hydrangeas and roses from the garden

Happy Saturday! Today I’m sharing a little on my garden, which I know for some of you may be a little bit of a snooze fest, but, believe me, the outcome will be enjoyed by most of you, haha!

Beautiful garden flowers brought into the house create simple impromptu arrangements. I spent so much money last year on flowers every time I went to Trader Joe’s, that the practical side of me got to thinking, “why not plant more hydrangeas and roses in my own garden?”

Hydrangeas from the garden in a cane wrapped vase

Wouldn’t it be just fabulous to go out into the garden and just cut a few pretty blooms to bring into the house? 

Well, it just so happens that last fall we had to replace a large stretch of our back yard fence, which meant tearing out tons of overgrown and weedy honeysuckle vines and other meaningless plants. 

We now had a blank canvas of prime garden space that instantly became sunnier with the removal of all those invasive vines. I knew I wanted to plant roses, herbs and another small lemon tree as the focal point of the space.

I helped design this curved garden gate with a custom wrought iron peeping window and interesting round black iron handle. The iron window piece is a vintage little goody that I found at the Tustin Flea Market months earlier.

The paint I used was a hodgepodge of leftover blue paint from Farrow & Ball, a lime wash that I was experimenting with and then a little accent of wisteria paint for good measure! 

The color scheme, like the rest of my garden became purple, blue, pink and white with a little yellow accent from the lemons when they’re fruiting.

This is one of my favorite ornaments in the garden, a dainty little lady embellished with a seashell necklace, all found while thrifting, of course! She's surrounded by white begonias and succulents.

Tons of foxgloves were necessary for that cottage look I had in mind. They’re so cute and do make fun cut flowers too!

Here’s a simple little arrangement I made for my friend Heather. All I used was a variety of roses in that simple color palette of white, pinks and purple.

In fact the purple rose is one of my favorites. It’s a Downton Abbey rose, of all things! And this one’s named “Violet’s Pride” after Maggie Smith’s hilarious character.

All the roses I planted were old-fashioned English garden roses, and most of them have that cabbage rose look, that I absolutely love!

These roses are just starting to bloom and will open up to that full cabbage look that’s so charming.

So yesterday morning when I woke up, I went out to the garden for a look and ended up cutting these pink Gertrude Jekyll roses and some more of the violet ones for a simple little arrangement in the breakfast room.

Not only do they brighten the whole room, but they smell amazing too! 

Oh, and the hydrangeas, well I went a little crazy planting those this past spring too. You can never have too many hydrangeas in my book! 

Dugan 

And for my recent photo shoot with Cottages and Bungalows I ended up buying five more Hydrangea plants, two blue ones and three white ones. 

I probably have to plant them this weekend! I know Dugan will help me. Here he is on the stenciled floor near the shed that I painted last year and surrounded by lavender, another great flower for cutting. 

ciao! fabiana

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