Monday Morning Blooms | Stop and Smell

Happy Monday!

When I walked out into my garden over the weekend, it didn't take me long to decide what flowers I was going to snip for today's fresh flower arrangement. Roses! To make a sweet smelling, old-fashioned, romantic floral bouquet.

Miniature candy pink roses and fragrant White Dawn Roses are the stars of today's 'Late Summer/ Early Fall' show.

Co-starring Limelight hydrangea, white garden phlox with delicate and strongly scented 'White Cloud' calamint. That's what I love about summer gardens. There is just so much blooming in the garden at this time of the year, it's easy to put together a sweet bouquet in minutes.

But the guest stars of today's romantic arrangement aren't from my garden at all. Out for a walk, I came across a crabapple tree laden with miniature brightly colored fruit, that were sadly too high for me to reach. However, on the grass below lay a sea of fallen crabapples. So, I had to be content with foraging for some decent looking ones off the ground. A hard task since most were quite bruised and already half enjoyed by the hungry squirrels. But I did manage to find a few good ones.

Crabapples are actually members of the rose family, Rosacea! So, there couldn't be a better guest star to this lovely rose arrangement than a few VIP crabapples.

How to Use Crabapples in Flower Arranegments

To use crabapples in the fresh flower arrangement, all I did was insert the end of a very sharp wooden barbecue skewer into the base of the apple. Then I trimmed the skewer to the height I wanted and stuck them in as little picks into the flower arrangement. The flowers and leaves hide the wooden barbecue skewers, so all you can see are little apples nestled amongst the flowers.

Charming! Simply charming! I couldn't be more pleased. 

And I cannot tell you how fragrant this flower arrangement is. As I walk by the arrangement, there's a lovely, sweet smelling scent of roses and ripening apples in the air. And the tiny little purple and white flowers of the calamint (below), along with their stems and leaves are just so strongly scented with the fresh smell of mint, it's no wonder bees are just drawn to them. Well, now I can enjoy what the bees knew all along.

Take a deep breath. Do you smell what I do?

I'm really enjoying cutting and bringing these flowers into the house where I can enjoy and appreciate them at much closer range. The whole process of picking, gathering, arranging and appreciating the flowers is calming and grounding. It reminds me to stop and smell the roses more often, both literally and figuratively. 

After all, the small pleasures in life are really the large treasures of life.

Have a great week!

And don't forget to stop and smell the roses this week. 

My little cat is an expert at stopping to smell the roses. I'd call her Ferdinand, except she wouldn't answer.

For more floral inspiration, click on the label 'Monday Morning Blooms' below.