astilbe and ranunculus is not so bad.  i haven't used orchids too heavily in my work, but these vandas have certainly swayed me.

november update

hand-tied bouquet anemones, romantic antique garden roses, burgundy ranunculus, bush ivy and olive branches

i've been quietly making flowers for weddings and deliveries for here, there and everywhere.  i can never find the time for pictures or even worse the light is terrible for photos.

it's november now (clearly) and i miss my garden and having to harvest multiple bucketful of dahlias each weekend.  but it's over now.  i suppose impermanence is necessary.  now i have next year to plan for and can fully anticipate the start of spring -- my favorite season.  it would be easier to cope if i had travel plans but i don't.

dahlias (again)

i had a bumper crop of cafe au lait dahlias this week.  they're some of my best producing dahlias; after all, i do have 8 plants of them.  sometimes i wonder what it would be like to have a whole bed of cafe au laits -- is it possible to have too much of a good thing?  perhaps, but i am pretty confident that i'll miss their lovely faces come the other 9-10 months of the year.  all the dahlias, not just the cafe au laits, are looking so good right now.  i have lots of laterals, all full of plump buds ready to burst.

cafe au lait dahlias paired with coppery tones

suffice to say that this season's crop have done exceedingly well (not that i have much of a comparison point since it's only year 2 of doing this) and i'm encouraged to plant more.  i think 2-3 more beds, for a total of 5, would be sufficient to sate my dahlia lust.  (i say this now, but may regret my words in the spring.)  as much as i love the 'au lait's subtle pastel tones, i'm looking forward to adding new colors, such as deep burgundies, browns and reds and purples as well.

the only thing that could keep me away from my dahlias this weekend would be a killing frost.  it came early last year on october 12th.  keep your fingers crossed for me, please!

cranking out the dahlias

it's prime time for the dahlias and they're working hard to crank out their monster blossoms before the end of the season.  it's been hard navigating the potential nighttime frosts, but we've taken precautions by investing in a frost cover and diligently covering the beds whenever there's a frost warning.  frankly, the plants are putting so much out -- i have been giving flowers away by the bucketful and still have plenty left over to arrange!

i took some pictures for the local garden club where my dahlias beds will be featured and i'm pretty excited and honored.  hope you enjoy!