This week’s bouquet is a result of a need to do some serious cutting back. I needed to tie up the wayward new raspberry branches and to do that, I had to first remove the netting.
But, I couldn’t even get near one side of the raspberry bed because of the verbena bonariensis. They had reseeded from last summer and become a gigantic patch of one of my favorite garden flowers. They run the length of the raspberry and zinnia beds, and I could not have planned this beauty if I had tried.
The verbena were tall and tangled and it was like hacking through a jungle to get to the far side of the raspberry patch. They had even mingled themselves in with the raspberries.
At first, I just cut and threw them on the compost heap, but then realized I could stick them in water and make a bouquet with them right then and there. I usually don’t like using them in an arrangement because they drop so much debris, but doing it outside eliminated this problem.
I tucked the vase into a corner of the herb bed so it wouldn’t topple over, and kept sticking the cut stems in the vase.
I didn’t make any effort to cut the stems the same length or make it look arranged. This was more about not wasting a lovely flower than making a perfect bouquet.
I set them on the concrete bench in front of the greenhouse for a photo shoot, someplace different than always using my screened porch.
But they ultimately ended up on the wrought iron black table on the deck.
It is a rather large arrangement, and looked so much happier outside than in my dark house. Plus, every time I look out the windows, it makes me smile.
Verbena bonariensis is one of those special summer flowers that has an exquisite floating, airy quality that needs nothing else to add to it’s simple beauty.
Linking with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for “In a Vase on Monday”. Check out all the pretty arrangements this week.
That is such a happy bouquet. 🙂
Thank you Robin! Trying to glean the last of the summer cheer. Fall will be here soon enough.
For me, your outdoors haphazard vase in perfection. I could look at it all day and keep smiling.
Thank you Chris!!! It is a happy vase of my favorite summer flowers. They make me smile both in the garden or in a vase, and the bees and butterflies love them too.
I wish Verbena bonariensis did half as well in my garden, Cindy! I’ve planted it a few times but the plants never self-seeded. It looks splendid all by itself standing tall and proud on your deck.
Thanks Kris! I usually grow it from seeds every spring and get a few plants. Last summer the few plants I had fell over, and surprised me this spring with hundreds of new plants coming up in the gravel. This wasn’t exactly the place I would have planned this abundance. Next spring, I think I’ll transplant some of them to an area I would like them. I think it’s a tender perennial, so I have to start with new plants every year. I was thinking next year, I’ll pinch it back and grow it in pots on the deck. I saw a picture of this and it was beautiful. Maybe it would grow that way for you. I’m sure it should survive your winters.
I love Verbena as well and this time of year it just gets in the way. Mine has popped up everywhere but I love it like that. I will move some in the spring
It adds such a touch of whimsy to the garden and I love it in masses. It has a gentle beauty like no other flower.
Couldn’t agree more!
Lovely! I hope my Verbena sets seed like yours one day! 🙂
Mine never reseeded in this manner before. I really had nothing to do with it. The few plants from last year simply fell over and laid on the ground for awhile. I assume that is when all the seeds dropped. I didn’t realize it reseeded and would survive our cold winters, so hopefully next spring there will be another crop.
Oh yes, I would be happy for this verbena to self-seed but it does not do so with any abandon. I like to pot up any seedlings to sell at my garden openings. Your vase of them is lovely, especially in the white spotty vase
This is a first for me Cathy. No one was more surprised than me when I saw hundreds of seedlings in the spring. The deer did their damage by giving many of them the old “Chelsea Chop”, and trampled on them when I was chasing them around the garden, but it didn’t seem to bother them much. They just grew on to the beautiful grouping they are today.
Nature is amazing!
Great way to highlight your Verbena bonariensis. It seems around here too and seems perfect wherever it lands.
It is, in my opinion, the perfect summer flower. If only I could get it to reseed in an area where I want it.
So beautiful and wonderful!
P.S. – When I click on the link to Rambling in the Garden, it’s taking me to Gmail.
Thank you for your kind comments and telling about the link glitch.
I am not surprised that glorious arrangement of verbena made you smile every time you looked out of the window! It is magnificent, and the plants clearly love your garden! It is a terrific plant and I have some in my outer garden, as I call it. Only a small clump but it towers over the garden wall and has been a happy refuelling station for bees and other pollinators all summer long! Amanda https://therunningwave.blogspot.com/2019/09/mellow-fruitfulness-in-vase-on-monday.html
They look so lovely in a large group. It’s like a sea of purple floating above everything else. I have a few stragglers in my front garden and I don’t like them as much that way. I need to coral them somehow to make a grouping. I still haven’t figured out if the plants survive the winter or just reseed. I’ll know next spring I guess.