I never quite know how a large bouquet will evolve.

I put this together outside on the lawn in the front garden. James Mason rests on the stool with valerian. Graham Thomas, Frances Dubreiul, Common Moss, Maggie, and William Baffin are some of the roses. The dark aquilegia was a nice surprise all fresh and lovely- bouquet ready!

Promise to live your life as a revolution and not just a process of evolution.

~ Anthony J. D'Angelo

The roses are ready to pop and thrill, but before they take center stage, I want to show again some of the lovelies I've been playing with for the last few weeks.

Orlaya, senecio, geum, aquilegia, and valerian all stand on their own in the garden and do very well in bouquets. 

I've been particularly charmed by the orange geum, they just keep blooming and last very well as a cut flower.

I bought three of these senecio plants at Annie's Annuals a year ago. I waited and waited for them to bloom- it took a whole year! They are worth the wait. Who wouldn't want five-foot tall pink daisies in prolific bloom. This is an excellent cut flower.

Along with geum, philadelphus and oat grass they are ready to party.

ANOTHER SHOT OF THE BASKET I'VE BEEN FILLING

The rehmania is a surprisingly long lasting as a cut flower. The clump these native iris came from has been extremely generous, picking must promote more blooms, because I've been cutting these regularly for three weeks!

PHOTO SET-UP

That bucket of flowers might not look very big, but I had to lay down on the floor to shoot it. The paper backdrop is four-feet wide. That's my foot popping up, if you can't tell.

Two weeks ago, there was nothing to harvest in the flower realm.

A few days later the first native iris bloomed, then came the first columbine (aquilegia). And for a week or so there was a purity of unblemished beauty like no other. Spring always has me on my knees awstruck once again. Today was hot, and there were aphids on some of the columbines. That purity, innocence if you will, has already reached another stage. The seemingly instant profusion of it all, the miracle of it, inspired this botanical exploration and a record of what grows amongst the roses on April 10.

We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understanding and our hearts.

~ William Hazlitt