Category Archives: Euonymus

May 18, 2018 · 11:52 am

FRIDAY FUN

It all began by accident, really.

My new neighbor Alison

Wanted to learn to knit.

Then the next week Carrie decided to join us.

We picked late Friday afternoons

To get together.

And eventually John started showing up

Offering wine.

Then Carrie and Alison decided

We needed to expand on this idea

And before you knew it

Every women in our church

Was invited for some Friday Fun.

The rules

Such as they are

Are simple.

The hostess is in control

Of food

Of drink

Of activity

Or the lack there of.

Last Friday was my turn.

And what with it being mid-May

It only seemed natural

To gather in my garden house

And do a little flower arranging.

Then Christianne

“Knower” of all things royal

Realized it was the week before the royal wedding.

And the plan grew.

A little flower arranging.

A little lesson on royal wedding traditions

And a lot of silliness.

Something I don’t often let happen.

Not that I’m dower…

I’m not

But I just don’t get silly often enough.

So with a few plastic tiaras

And a royal name tag game

We were off.

Cramming seventeen women

And their flower vases

Into my garden house.

We are an eclectic group

Ranging in age from 30’s to

Well multiples of 30!

Carrie made peach and strawberry bellinis

Christianne made a lemon blueberry cake

As close as we could get to the upcoming

Lemon and elderberry royal masterpiece.

After a few brief instructions.

Everyone dove into the flowers

I had cut and conditioned.

It’s not been a prolific flower spring

What with our mid-April freeze

So I foraged a bit.

Using Columbine along with some Arugula gone to seed.

A bit of blooming sage

And of course Euonymous

Because it lines two sides of my fence

And I can never cut enough of it

To keep it out of my path.

Also because I’ve known it to last

Something like 3 weeks before it wilts.

It’s the titanium of flower arranging.

So there you have it.

A recipe for fun.

Friends…flowers…frivolity

With a side of royalty!

Gail

(alias Lady Edith Peg Rural Route!)

1 Comment

Filed under Arugula, Bouquets, Columbine, Euonymus, Flower Arrangements, Gardening Friends, Gratitude, Sage, Uncategorized

July 26, 2015 · 11:39 pm

ARRANGING THINGS

It’s the height of summer here.

Endless sunny days.

And because we had all those wonderful

Badly needed rainy days.

The humidity is back

Big-time.

So what’s a gardener to do.

This time of the year is basically for maintenance.

Deadheading and weeding and watering are the order of most days.

I love it because it can all be done in little snippets of time.

But there is one more activity for high summer.

Flower arranging.

For some reason I don’t bring a lot of flowers into my house.

I have a few here and there

But mostly we enjoy them from the inside of the house

Or on the morning garden walk.

So it’s great fun

When I have a reason to make flower arrangements.

Friday night was just such a reason.

We were one of several host couples

For a shower for our minister Andrew

And his bride to be Katie.

Now it’s too hot to have the party in my garden

So it was held at a local lodge.

Decades ago it was part of an amusement park

And has been lovingly restored.

So along with chamber music

Yummy food

Including crab claws In honor of Andrew’s Maryland roots

Family from home

Church members

And local friends

We needed flower arrangements

And lots of them – 26 to be exact.

First order of business

Find 26 vases.

I’m embarrassed to say that 25 of them

Were alive and well living in my garden house!

The schedule went like this.

Weekend before dig out all the vases

And wash them

Tuesday the vases were taped with cross hatch pattern

To hold the flowers in place.

It was also the day to cut Euonymous.

And Hydrangeas.

They last for days if you sear the end as soon as you cut it

And let them rest in buckets of water up to their necks.

Wednesday morning Linda came to help with the harvest.

We cut buckets of Phlox, Purple Coneflower, Dahlia & Dusty Miller

We added bits of White Balloon Flower, Veronica Spicata, Hellebore leaves and blooms.

Linda and Virginia each cut a bucket of Zinnias – one fuchsia and one pale pink.

I even used the blooms on the radishes that should have been pulled long ago.

Wednesday night the arranging began.

Linda, David, Mary and Gay came on Friday morning to complete the arranging

And haul it all to the lodge.

It takes a village!

Friday was a warm evening.

Not just the temperature.

But the people, the place and the occasion.

There’s something wonderful about small towns.

When I looked around the room

There were people I had known for decades.

We have raised our children together.

We have buried our parents together.

We have thrown a million wedding and baby showers together.

We have welcomed newcomers together.

Those newcomers have become new friends.

What is there to do in a garden

In the mid- summer heat?

Share it.

Photo Credit David Meara

4 Comments

Filed under Bouquets, Bridal Showers, Dahlias, Dead Heading, Euonymus, Flower Arrangements, Garden House, Hellebores, Hydrangea, Purple Coneflower - Echinacea, Radishes, Tall Garden Phlox, Uncategorized, Vases, Veronica Spicata, Wedding Flowers, Zinnia

April 30, 2012 · 1:24 am

TAMING THE GREEN MONSTER

Last week I tackled my grossly overgrown Euonymus on the east fence.

It was fitting to tackle my green monster

On the 100th anniversary of the original Green Monster at Fenway Park.

Fenway Park July, 1994

Now you may be saying to yourself

This is a real stretch

Fenway Park to my east fence.

But actually they are connected.

When Elliott was in elementary school

We took a series of “urban vacations”.

Boston on the 4th of July was one of our destinations.

Sailing in Boston Harbor, July, 1994

And even though we are not big baseball fans

We couldn’t go to Boston without going to Fenway Park.

We walked from our Back Bay hotel – the hotel Elliott!

To the ball park.

And along the way

We discovered The Fens

And the Fenway Victory Gardens

Fenway Victory Gardens

Started in 1941 as we entered WWII

The Fenway Victory Garden is the longest continually operating Victory Garden.

Here we are 60+ years later with community gardens returning.

I was enthralled.

Apartment dwellers standing in line to have their own little slice of gardening heaven.

Chatting over the fence

Just like home.

Later on we traveled to Martha’s Vineyard

Where I was introduced to

New Dawn Roses

Rosa New Dawn, Martha's Vineyard, July, 1994

Which now grace my east fence.

So we’ve come full circle

Shortly after we built the fence

John decided it needed a little greenery on the inside.

His shrub of choice for fences is Euonymus

Knowing how well they grow

I was a little dubious

But decided not to die on that sword…or shrub.

After a few years the branches began to grow through to the rose side.

It was manageable.

Until this spring.

Between the extra early and warm spring.

And the fact that I have been “in my garden” very little

The Euonymus became

The Green Monster

My Green Monster

It pushed through the fence.

Pushed the New Dawn roses away from the fence

They pushed Belinda’s Dream roses forward.

And when they bloomed with those glorious heavy blooms.

Rosa Belinda's Dream

They were on the ground.

Not my best effort

Especially on the most public part of my garden.

So I’ve spent a day reigning in the Euonymus

Filling one entire poly cart with “clippings”!

The tamed monster

Then tieing the New Dawn branches to the fence

With the handy stringing tool John fashioned a few years ago

Rose tying tools

It works perfectly for my fence

Once New Dawn has finished blooming.

Rosa New Dawn

I’ll cut the branches way back

Like I should have done in early March!

And if we have a decent summer

It will bloom again off and on.

So…as you travel the neighborhood

I hope you’ll think of my own Green Monster.

And the time we met the real one!

Take care,

Gail

Category Archives: Euonymus

FRIDAY FUN

ARRANGING THINGS

TAMING THE GREEN MONSTER

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