Photo Credit: mediafury

Summer.  The time of blue skies, warm breezes, cook-outs, and colorful blossoming flowers.

But as much as we might love to, we can’t spend all of our time outdoors soaking up the days of beautiful weather.  It’s tough to look out the window while stuck inside sitting at your desk, folding laundry, or in a meeting.

What to do?  Bring some of that summer inside, so that even during those frustrating moments tethered indoors you can revel in nature’s sunniest season.

The obvious way to bring the outdoors in is with a vase of colorful, fresh cut flowers…but not everybody has an abundance of cutting flowers in their yard, and purchasing flowers can get costly.  Luckily, flowers aren’t the only thing that look lovely in a vase.  A bouquet of greenery from your yard can be gorgeous if carefully selected and artfully arranged.

When selecting greenery:

• Look for a variety of colors:  dark emerald green, lime green, forest green, pale yellow green.  It’s surprising how many greens there in even a small garden patch once you start observing.
• Consider texture and size of leaves…for example, do you see little, fluttery leaves?  Delicate, long leaves?  Wide, thick leaves? Branched, spiky leaves?  Grab a variety of these to create interest.
• Pick different heights while making your selections; when arranging you’ll need differing heights to create interest.

Now it’s time to arrange your selection.  Grab a glass vase or two (or more!)…any style will do, but my favorite is a cylindrical clear glass one I found for two dollars at a local thrift shop.  It’s sweet simplicity perfectly suits the greenery unadorned by blossoms.

Strip any leaves off that will end up under water and cut the bottom of each branch at an angle.  Fill the vase up three-quarters of the way with water.

If you have any tall, spiky leaves, those go in first and will be in the center of the bouquet.  Surround that with the other tall branches.  Bulkier branches go in next, and lastly place the looser ones along the rim of the vase, allowing some to “drip” over the edge.  Cluster branches from the same plant together; don’t mix them all up too much.

Alternately, you can create a cluster of vases each with only a few branches.  A shorter vase can look lovely with a broad leaf tucked inside, hugging the inside of the glass and encircling the other branches.

These arrangements of greenery look fabulous on a windowsill or as a centerpiece on a table.  So grab a pair of scissors and head outside!