Monday is the day to pick flowers from your garden, pop them into a vase and join Cathy at Rambling in the Garden. I’ve always loved having cut flowers in the house but rarely did so before deciding cut flower borders were the way to go; this meme has kept the momentum going when other things could have got in the way of actually picking and arranging the flowers.
Many of us have Rudbeckias in our vases this week; mine have been demanding to be picked for a couple of weeks now but other flowers attracted me more; I did take a bouquet to a friend last week but this is the first time ever) they have been the main focus of a vase.
But first, sunflowers!
I decided to just leave the rest of the sunflowers in their bucket, just proves what a good shape it is for displaying as well as conditioning flowers
A few sunflowers with short stems were plonked into my blue Denby jug (sorry about the light)
In a vase on Monday
Leonotis leonurus and Cosmos are also included
Sun flowers, Rudbeckia, Annual Dahlia and Araranthus
I placed the larger sunflower off centre because I didn’t want it to be the focus of the arrangement – not sure if that works
Thanks for hosting Cathy and have a great week everyone – just don’t read the newspapers it’s too depressing.
Creating my own garden of the Hesperides 
Pure sunshine!
Yes absolutely!
“Good day, Sunshine!” The Beatle song popped into my head when I saw your arrangements, Christina. Now I’ll be humming that all day! 🙂 (Not a bad way to start to the day.)
I was listening to that song on Friday, driving to the beach; not a bad song to make you smile through the day.
Beautiful arrangements. You are so lucky to have so many sunflowers.
Sunflowers grow very easily from seed and there are so many varieties available as seed.
Such a wonderful large display of flowers that shout out that Summer has arrived. I remember the Loenotis leonurus from last year, and on Saturday saw some at Tatton Park Flower show and now appreciate what a superb flower it is.
The Leonotis will also retain its colour if dried, I discovered by chance when I left some stems in a vase with a little water when I went away for Christmas, when I returned the water had all evaporated by the stems still has Orange colour even now!
I love your cheery vase – what lovely colours. I grew a few Sunflowers from seed this year in a friend’s greenhouse but found them to take quite a lot of work as they grew so quickly. I only managed to grow about eight as I don’t really have room in my borders, but they are about to flower. They are a lovely wine colour and I can’t wait to see them bloom. I won’t have enough to pick unfortunately, but will enjoy them in the garden instead.
I planted out about 15 sunflower plants, much too close together really but they are doing really well; some are about 9ft tall now.
Christina each vase is gorgeous….but that blue jug was like a painting! And that large vase was really exquisite…so much flower love there. I am holding off picking any rudbeckia now as I agree there are so many other flowers….my rudbeckias should bloom for weeks to come still. And my sunflowers will be ready to pick soon especially since we just got some rain.
Here it is raining all around us but not actually on the garden it is very frustrating.
Oh they are all lovely – and the last photo is almost surreal as the amaranthus seems to have the appearance of water dripping off the blooms…. 😉 I love the variety of yellows and oranges in this vase but your solely sunflowers vases were just as cheery. Isn’t it great to be able to use a quantity of blooms in our vases now? And with the dahlias just kicking off here too… Exciting times 🙂
The Leonotis is perfect with sunflowers, Christina! I’ve always struggled to find the right companions to show it off properly. Sadly, my own sunflowers are largely a bust this year and the Leonotis has already bloomed out. Next year, I hope to get more serious about my own cutting garden but first I face monumental job taking out rosemary and Westringia that dominate 2 of my 3 raised planters.
I love seeing all your cheerful summer flowers Christina. Those sunflowers are amazing and look fabulous in your arrangements. They’re stately and grand even in the bucket, which has an interesting shape of its own. Love the red pot in the first photograph too–gorgeous.
Beautiful, Van Gogh would be happy painting in your garden.
What a lovely thing to say.
Imagine the paintings!
😀😀😀
I love it when you go all yellow! The leonotis is a great contrast in colour and shape.
thinking about the arrangements I do it is obvious to me that I like monochromes rather than a huge mix of different colours. Either that or I’m just not confident about mixing different colours, and that could be true in the garden too!
Christina hacen sonreir sus girasoles en todos sus floreros. El último jarrón de cristal con todos esos girasoles de colores tan alegres y el girasol más grande descentrado es precioso. El Sol nos viene a visitar. Saludos de Margarita.
Gorgeous flowers as usual Christina. I’ve just mentioned to Cathy that hers looks rather Van Gogh like, and so too does yours. He must have painted his famous flowers at this time of year, as it is definitely the season for hot, spicy colours. Your flowers look full of energy today. (Ps. quite right about the papers. I have gone on a news fast and I feel much better!).
Sunflowers and Van Gogh just go together don’t they; I’m sure others must have painted them too but he has made them his own.
Those sunflowers just make you smile, don’t they?! Thanks for spreading the sunshine Christina, with such a glorious display!
Sunflowers always make me smile especially when I see a field of them!
Beautiful and cheerful, Christina. Thanks also for the tip about dried leonotis retaining its colour.
It happened by chance
As do so many of the best discoveries!
A most cheerful vaseful of warmth and sunshine Christina. Those flowing tresses of amaranthus are an inspired finishing touch. I feel that I should watch the news but quite often do so with my eyes closed. I think that I may return to the radio for my news consumption.
I know it is not good to put ones head in the sand but really that is just what I feel I want to do, I can do nothing to stop or influence the awful things that are happening so I continue to try to seek my pleasures in simple things like a vase of flowers from the garden.
Sunshine and Summer captured in your vases, lovely!
Thank you Doris
Love the Sunflowers and Rudbeckia!
Fantastic flowers Christina. It’s lovely to see your sunflowers especially as I didn’t sow any at all this year and now I’m regretting it. Only this morning I wondered if I sowed them now would I have sunflowers for October… I might just try a few because last year October was fantastic here. Which Sunflower varieties do you prefer for cut flowers? Yours fit in a vase nicely so I’d appreciate your suggestions.
I do often find sunflowers quite difficult to arrange because their heads can be so heavy. The smaller ones work better. This year I grew Italian White which is really pale yellow. I came come to masses and masses of flowers, I cut them this morning. When I’ve put them in the vase I’ll post so you can see them and I’ll include the names of all the varieties I grew this year.
Lovely. Thanks very much Christina. I’ll look forward to seeing your gorgeous blooms.