Dried flowers – Cynthia M Voss

End of Summer

Summer is almost over. We enjoyed your wildflowers and long days, but now it’s time to think about what’s next.

V is for Vegetation, Dried 2

I love dried flowers and plants and I think it’s because they are similar to abandoned places–even though they are past their prime in the traditional sense, they still have their own kind of beauty.

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I’m participating in the A to Z Challenge for the month of April. The idea is to post every day, except Sundays, and end up with one post for each letter of the alphabet. It’s a good challenge to help me to blog every day.

Q is for Queen Anne’s Lace

This is a flower that I love, Queen Anne’s Lace. I don’t know too much about it, but I know that it shows up in the summer. When I was a kid we would put some in a vase with some food coloring added to the water and marvel as the flower turned whatever color we had chosen. The ability to command the appearance of these flowers was the feeling of ultimate power over nature for my sisters and me in summertime.

Who was Queen Anne? According to gardeningknowhow.com:

Queen Anne’s lace is said to have been named after Queen Anne of England, who was an expert lace maker. Legend has it that when pricked with a needle, a single drop of blood fell from her finger onto the lace, leaving the dark purple floret found in the flower’s center.

Last August, I cut this bouquet of wildflowers containing Queen Anne’s Lace. It also features goldenrod, the dark brown/rust color plant I don’t know, and I’m happy to have found out that the big dry thistle-looking thing is called teasel. Those were what originally gave me the idea to create the bouquet.

I kept the bouquet on my counter and watched as it slowly dried out.

Might sound weird to some, but I love dried flowers and I enjoyed them for months.

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Hydrangeas in Winter

The hydrangea plants are sticking out of the snow.

I have taken pictures of them faded pink in fall, and also in the summer, full of purples, pinks, and blues.

Before they bloomed, I even spotted a ladybug on the unopened flowers.

They still look beautiful.

V is for Vegetation, Dried

At the garden center, in the back of the last greenhouse in the row, hung these dried flowers and branches. It seemed to be where someone kept unfinished projects. Stacked and broken pots, boxes, storage bins filled with sticks, shelves piled up under hanging dried plants filled this last section of the greenhouse. Even though it wasn’t roped off in the least, and there were rows of fruit trees for sale just behind the workbench, I still felt a little bit like I was intruding; spying on someone’s plans, my presence disturbing the unrealized potential of all these materials.

The garden center wasn’t in full swing, which surprised me. I thought it would have been full of people eager to get spring started, but maybe it’s still a bit too early. I expect this space will be cleared out to hold merchandise as the season gets underway.

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