An arrangement using autumn favourites

Arrangements Using Autumn Favourites

It's now the end of September and there is still an abundance of flowers in our garden. In this lesson we are making an arrangement using a variety of cut flowers and shrubs in an impressive range of sizes, shapes, colours and scents. Here are the cut flowers we have selected:

• Cosmos (Cosmos) - delicate, long-flowering, tall plants
• Bog sage (Salvia uliginosa) - a strikingly blue, tall, strong plant with a lot of movement
• Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) - tall herb; adds fun to arrangements
• Dill (Anethum graveolens) - culinary herb; delicate and graceful in arrangements
• Giant scabious (Cephalaria gigantea) - grows very tall; looks good in long grass; adds structure to arrangements
• Verbena (Verbena bonariensis) - tall with round, purple heads; long flowering season
• Dahlia (Dahlia) - cultivated in many varieties. We have used:
• 'Cafe au Lait' - bears, large blooms in delicate shades of pale pink
• 'Lavender Perfection' - with magnificent lavender-pink blooms
• Hydrangeas (Hydrangea) - varieties used:
• 'Paniculata' - very tall, white or greeny-white blooms of varied shapes
• 'Annabelle' - large-flowered, tall; needs to be cut down in winter to 10cm
• 'Macrophylla' - mop-like heads; old flowers should be left on until early spring
• 'Quercifolia' - unusual shrub with decorative, oak-like shaped leaves
• Phlox (Phlox) - long-lasting plant with a lovely scent
• Buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum) - used chiefly as ground cover
• Phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia) - ground cover known as green manure
• Tobacco plant (Nicotiana) - prolific, strongly scented plant, attractive to moths
• Japanese anemone (Anemone hupehensis) - long-flowering, delicate plant
• Roses (Rosa) - recommended for their beauty, variety and long flowering season. In today's arrangement we have used the pink blooms of shrub rose 'Gertrude Jekyll' and the wonderful hips of Rosa 'dupontii'.

Most of the flowers demonstrated in this lesson are suitable for natural, relaxed arrangements, and we would encourage you to grow all of them. Some, like salvia and verbena, create striking combinations, and many of them - for example hydrangeas - are prolific and easy to grow. Some self-seed and you need to control their spread, while others, like delphiniums, are very attractive to slugs and require a regular treatment with nematodes.

Plant Directory

Anemone hupehensis

common name: Japanese anemone

Anethum graveolens

common name: dill

Cephalaria gigantea

common name: giant scabious

Cosmos

common name: cosmos

Dahlia

common name: dahlia

Eriogonum fasciculatum

common name: common buckwheat

Foeniculum vulgare

common name: fennel

Hydrangea

common name: hydrangea

Nicotiana

common name: tobacco plant

Phacelia tanacetifolia

common name: phacelia

Phlox

common name: phlox

Rosa

common name: rose

Salvia uliginosa

common name: bog sage