in a vase monday - my first (and last) event flowers


This past weekend we celebrated my mother-in-law’s 80th birthday in a wonderful celebration with family and friends, many who travelled a long way to be here.  And with my love for flowers, I volunteered to do the flowers for the tables.  I wanted something classy but not stuffy, and that would go with the decorations but not clash.  First of all, I know flowers are expensive but I did not realize HOW expensive. After looking around (and almost spending hundreds of dollars) one of the nurses at the hospital I work at told me to check Trader Joe’s and did I hit the bonanza! It was amazing! I spent $85 in nine (9) dozen cream colored roses and twelve (12) bunches of eucalyptus varieties. And of course that includes the fillers and additional eucalyptus I had to go back for.  This is why I grow the flowers, not design them.

I stayed with the same theme for different variations.  In the end, I really love how they turned out. The roses looked beautiful nestled among the ‘Seeded Eucalyptus’. For filling spaces ‘Silverdollar Eucalyptus’ and white ‘wax flowers’ worked beautifully, and for height I went with the ‘True Blue” variety.  My mother-in-law loved them and the guests did too.  Actually a few of them asked me if I would consider doing flowers for some of their events. Ummm... no, thank you.  I was so tired at the end of the party that I am sticking to growing them.  Somebody else can do the professional arranging. :)