Budget Blooms: April Showers, Er, Flowers
I’m back to share my monthly grocery store bouquet (a super sweet Christmas present from the hubs), and this time our $4 flower purchase coincided with a photoshoot that took place at our house for our regular column in Richmond’s R. Home magazine (stay tuned for the latest link in a few weeks).
We needed small green and pink blooms for the shoot (which we brutally cut off right near the flowerhead for the photos) so although you may notice that we’ve purchased these types of flowers before, after the shoot we resorted to displaying them in a totally different way (since they were sans stem).
That’s right, we floated those babies in some small votive candle holders in our sunroom.
And they’re such a sweet little sight to see when we’re running in or out of the house (or even enjoying dinner alfresco).
How are you guys ringing in April? Any new blooms poking up in your garden? Our daffodils came and went and we’re anxiously awaiting some fresh raspberries thanks to a little bush that we planted in our soon-to-be edible garden. Is everyone that you know preggers? A ton of our friends and family members have buns in the oven (and we’re excited to be aunts and uncles – no, not parents yet, sheesh!). I guess the birds and the bees are all a-buzz this April… what’s new with you guys this month?
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I am a new reader and I absolutely LOVE your blog! Your home is SO beautiful, and I admire how much DIY work you have put into it :) I’m still an undergrad, but someday my boyfriend and I would really like to renovate an older house as you have. Thanks for all of your beautiful pictures and great ideas!
I finally got my front flower bed planted yesterday – a nandina, a firebrush, coral bells, and daylillies. So, nothing is blooming in my yard yet. Except the purple heart that blooms year round.
New in April…I planted my girls a Fairy/Butterfly garden. We have butterflies to release today. The ladybugs are almost ready. We will put the fairy house in the garden today.
I love your display!
The p.o. did a wonderful job of planting perennials over the course of her 30 years in the house. In addition to my herb garden, there are the beginnings of peonies, daylillies, crocuses, lily-of-the-valley, and tulips. Lots of color and such a treat to the sniffer, too.
I am looking forward in seeing the flowers in the photoshoot! Love the floating blooms.
Trying my hand at growing herbs on my kitchen window.
http://thishomesweethome.blogspot.com/2009/04/things-to-do-in-spring.html
I’m really no good in the garden, the only thing to grow out there is the grass and plenty weeds! lol
well right now it’s snowing!
Aside from planting rosemary by our garden gate (good luck, you know!) and a few perennials, we haven’t done much in the way of gardening, since we have so much to do on the inside first. But next summer we will!
Love the green buds in the green vases…so pretty. My husband just brought me home a bouquet of roses the other day so I may try your floating blooms trick.
YES!! Everyone I know has just recently gotten pregnant!! It’s crazy cute!!
As far as gardens go, we live in an apartment…but my husband and I were so desperate to have “some greens” that a few evenings ago we bought a cheap pack of multi-colored violas from Wal-Mart and planted them in a pot to put on our balcony. Thanks again for your blog and inspiration. I literally look forward to checking your site everyday!!!
Funny you mentioned raspberries, they’re next on my list. What kind did you plant? I’m so tempted to get the golden ones….
Hey East End,
We went with the classic Heritage Raspberry bush, which is supposed to produce fruit through August. Our little guy has already gotten super leafy and a lot bigger since we planted him a few weeks ago. Now we’re just waiting for some berries….
We’ll keep you posted!
xo,
Sherry
Raspberries… yum! What kind of light do they need? We are starting to plan out what we want to do in our backyard, and I would love to plan some berries… any tips/suggestions?
Hey Lindsay,
The little tag on our guy says it needs 6+ hours of direct sun to produce tons of fruit through the summer. There are many types of raspberries that come in many forms (bushes, vines that have to be staked, etc) so we went for a bush which seems lower maintenance to us. We’ll see how it goes!
One tip would be to make sure the berry bush or vine that you’re planting is “self fertile” (some need another bush called “a pollinator” to be planted near it in order to produce fruit). Luckily ours was self fertile so we only had to dish out cashola for one. And speaking of cashola, we picked ours up at Home Depot for $9 since the local greenhouse was selling the exact same leafless raspberry plants (they look like sticks) for $30 and ours is thriving and full of green leaves already. Hooray for budget fruit! Of course it could have gone the other way (and totally died instead of growing and looking all happy) but we figured we’d only be out $9 instead of $30. Hope it helps!
xoxo,
Sherry
Beautiful!! You guys are getting pretty famous! Saw you in a magazine last month and told hubby, “Hey my friends John & Sherry are in the magazine.”
Hi – does anyone know what the name of those green flowers are? I want to use those exact flowers for my wedding but have no idea what they are called…please help!
Hey Melissa K,
I think the green flowers are called button mums but we’re definitely not flower buffs (they never come labeled at the grocery store… but the $4 price is right). Hope it helps!
Feel free to weigh in on this flower experts!
xo,
Sherry
Just wanted to let you know that I received The Nest yesterday (I’m still not sure why I got it, I usually don’t subscribe to magazines) and I was so excited to see you, John, and Burger on the cover! My husband looked @ me like I was crazy. Congrats!
Hey Lindsay O,
So glad you saw us in The Nest! The hysterical thing is that we have not yet received our copy of the magazine but so many people are coming out of the woodwork to say that it just showed up at their door (we don’t think anyone subscribes to it, they just send random issues to newlyweds). How insane is it that we made the cover?! Fingers crossed that our copy shows up today…
xoxo,
Sherry
I can’t believe your daffodils have came and went already. I havn’t even been able to get outside with the lovely Chicago weather (it snowed this past weekend). I am looking forward to making an edible garden of my own. There was an excellent how to in Better Homes and Gardens using a 4 X 8 space that I have been itching to build.
The birds and bees were buzzing for our family last year. I have two sisters and a sister-in-law who were all pregnant at the same time. My niece was born June 21st, the first nephew was born September 26th, and the second nephew was born October 12th. 2008 was the year of the baby; 2009 will be the year of the first birthday party.
Hi guys,
We just picked nearly a dozen strawberries from our garden. Yum! Everything is doing really well so far.
And yes, we have a bun in the oven. ;) So add us to the list of “everyone we know is pregnant.” We’re due the first week in November with baby #2.
Hey Mike & McGee,
We read about your impending bambino on your blog! How exciting… especially for someone who’s going to be a big sister! Congrats!
xoxo,
Sherry
Melissa K,
My friend used those same exact flowers in her wedding and I believe they are called: Green Spray Mums with the anemone and/or spider shaped head. Also, they can be called Green Pom Pom Mums or Green Button Mums, depending on the florist and which shape you want. If anyone else knows of a different/better name, please correct this. : ) You can google them too, here are two links to the flowers: http://www.denverplants.com/floral/html/spray_mums.htm
http://nationalflowermart.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=973
Love the flowers! I want to build a raised bed in the backyard for a raised bed, and this past week our rosebushes have suddenly exploded with buds and flowers. It’s like they were just waiting for April 1 to let loose.
And we have a bun also, due on Mother’s Day!
Congrats Erin! Mother’s Day is an adorable day to bring a little one into the world!
xo,
Sherry
Hey!Living in the deep south we have things that are blooming all over the place. My knockout roses and lilies are blooming like crazy and the gardenina’s are budding up I love spring time!
Not many flowers – a few hydrangeas (no blooms yet), a bunch of impatiens, because they produce like crazy and are super easy for a flower killer like me to NOT kill, and I’ve got some irises and my calla lilies shooting up. Oh, and I bought a Lily of the Nile this year and lo-o-ove it! I may have to go back for more.
And my garden is doing great – radishes (we just picked the first ones yesterday), carrots, onions, tomatoes, peas, spaghetti squash, lettuce, spinach…nothin’ like some home grown veggies in some homemade compost to make a meal so tasty!
I just found your blog a few days ago and I really really like it. My wife and I got married exactly one year before you and we are right about to close on our first house. built in ’46. I can’t wait to start fixing it up and get our garden going. We are also really excited because we are going to try and get ducks this year to if we get into the house fast enough! Not to many preggers this spring…that spring was crazy though
Are those sweet little vases Glassybaby? If not, they look EXACTLY like them! Hmmm…
Hey Kristi H,
They’re actually from West Elm a while back, but it’s funny that they look exactly like Glassybaby!
xo,
s
So cute! I love the little green flower tops inside the votives. Adorable!
I discovered your blog the other day, and I am really enjoying peeking at all of your entries. And I have to say a very big thank you for your wedding album. My boyfriend and I are getting to the point now where we’re thinking about getting married (once we’re done grad school, of course), but since we’re both paying our own undergrad+grad school expenses, I didn’t think I’d be able to do anything other than elope! Your wedding was beautiful and smartly done, and it gives me a little hope that we could have an actual wedding with both of our rather large families.
How is your garden doing with this crazy Virginia weather? I tried to put my houseplants outside the other day, but then it started snowing so back inside they came. Granted, Richmond isn’t Harrisonburg, but I think I might wait until May to put anything out and not worry about night frost.
Hey Tracie,
It’s actually pretty warm here in Richmond (we had an 80 degree weekend last week, can’t complain!) but we have heard tales of snow up near DC. So sorry Mother Nature is messing with your head! Fingers crossed that your garden grows like a weed…
xo,
Sherry