Current Issue :: Mimi's Mechanics

Cut Flower Garden

This “planted garden” arrangement is perfect for summer—it’s fresh and bright and easily adapts to your space. I chose to use plastic Oasis pans (you can purchase them at your local wholesaler or florist), because they are disposable and made to hold exactly one block of Oasis. If you have a long dining room table, sideboard, or console you may want to use three pans instead of just two. One is also fine if your space is small.

My cool blue and green color combo gives off the serenity of a pool or lake on a hot summer day. I added pale yellow in to pop out against the electric blue. In choosing materials for this planted garden, I looked with the following ideas in mind:

• something to be tall and sturdy – agapanthus, gentiana (try red or yellow dogwood or snapdragons as well)
• something to “dance up” – ranunculus, anemones
• something to “grow” – hyacinths, tulips, muscari (daffodils work too)
• something to fill in – hydrangea, Salal, trachelium, kermits (azalea or camellias would work nice too, although azalea doesn’t hold up well in Oasis for too long.)

Before you begin, soak your Oasis and clean all of the greenery off your flowers, while leaving some pretty leaves on the tulips and hyacinths.

1. I start by squeezing a full block of soaked Oasis into each Oasis pan and securing with Oasis tape. Because these pans are made to fit one block precisely, it isn’t necessary to shave or trim the Oasis. The tape sticks to itself so wrap it around the block and under the pan.
2. Use a bunch of galax leaves to make a “collar” covering the Oasis pans. Add the Salal to fill in and give you a nice green base. Because I have big hydrangeas to work with I did not put as much greenery in as usual. Also, I love to add hosta or scented geranium here.
3. It’s important to put the agapanthus in now because they need to go in the middle of the Oasis and you want to get them in before all the other flowers start to fill up the room. Put them in a line down the middle of the garden and vary the heights; don’t get them too low or you will not have enough room for the second tier of the garden to “grow.” Add a few gentiana here too in the same manner.

To see Mimi’s finished product, pick up a copy of our newest issue, on sale this summer.

Summer 2008 | By Mimi Brown | Photos By Jason Wallis