Today is Bouquet Day

So here's how arranging the bouquet went this week...

I bought some chrysanthemums at the grocery store because they are inexpensive and I wanted to offset the cost of buying a bigger bunch of flowers next week for my second annual Christmas craft party that I have for my art class.  I selected some pretty chrysanthemums that look like mini-sunflowers and then decided to pair them with my sunflower tablecloth from France.  Brilliant ... except the yellow of the flowers didn't match the yellow in the tablecloth.  Right, so I switched the sunflower tablecloth for a yellow and white striped placemat. That looked great.  I took some pictures and then looked at last week's bouquet - yep, yellow flowers with a yellow and white tablecloth.  Nope, that won't do.  I can't have those pictures side-by-side on my Pinterest Bouquet Board, which is pretty much my selection criterion when I buy the flowers.  Solving the problem involved an emergency trip to the grocery store while Jonathan was cooking the pizza to buy more chrysanthemums to mix things up a bit.  I selected some deep purpley-pink chrysanthemums this time.  I ironed another tablecloth and changed the vase and stood back to admire.  Ah Perfection!  

The tablecloth I used was bought at a thrift store.  I love the simple embroidery and the cheery flowers.  The thing that makes me smile is how many different shades of green and even brown they used on the stems and leaves. It's like they wanted to use up every scrap in their embroidery basket.

Chrysanthemums are such a versatile flower.  They come with little round heads or daisy shapes or layers of petals like the traditional blossoms or even weird spidery versions.  They are such a long lasting cut flower.  I remember when I was living in the Netherlands as an exchange student for a year when I was 17 we went down to see the flower auctions and they gave us each a bouquet of chrysanthemums to take home.  I gave the flowers to my host mother.  She changed the water and trimmed the stems and four weeks later the chrysanthemums were still going strong although the leaves were looking a little worse for wear by then so she asked if we could get rid of them.  Secretly I wanted to keep them and see how long the flowers would last, but it was her home so I gave her permission to dispose of them.  But really four weeks is phenomenal.

Chrysanthemums are a humble flower and not one of the popular ones like hydrangeas and roses, but they have their charms.  Do you like them?

Oh, and did you know that the Flower of the Month for November is chrysanthemums.  Perfect timing, no?