Petal power

In Holland, flowers are pretty affordable. Unfortunately, I cannot have too many bouquets in my home any longer since Jos developed very bad hay fever. This past weekend, we stopped to buy a new butterfly bush to replace the one we lost this winter. He put it in the car as he did not want any of the branches to damage by putting it in the trunk. He was miserable on the drive home. Flowers really do have the power to be beautiful but also to make some feel sick. What a shame!

I did purchase a bouquet of peonies and he seems to be okay with them. I was disappointed as it turns out the bouquet I picked up was old and the flowers did not last long at all. Here I discovered they have date stickers on their bouquets so you can bet I will check that better the next time. I have been trying to keep each bloom that is still okay so now they ended up in this adorable pink depression glass shaker that I purchased from Robin over at BittersweetPunkin. They really looked cute in here since only three blooms were left. I placed them, together with a vintage knob and glass plant spritzer, on a plate to give my coffee table a little summer lift.


We had a wonderful surprise when we got home on Sunday afternoon as our wisteria is already having its second round of blossoms. Normally this doesn't happen until July and then very sparsely. This year, the blossoms are much fuller the second time around. What a treat as this is our favorite thing in the garden and its flowering span is far too short.


We bought a jasmine plant last year which was a real bargain. They had marked down these plants from 13,95 euro to only 5 euro. I thought that even if it only bloomed that summer, it would be worth it. It is doing so well again this year and smells so sweet. We will have to transplant it into a larger pot next summer. I don't want it to become pot bound.


Is your garden sharing any surprises with you this year?

"A flower's appeal is in its contradictions - so delicate in form yet strong in fragrance, so small in size yet big in beauty, so short in life yet long on effect."

~~ Adabella Radici ~~