This week I made a very simple country bouquet.
I had been to visit my sister, Lynette, who just last year built a home way out in the country. With several acres, come lots of overgrown weeds and vegetation that can make simply lovely bouquets. So as we took a walk around her land and pond with a jar of water, we gathered Queen Anne’s Lace ‘Daucus carota’ and Swamp Milkweed ‘Asclepias incarnata’ to make our bouquet.
Usually found along roadsides and unused fields, common names are wild carrot, bird’s nest, bishop’s lace, but I have always known it as Queen Anne’s lace. It brings back many memories from childhood as I was raised a country girl. Sadly, I have never seen any here in the city, but a trip to my sister’s home sets that all aright.
Queen Anne’s lace is a herbaceous, somewhat variable biennial plant that grows 1 – 2 feet tall (30 – 60 cm). The flowers have a deep reddish purple (almost black) flower in the center of the umbel, whose purpose is to attract insects.
As the seeds develop, the umbel curls up into itself.
Some people consider it to be a beneficial companion plant and has been noticed to boost the production of tomatoes when planted nearby. But here in Ohio, it is listed as a noxious weed.
Swamp milkweed is one of Ohio’s most common and only milkweed species that prefers wet ground. Stems are usually 1 – 4 feet tall and is poisonous to livestock and children if eaten in sufficient quantities.
I particularly like that it’s flower heads have flowers in all stages of bloom.
A simple canning jar . . .
compliments a simple country bouquet.
This photo was overexposed, but I’ll leave you with it’s soft, dreamy look and wish you a happy Monday and week ahead.
Another beautiful bouquet
Thank you Penny! It has been fun creating bouquets every week. Helps me to be more creative and truly enjoy my flowers close up. Happy Monday!
Lovely, old-fashioned bouquet Cindy. Queen Anne’s lace along a road-side is a common summertime scene in NC. Your images show its various stages nicely.
Thank you kindly. Queen Anne’s lace is always a welcome sight with it’s delicate beauty – weed or not.
I love this country bouquet and your phots are stunning! 🙂
Thank you Joanna! It is always fun to play with new flowers and see what you can come up with.
I like that you have chosen and embraced the beauty of the plants growing around. The forms are wonderful.
The fun part about doing a bouquet every week is, it keeps me looking for new ideas and sometimes seeing plants around me for the first time.
Queen Anne’s Lace reminds me of my childhood too out in the country. So lovely how you arranged it with the milkweed. Dreamy and wistful and 100% summer!!
This is the first time I’ve ever seen this milkweed before and I think it is just lovely. And of course that has always applied to Queen Anne’s lace and the memories it stirs up.
The Queen Ann’s Lace and milkweed make a lovely combination! It manages to be casual yet elegant at the same time.
I had not thought of it that way, but you are so right. Weeds making an elegant statement – I think they demand and have earned more respect.
I love Queen Anne’s Lace. I sowed seeds of a named variety (‘Dara’) in my garden this year, it’s supposed to make a darker flower, rather than white it’s rather reddish. The regular white is a fabulous meadow plant.
I didn’t know you could buy seeds for Queen Anne’s lace. I doubt we could find them here in the states since it is considered a weed. Anxious to see what yours look like when they bloom.