Sunday, February 15, 2009

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, February 15, 2009

Carol, at May Dreams Gardens, has her February Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day List up, and if I hurry up, I will be #28.

I do have some blooms that I was planning on doing a post on, and just this morning, decided GBBD would be a good place to do it, even though they are dried, and not on plants any more.


This basket of lavender, statice, and gomphrena flowers was from November.







I can't remember which kinds of lavenders these are, but these are from November, taken before putting the lavenders in the window well.









In November, when I had the idea to do a post on flowers I dry, there was some dill, that I put away in January, statice, quaking grass, and globe thistle.

The lovely beach photo is on a calendar my husband made for me from our June, 2007 vacation to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.




This is a rack inside our back door, above the steps that lead to the basement.  Some of the plants I already named are here, plus Sweet Annie, that I grew in the new bed, but pulled out shortly after cutting these to dry, because I don't think I have enough room for something that gets that big.  Maybe if I liked the plant itself better, I wouldn't mind the size of it.




The above pic was taken in November, and the rest of the pics in this post were taken this morning.














This morning glory hanging was my husband's grandmother's.  We've had it over 30 years.  It's always in bloom.












German statice is one of my favorite flowers to dry.







Here's a home for baby's breath, lavender, statice, gomphrena, nigella seed pods, and knautia, the little red flowers in the middle.









lavender















nigella, or love in a mist













gomphrena





I just realized I didn't include my strawflowers, but I'm putting some links in this paragraph. My houseplants are about the same as last posted.  There are a few African Violet blooms, but they aren't so happy right now.  My signs of spring are currently buried by snow.  I'll be spending time this afternoon seeing what blooms others have on this cold February day.  Next month, I hope will be a different story.

Thanks, Carol!

(Whew! I 've never done the pics this way, and with the larger font I use, it doesn't jive with the pictures, so I had to keep looking at preview, and that wasn't the same, so I was publishing and editing, hence, there was no hurrying, and I look to be #38 on Carol's Mr. Linky.)

Happy GBBD to all, and happy anniversary to Carol!

29 comments:

  1. I love the dried flowers. You have a lot of them, them make great decorations and help get us through the winter.

    Thanks for joining in for bloom day.

    Carol, May Dreams Gardens

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  2. Wow you have a lot of dried flowers. Terrific!

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  3. Dried flowers are STILL flowers! I collect seed heads and think they are beautiful, too! happy Bloom Day~~gail

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  4. I used to be a dried flower fanatic. Then I had kids. :-) The gomphrena holds that stunning color for a long time doesn't it? Nice morning glory heirloom plaque--always in bloom, eschewing the snow!

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  5. Your flowers all look pretty! I have gomphrena seeds to try this year. I bet your lavender smells great inside!

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  6. That gomphrena caught my eye right away. It is quite vivid and good looking along with the other dried flowers. I love dried flowers in the house and I see you do too. Excellent blooms!

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  7. Your dried flowers are lovely, Sue. I love the lavender and statice, and that gomphrena is wonderful! Your post reminded me of the drying herbs all over my house this past summer. After seeing your post, I think I may try drying some more flowers this year. :)

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  8. I never think to dry flowers, but I like yours! My mom had statice in her garden, I wonder if she still does? It lasts forever indoors!

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  9. I love the display of dried flowers. The rest of your photos did not show up for me.

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  10. Hi Sue.
    I love all the work you did with drying flowers this past season. I want to do more drying this coming fall. My favorite is Salvia 'Victoria Blue'. It dries a deeper blue than lavender and retains the color well. You've inspired me! Thanks.
    Ann

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  11. You have a great selection of dried flowers Sue. I have not grown any specifically for drying for a few years now, but hope to do so at my allotment this year. I hope that spring is with you before too long :)

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  12. These dried flowers are awesome. What do you do with all of them?

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  13. Thanks for the comments. Most of the flowers just hang around, as in the pics. When the next season's flowers are ready to dry, I take the previous year's flowers down and put them in big baskets. I use these to make little arrangements in baskets or other small containers I find at garage sales to set around the house and give as gifts. When I'm putting the last season's flowers in the baskets, I sort the older ones, and most end up on the compost pile.

    I dry other flowers, too, like yarrow, sweet peas, verbena bonariensis, scabiosa, salvias, and the like, but don't always get them all picked and tied up each season.

    I forgot to mention my favorite thing to tie them up with is embroidery floss. I get bags of it at garage sales, too. I try to choose a color that goes with the flower I am drying.

    I'm glad if any of you are inspired to dry flowers or herbs.

    Sue

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  14. I can only imagine how yummy your house smells! I dried some dill in my greenhouse from a volunteer plant that seems to like it in there- I never water it. You are supposed to dry them in a shaded area with good ventilation...right?

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  15. Lovely dried flowers, Sue. Thanks for coming by my site and saying nice things about my flowers.

    I'll be back!

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  16. I've tried growing lavender more than once, but they don't like my heavy soil. Now I want to try again. I do dry my mints for teas, but take the leaves off the stems and dry them on screens.

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  17. love your header photo and that first photo.

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  18. Yes, it is best to dry herbs and flowers in a dark, dry place, but I don't always have ideal conditions. I dry my dill in the kitchen, but not close to a window or the sink or stove. The others are also away from direct light.

    The lavender plant I have in my garden window got leggy, so I cut it back, and made some tea with the leaves. It was pretty good! I put it with a tea bag I was reusing, so that it wouldn't just be the lavender.

    Thanks, Gals!

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  19. Hi Sue, all your dry flowers look so pretty! What a wonderful idea posting them for Bloom Day. The wrought iron hanger is lovely!

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  20. What a lot of lovely dried flowers you have! This is something I've always wanted to do, but have never tried--maybe this fall:)

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  21. Hi Sue, I love seeing your dried flowers hanging together, I bet it smells divine there! Isn't Mr. Linky the best? It used to be much harder to go visit the bloom day posters, searching for links in the comments section. Hooray for the Outer Banks and Grandma's morning glories too. :-)
    Frances

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  22. Hi Kanak, Rose, and Frances,

    I rode with my husband to work, and on the computer here, I see my writing didn't line up with my photos like it did on our home computer. I wonder what it looks like on other computers. Oh, I used Safari, and this is Firefox. My problem is because I changed my font size to be larger, and I experimented with the pics on both left and right. GBBD was not a good time to try that!

    Thanks for your comments! I hope the days to March's GBBD go by quickly.

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  23. Wow those dried flowers looks lovely . I love to keep them too as it stays all year round. And the lavenders ......beautiful.

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  24. I'm new to these dried flowers and I'm lovin' it! Such a great collection. Lavender - mmmmm.... I can smell it in the air!

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  25. Hi Sue~

    That is quite a collection of dried flowers! Do you make arrangements out of them? They look pretty just hanging to dry and I bet they smell really good.
    I really like the morning glory heirloom of your husband's grandmother. I use morning glories in my ceramic art a lot...they are such a happy flower to me.

    I'm glad you liked the last 'Artists in the garden' on Karen Hall. Thanks for commenting.

    Karrita

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  26. I wonder whats going wrong on my computer. Only some of your photos are showing up on my computer. From the beach photo onwrds, the space for the photos is blank.
    Your home must smell heavenly with all those bunches of drying flowers! I really enjoyed reading this, Sue.

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  27. Hey Sue:)
    Finally I am starting to make the GBBD rounds! I got your comments and- thanks for them!
    I've never dried herbs/flowers for cooking. I have never grown lavendar, so I need to fix that this year. Cameron has shown it in her garden and it looks gorgeous. I remember a post you did a while back where you showed some of your dried goodies. There is such a wide variety. It really must have a nice scent in the house. Do they ever get dusty? Or moldy...anything? Is there a limit to how long you can hang them before they might lose their flavor? It's not something I'm familiar with.
    Nice idea for bloom day!

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  28. Thanks for the next batch of comments!

    I don't really smell the lavender unless I go up to it. I need to remember to do that more.

    I sometimes make arrangements in small baskets and other containers to give as gifts, and have set a few around the house. I also just keep them hanging around where they were dried.

    They do get dusty after awhile, but I've never had any mold. What I do, is take the previous year's flowers down when I start drying the current year's blooms. If they don't look good, they go on the compost pile, but if they are still OK, I put them in the basket I use for making the small arrangements.

    As far as the herbs go, it's best to put them in an air tight container when they are thoroughly dry, and use them within a year or two. I think it depends on the kind of herb.

    Sunita, someone else said they had problems looking at my pics on this post. Maybe it's because I put them on 2 different sides, and not in the middle. Also, there have been times I couldn't see someone else's pics at first, but after a longer amount of time than usual, they show up.

    Sue

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  29. Great pictures of your dried flowers. I have been trying to learn how to dry flowers so that this summer I might have some beautiful flowers like you do.

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