Helen’s Haven Helen Yoest

A nod to Eliabeth Lawrence – a fresh idea on flower arranging

Little bottles (1)

A Nod to Elizabeth Lawrence

A Fresh Idea on Flower Arranging

Ah, fresh flowers in our presence gives so much pleasure. When friends come to share a meal or conversation, fresh flowers usually tops the list of preparations for a festive evening. Often times, I’ll fill a vase with masses of billowing flowers either one of kind or an arrangement of different flowers. They were always pretty, but really served no purpose other then being pretty.

Through fresh eyes, on a pretty spring day, I learned a simple lesson about flowers. I was having lunch with my good friend, Lindie Wilson, at the former home and garden of Elizabeth Lawrence. On the dining room table at the window overlooking Miss. Lawrence’s stand of bamboo, I noticed little clear bottles and vases on the table filled with fresh flowers. Just one flower filled each vase.It made the most simple and beautiful arrangement. They were all different with no apparent thought to a theme of any kind. When I asked about them, Lindie explained that was how Elizabeth Lawrence used fresh flowers. She would fill the little bottles and vases with flowers blooming in her garden.It was a wonderful conversation piece. The flowers were cut from her garden. Not masses of blooms, but rather a single snip of what was blooming then.

Dining room of Elizabeth Lawrence's home

It was also fun to move the bottles around seeing how one flower looked with another. The simple tactile pleasure of moving the bottles around sprung ideas as to how they would work in the garden.

Now, as I prepare to entertain, I snip flowers from the garden and fill little vases. Without fail, the conversation goes to the flowers, not just how pretty they are, but what they are and what they represent – the conversation is about the delight and wonder of what’s blooming in the garden now.

Little bottles - milk bottles (4)
Helen Yoest
Gardening With Confidence

Sex and the City Garden – Carrie Bradshaw’s shoes are to my many pots

Carrie Bradshaw’s Shoes are to my Many Pots

With company coming, I took a look around and decided to tidy up a bit. When I’m working in a client’s garden, I’m so single minded on the tasks at hand that it makes me look some kind of superstar in efficiency. In reality, I just don’t have any excuses to take a break.

I usually start at one end and work my way around until I am satisfied or out of time. On this day working in my own garden, I started doing what I tell my clients NOT to do and that is I digressed.

Admittedly, I didn’t have a plan; I wanted to pretend I was the gardener of my client ‘ me. It was my intention to start at one end and work my way around, but as I stepped out the back door, I remembered my flowering apricot (Prunus mume ‘Dawn’) was listing; I needed to dig out the back side to\’a0give room in order to upright her. Satisfied with what needed to be done, I went to the shed to fetch a shovel. But before I could make it to the shed, I picked up a pot to carry to the area where I store them. Then I noticed with a renewed eye, that my many pots could use some sorting out.

As I’m sorting, Carrie Bradshaw, the character of the Sex and the City fame, comes to mind. Specifically, I am reminded of the episode where she is counting her shoes and realizes she has spent enough on shoes for the down payment she needs for a new apartment. I started to count my pots then attaching an average cost that each pot represents. Oh, baby! What does this represent, a down payment on a beach house, college tuition for at least one kid, a new car? Maybe not quite that bad, but only because I take home many of my client\’92s pots. But what I did realize was it represented my garden and my love for gardening.

I then took a renewed look at my garden and felt so happy with what I saw and heard. Flowers were blooming, birds were chirping, bees were buzzing, butterflies were fluttering. There were chipmunks chasing each other around the garden, a crow chasing a cat bird, my neighbor’s cat lounging in the shade, and frogs croaking. I then saw hummingbirds at the Salvia, finches at the feeder, and a bumble bee on the blooming wall Germander. I even saw a bunny lift her nose away from my coneflowers since I just sprayed them with I Must Garden, a safe rabbit repelling magic.

To me, gardening is more than something pretty to admire it not about being wowed at some rare and unusual plant variety. My garden is not a plant collector’s dream, but rather a dream come true for a wildlife collector. I don’t collect plants; I collect bees, butterflies, and birds. This is their safe haven Helen’s Haven that I have created for the pleasure of my winged friends and a few four legged ones as well. I wanted a place where my kids can play safely and feel safe and comfortable to stop to taste fig fresh from the bush, to marvel at the larvae munching on the parsley or milkweed, to espy a chrysalis in the brush, to debate whether it is a Monarch or a Viceroy, and of course, to stop and smell the roses.

Story and photo by Helen Yoest