Recommendations

For our final Festival of Flowers post I'll share the plant recommendations I was interested in.

Enjoy, Dear Friend!!

Until tomorrow,

Shelli

I will be the gladdest thing
Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one.
~Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Afternoon on a Hill"

Brilliant!!

These unusual fern stands were at least 12-14 feet tall. They were sculptural, organic, and really impressive. So I found the landscaper responsible for this display and asked for the scoop, and he said, "Well, we had these really big crape myrtles in huge burlap balls at the nursery that hadn't sold. They were so root bound that they were no longer viable. Instead of throwing them away, we cut off their tops, fanned out the root ball, turned them over, and stuck them in the ground. Then we placed ferns on the top. We just did it to lend some drama to our display, but people have actually wanted to buy them!!"

Ha!!!

Brilliant!!

Until tomorrow,

Shelli

If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it. 

~Albert Einstein

A pile of rocks ceases to be a rock when somebody contemplates it

with the idea of a cathedral in mind.

  ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Inspiration

One of the best things about the flower show is the inspiration you take home. Here are some ideas you might want to incorporate into your yard. We'll start with the reasonable and move to the outlandish....

This birdhouse has half of a suet feeder attached to its roof.  The feeder is then filled with potting soil nestled inside moss.  Then plant material is added. How cool, how doable!!

This house listed its plants. Love the nest on top; perfect for a lazy bird!

Everything in this space was pink, so the faux cotton candy machine was perfect. The 'cotton candy' was made of pink batting. Where you get pink batting, I have no idea, but it wasn't painted; maybe dyed? Made me think of a baby shower for a sweet baby girl, or perhaps you could use gray batting for a bubbling cauldron at Halloween.

What if you had an adult party planned and you decided the kid's slide was killing the vibe? Maybe a friend with a nursery would rent you some flats of annuals! It's possible!

But seriously, this inspiration stole the show!!!

It was the piece de resistance!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Can you figure it out?

Tomorrow, the scoop!!!

Until then,

Shelli

Ideas can be life-changing. 

Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea. 

~Jim Rohn

Everyone who's ever taken a shower has an idea.  It's the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference.

  ~Nolan Bushnell

The way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas, and throw the bad ones away.

  ~Linus Pauling

Night time is really the best time to work.  All the ideas are there to be yours because everyone else is asleep. 

~Catherine O'Hara

Hmmmm....

At the opposite end of the tent from the carousel were the following displays. The thing is, I'm not sure about the theme of this portion of the flower show. This year marked the 25th anniversary of the Festival of Flowers and the first arrangement led us to believe that celebrating this milestone might be the theme, however.....

I don't know about this plant material choice; green moss makes me think this celebratory cake was left out on the counter too long.

This arrangement actually said 'Celebrate', but the in arrangements that followed, the hint of a theme just evaporated. 

But you don't have to understand, or even think, to enjoy beautiful flowers!!

Until tomorrow,

Shelli

Never be afraid to sit awhile and think.

~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun

You and I are not what we eat; we are what we think.

~Walter Anderson, The Confidence Course, 1997

No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.

~Voltaire

Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?

~Winnie the Pooh

            Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinion at all.

~G.C. Lichtenberg

The Carousel

At one end of the main tent was a make-believe carousel with horses made out of plant material.

It was fantastic!!

This ballerina horse was shockingly, amazing!!!

Here's a close-up.

Such creativity! Such talent!!

Until tomorrow,

Shelli

“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try” 

– Dr. Seuss

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, the just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while”

– Steve Jobs

“Creativity is contagious, pass it on”

– Albert Einstein 

A Week of Flowers

Good morning, Dear Friend!! I am back from the Festival of Flowers and have flower pictures and ideas to fill the entire week, so grab a cup of coffee.

Upon entering the show tent, we were greeted by these beautiful "ladies".......

Aren't they great!!

Until tomorrow,

Shelli

There is no such thing as an ugly woman.

~Vincent Van Gogh

The time has gone by forever when woman can be regarded as a mere ornament, and can be shut out of active life. She is not a doll or a toy. She has her duties and responsibilities. She is not born merely to be married as soon as possible, and from girlhood to consider her wedding as the goal of her life. Thousands of young women will never be married, and yet their life need not be a failure though their fingers are never circled by a wedding-ring. Women have immortal souls. Their heaven does not depend upon being linked with a husband. Every young girl should set for her great central aim in life, to be a woman, a true, noble, pure, holy woman, to seek ever the highest things. That should be her aim, — to realize in her character all the possibilities of her womanhood. Accept your duty, and do it. Accept your responsibility, and meet it. Be true in every relation you are called to fill. Be brave enough to be loyal always to your womanhood. Train your mind to think. Set your ideal before you, — rich, beautiful womanhood, — and bend all your energy to reach it.

~J.R. Miller (1892)

Do you not know I am a woman? when I think, I must speak.

~William Shakespeare, As You Like It

Sure God created man before woman. But then you always make a rough draft before the final masterpiece.

~Author Unknown