Spring, Summer, and Wedding Flowers

Flowers is a hot spring and summer topic on lists of gardeners, home decorators, florists, and brides. 
Try your turn at the puzzle. I loved doing this. I took one of my rose photos and created this puzzle at a website that makes it easy to create. My best score was 1:31. I loved Beverly's butterfly puzzle over at How Sweet the Sound and just had to try one here at Southwest Cottage Designs. Thanks, Beverly, for that sweet idea.



Do you choose flowers for your garden by color, type of flower, zone, price, comfort or all of these? When I go to a garden center, I stroll through the aisles noticing first the colors, then the types of flowers I want for my gardens. Typically, a garden center will carry mostly the types of flowers that grow in its zone so I don't worry much about the zone when shopping for flowers to plant. But I do enjoy looking for certain types of flowers because I have favorites. The rose, for instance, is probably my most favorite of flowers. I think I'm drawn more to the rose because of the comfort I get out of it. In grade school I remember ordering a rose picture to give my mother for a gift. Where the money came from to buy the picture I don't recall. Probably, it came from my dad. Mother was delighted with the gift, so much that she framed it in an antique and gold black frame. She hung the picture on a wall in her bedroom. After she passed away, my dad wanted everything to stay just the way she had it. The rose picture still hangs in Dad's bedroom, and I always like to view the picture when I visit. Before I'm overcome with tears, let's go to the next rose memory.
Mother was an elegant home designer, an artist, an excellent seamstress, and her home displayed the beauty of her creations. Her gardens displayed her favorite flowers. I have a list of flowers she once wrote down before she went shopping at her favorite nursery. She liked roses, lilies, zinnias, verbenas and many others. One of the most beautiful areas of her garden was the huge group of miniature rose bushes with lots of white and pink.
At some point I started drawing roses. I'd look at a rose picture and draw it on a separate paper. Sometimes I would trace it. Then I would color the picture. The rose fascinated me - the petals, leaves, seeds in the middle, colors, etc. I love to find unusual or interesting rose paintings and pictures when I go yard saling or antique shopping. I guess it all goes back to my childhood rose pastimes.

My latest yard sale rose painting behind a picture of Chrissie and me

Obviously, comfort comes in pretty strong on my list of flowers to choose. I grew up around roses in Mother's and both my grandmothers' gardens. I chose red roses for my wedding flowers. My husband and I were married in December after Christmas. The roses looked so beautiful. I would probably have had Christmas colors because I loved red, but I also loved blue - and so did my hubby. So blue and red it was.

My latest garden red rose miniatures

Another photo of my red rose miniatures - told you I like red!

Wedding flowers can become quite expensive. Many brides choose to have their moms, family members, and friends help with creating flower arrangements and bouquets. When the eldest of our daughters got married, we had a friend who grew roses and was a member of the rose society of his county. We paid a very reasonable fee for many buckets of multi-colored roses for her wedding. The rose decorations were absolutely gorgeous!

If you are keeping up with the current blog series at Southwest Cottage Designs, you know that my daughter, Chrissie, is getting married in July. She plans to use fresh flower bouquets, and though not necessarily or only roses, she does like a variety of colors and types of flowers. Follow this series and see pictures of Chrissie's wedding flower style after the wedding. Remember to enter your flower ideas in the quilt giveaway entries.

Flowers is a hot topic on my garden and wedding list for this spring and summer. 

I'm sharing this with:

• Passionately Artistic
• Wow Us Wednesdays 
• Cottage Flora Thursday