Pickings from the garden, again

A thousand buds - okay, maybe a hundred but a lot nevertheless-  but no blooms yet on the cutting patch on the allotment. This meant that I had to resort again to picking flowers from the garden. No easy task, or better, no easy choice.

Granny's bonnets? 

 Front left Aquilegia vulgaris 'William Guiness' or Magpie
Front right Aquilegia vulgaris 'Miss M.I. Huish'
The white one behind is Aquilegia vulgaris "Green Apples"

Or maybe these onions relatives? 

Allium 'Purple sensation' with more Aquilegia vulgaris 'Miss M.I. Huish' to the right.

I only want to pick flowers from the garden if it isn't too noticeable. Therefore the alliums were out, but the granny's bonnets definitely were an option. For the same reason picking some blooms of my Golden Celebration rose was fine and I also cut three foxglove stems (Digitalis purpurea 'Dalmatian Cream'). For foliage I added two of my favourite herbs: Tashkent mint and rosemary. 

One tip is not to arrange your bunch in your vase, but arrange it in your hands especially if you pick from the garden. Commercial florists also do this and that is with flowers with long straight stems, which obviously is often not the case for garden flowers. In order not to ruin my displays, I work with what I pick. 

First of all condition all the flowers as necessary. For this bunch I dipped the roses and the mint in boiling water and I cut the foxgloves under water.  Then start with the flower that is going to be in the center. Hold this one in your "other" hand (ie left if you're right handed and vice versa). Hold this with your fingers at your vase's height. Next add rings of flowers, adding while turning the bunch around in your hand. Try to arrange your flowers like an hourglass. If you have any flowers that have shorter stems than you would have preferred, add them last. In that way they will be at the edge of the vase, where their shorter stem is an advantage. Before you put the flowers in the vase, cut any that are obviously too long (which may mean having to recondition them). If they are roughly the same size, it won't be necessary. 

I love the way this bunch has turned out, especially the scent of the roses is wonderful!