Picking Wildflowers

 

My many vases inside need constant topping up with fresh water and a few new plants. I pick and choose the ones that look the worst and then scrub out the container and salvage any cut greenery or blossoms that still look viable. Then a quick haircut to remove old leaves and I’m off to find more to shove in amongst them to tart up each vintage vase. Luckily we have many self-seeded wildflowers to admire and bring inside right here on this property. But being autumn already, the choices have dwindled down to mostly green shrubs for background materials with just a few blooming flowers left that look good enough to pick.

Yarrow is one of my favorites. But it is much more abundant in the summer. Now it’s dying out until next season, but I still managed to find enough with its ferny stalks and chalk white tiny blossoms on the walk up the hill. Sometimes I just yank out the small plants and replant them in my garden. They’re perennials, so they revive fairly fast and then come back every year. But I still leave a few flowers around to look at on my walks.

The other components in these floral arrangements are perennial daisies that pop up in many places (I sprinkle the dry seeds everywhere) and ivy that I prune regularly to keep it from taking over. Stripping the bottom leaves off of everything that sinks into the water, I hope that these cut plants will do well for at least a week or more. What usually happens is that I make new ivy plants over a few months of being in water. Then I can continue using them as background fillers or replant them in pots outside. Many plants do root very well in clear vases with a good light source. It’s such an easy way to spruce up the old displays and get free plants too. But all must be taken care of carefully or the container will get smelly and look pretty raggedy in no time at all.

After owning and running a restaurant that needed fresh flowers every day, I was always on the lookout for the state of the flowers and the cleanliness of the water in the vases. And in those environments one never makes a wasted trip with only one goal. In other words, I always looked for something else to carry back with me to a private area, like a wilting floral arrangement or some lunch dishes that somebody missed. So I find myself doing the same thing here at home. If I need something for one vase, I usually get enough for two or more. Why bother going outside just to refresh one container?

My life is very different than it used to be. I had helpers to do most of the heavy work and large, immaculate houses with endless storage. Now it’s my sole responsibility to do everything I want done for myself, by myself. I’m my own helper although occasionally I can rope John into doing something that is above my pay grade, like when I need something carried that’s too heavy for me to lift. But generally, I’m the housekeeper and flower picker and washerwoman and gardener and sweeper and duster and more. And that’s probably why my standards have slipped quite a bit. It’s just too time consuming to keep up with, so I only do a little each day. Just keeping the kitchen tidy, which we both destroy in our cooking adventures, is more than enough to keep clean, along with the bathroom. The rest can wait a little longer. I’m having too much fun making beautiful flower arrangements. That’s more like playing for me anyway and cleaning the house is definitely not in the same category.

I’d rather be outside in the garden anyway, or writing or painting or planting or watering or almost anything. But I am considering removing some of the hundreds of cutesy items I have on every spare space available, in an attempt to simplify my life. When I first met John he said that I should throw away (ouch) all my stuff so I could do what I wanted to do instead of constantly keeping it clean. Well I don’t keep it particularly clean anymore and that bugs me more than having it out. But yes, I am overdue here for a big spring clean out in mid autumn. Hmm. Gotta reflect on this a little while longer.