Why buy flowers when you have a beautiful flower garden out back? Hand-picking flowers from your own garden will create a bouquet with more personality, more country charm and more thoughtfulness.

There is also much more variety and potential while scanning your backyard. Cut flowers early in the morning for the freshest snip.

Step one toward creating vivid summer bouquets of flowers is, of course, the planting. The best time to begin is late March in the West or May in the East, after the threat of frost has diminished.

flower bouquets
According to Beth Benjamin, floral expert at Renee’s Garden Seed Company, the best flower garden picks are cosmos, sunflowers and zinnias. In the front row of her garden, she’s planted purplish blue cerinthe, deep violet love-in-a-mist and phlox. Her second row is comprised of white cosmos flanked by chartreuse bells-of-Ireland and backed by white ammi majus as filler.

In the third row, round colorful zinnias grow next to blue and red salvia. The fourth row hangs ardent love-lies-bleeding to the left and cherry pink cleome to the right, flanked by pink and rose cosmos. In the rear, tall sunflowers grow with strawflowers at each end.

Early morning is the best time to cut garden flowers, says floral industry consultant Libbey Oliver from Williamsburg, Virginia. She says that you should bring a container of water and sharp clippers while hunting for perfect blooms for your summer bouquets.

candy bouquets
A sharp cut will allow water to travel up the stem into the flower head, prolonging the lifespan of the bloom. “Choose blossoms that are newly opened and buds just beginning to unfurl. Cut flowers one at a time, and immediately place each stem in the water,” she instructs.

Before arranging floral bouquets, you should remove excess foliage so it doesn’t detract from your display. Florists do offer small packets of nutrients as well.

floral bouquets
To arrange beautiful summer bouquets, try to find an out-of-the-ordinary container. One floral balloon bouquets expert tip is to use a cooling rack over a large colored bowl holding 2-3 inches of water, which will hold the arrangement in place and allow you to stuff concentric rings of flowers in an orderly fashion.

Space rose bouquets around the outermost ring. Fill the inner layers with Casablanca lilies and fill Star Gazer lilies between the roses. In the center of the rack, cut veronica stems longer so they protrude a little. He says to look for crepe myrtle seed heads, fern fronds and the black-eyed Susan for some pleasant surprises.

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