Playing with Pumpkins

Day 237
The Daily DuBrule

Today I ran a free workshop for anyone interested in participating called Playing with Pumpkins. I do this every year and am always so excited about the results. My goal is to walk people through our gardens and open up their eyes the the wide variety of material still looking good that can be used as a cut flower or foliage. After the hard, killing frost of a week ago, it is truly amazing what is out there!

First we scooped out the pumpkins and put in a piece of plastic wrap. Then we added some pre-soaked floral foam. Then we went to town. Just to give you an idea of the abundance still out there in the gardens, here is a partial list of some of the plant material we played with:

• Hellebore foliage
• Bright red and orange Fothergilla foliage
• Purple smokebush foliage-now veined with pink
• Diamond grass plumes
• Little blue stem grass leaves- they have turned burgundy
• Purple and white beautyberries
• Helianthus salicifolius 'First Light'-flowers and foliage
• Sanguisorba flowers
• Pennisetum grass flowers-2 kinds
• Muhly grass flowers
• Acuba japonica foliage
• Golden Chamaecyparis foliage
• Buttonbush seed pods
• Caryopteris 'Sunshine Blue' foliage and blue seed pods
• All kinds of late blooming mums- Mei Kyo, Venus, Mammoth Coral Daisy, Hot Embers, Carousel, etc.
• Aster tartaricus flowers
• Tradescantia 'Sweet Kate' yellow spidery foliage
• Sciadopitys verticillata-evergreen foliage
• Salvia leucantha-purple velvety flowers
• Rabdosia longituba flowers- blue and white
• Itea foliage- now deep burgundy
• Peony foliage
• Monkshood flowers- Aconitum arendsii

I'm sure I left something out. All I know is that when we were finished I had a tent full of very happy people who learned that not only can you pick from your garden and not make a dent in it's beauty, you can also learn to arrange flowers and foliage very easily if given permission to unleash your inner designer. Why not go out and see what you can harvest from your landscape this weekend and make a pumpkin arrangement for your house? I bet you'll love it too!