Swing by the Harvard General Store and pick up a festive 4th of July inspired arrangement. While you are there, don’t forget to shop the General’s great selection of tasty gourmet snacks and craft brews! Have a safe a Happy 4th from all of us at Honeyfield Flowers!

Nora and I went lupine hunting in Sugar Hill, NH a few weeks back.  It was one of the best mother -daughter trips we have ever had. We read Miss. Rumphius, ate stacks of pancakes at Polly’s Pancake Parlor and took in all the blue! Let the mother-daughter gardening adventures begin!!

To me, annual plantings should be as much about texture as it is about color. I am having fun playing with the palette above and look forward to  sharing some garden picts with you come July when the planting is established.

For now, here are some details of the plants we used!

geranium 'vancouver centennial'

gomphrena

lantana

alternanthera 'burgundy thread'

perennial disguised as annual-sedum 'angelina'

Weekly farm fresh florals have arrived at the Harvard General Store. Stop by on Fridays and pick up a bunch just in time for the weekend! This weeks offering consisted of an informal grouping of peonies, asclepias, eryngium, scabiosa and field stock. Hip Hip Hooray for summer!

The town of Holliston opted against containers and went for recycled crates. Very interested to see how they progress.

achillea 'pomegranite' (Van Berkum)

On a normal day I would  choose the bare minimum amount of yarrow. I guess it would be the equivalent of the no-thank you serving that parents adapt when they are trying to get their children to eat standard brussel sprouts. When we bought our house, I worked around the golden bunches that dove in and around the pussy willow and in the book we experimented with low-growing yarrows in containers; I played nice. My past relationships with yarrow I am guessing, is pretty standard.  I cursed them when they got mildewy, I looked at them with a puzzled eye when my once beautiful ‘terracotta’ blossoms shifted to a dull silly-putty color and I cut them back twice a year and hoped for the best.  I treated them like the perennial staple that they are.

achillea 'oertell's rose' (Van Berkum Nursery)

So I wouldn’t say I dislike yarrows I just did not expect to be hypnotized by them today while walking around the ever-beautiful Van Berkum Nursery. Ask Jane- I could not stop talking about these yarrows. ‘Strawberry Seduction’, ‘Pomegranite’ and ‘Oertell’s Rose’ all out en masse and blooming their hearts out. I envision mixing their punch-toned umbrels with swaths of penestemon, salvias and coreopsis or planting them admist a great patch of drumstick allium.

I left the nursery with a trio of Achillea ‘Pomegranite’ and can’t stop thinking where and with whom they should be planted with.