Budget Blooms
Budget Blooms: Roses Are Pink
I’m back to share my monthly bouquet (a super sweet Christmas present from the hubs). And just like last month’s gaggle of flora, this month’s blooms didn’t hail from the grocery store at all. In lieu of the normal $3-5 bouquet, we spent zero dollars and zero cents clipping a bunch of fuschia and coral roses from our backyard. Just like last month’s irises, they’re courtesy of the previous owners, and although we have no idea how to nurture roses (we’ve never fertilized them or anything) they just keep coming back year after year like clockwork. Here they are living it up a fun ruby red vase on our living room side table:
I love the two tones of blooms together, and especially like how great they look with the deeper fuschia ones around the perimeter while the coral ones fill in the middle of the arrangement.
Even John has stopped to admire this month’s bouquet. Maybe it’s because we rarely have red & pink accents in our house, so it definitely pops and begs to be noticed. Gotta love such a punchy (free) accessory.
So what about you guys? Have you snagged any cheerful flowers courtesy of your backyard or your local grocery store? We’d love to know what blooms are tickling your fancy these days and what bouquets your backyard is yielding now that summer is upon us.
Wanna see our first grocery store bouquet from January? Itching to check out February, March, April and May too? Just follow the links for some pretty sweet cheap-o bouquets.
Budget Blooms: Backyard Beauties
I’m back to share my monthly grocery store bouquet (a super sweet Christmas present from the hubs). Except this month my bouquet didn’t hail from the grocery store at all. No we didn’t cheat and hit up a fancy florist, we looked no further than our own backyard. That’s right, in lieu of the normal $3-5 grocery store bouquet, we spent zero dollars and zero cents clipping a dozen giant wild irises sprouting up between our old backyard boxwoods. Here they are living it up in the sunroom:
And what’s that you see in those little green glass votive holders? Why those are some of last month’s grocery store flowers still doing their thing a month later! And I’m loving the combination of the green glass with the purple blooms.
Possibly the best thing about this month’s bouquet is how deeelicious it smells. Sort of like a lavender flavored sugar cookie. And you’ll notice that there are still a bunch of buds just waiting to flower on each of our clippings so we should be enjoying even more of that intoxicating scent (along with an even fuller bouquet) in the near future.
So today we’re sending a big thank you to the previous homeowner who planted those bulbs years and years ago. They always come in huge and lovely every spring (we don’t even fertilize ‘em or anything) and we especially appreciate that we get to enjoy them even more this year by clipping a few and plopping them in a vase. Backyard flowers really are free decorating at its finest.
Wanna see our first grocery store bouquet from January? Itching to check out February and March and April too? Just follow the links for some pretty sweet cheap-o bouquets.
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?
Budget Blooms: The March Mix
I’m back to share my cheap-o monthly bouquet (a super sweet Christmas present from the hubs). This time to usher in March I grabbed a mixed bunch:
One of the fun things about a varied assortment means the scenery changes when you spin the vase (or the old-bathroom-drinking-glass-turned-vase). Here’s the same arrangement from another angle.
One big pink beauty plus some fun lime colored blooms along with some smaller pink cuties = love.
But you know we love to get at least two arrangements out of one $4.99 grocery store bouquet (making each arrangement less than $2.50). Here’s the other half:
Look at those fun purple flowers. The flowers have flowers! Little white blooms erupting like barnacles.
What do you guys think of my March mix? Do you know what kind of flowers they are? The thing about getting two flower arrangements for under five beans is that they don’t really come with any information at all. And my flower knowledge is seriously limited.
The biggest surprise so far in our cheap grocery store bouquet “experiment” is how long they last. Each month’s bouquet always looks lovely for at least three weeks (changing the water every few days and recutting the stems once a week seems to help). Both my January and February flowers went strong for over 21 days each. Here’s to my March mix taking me all the way into April!
And speaking of April, has spring sprung for you guys? Anything you’re doing to usher in the warmer weather? From spring cleaning to annual planting, we’d love to hear what you’re up to!
