Cultivating the beauty of late-summer gardens

By Ellen C. Wells

Globe Correspondent / August 21, 2008

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While the days shorten and the nights begin to cool, it's nice to know the late-summer garden can offer up some of the finest flowers of the season. With a snip and a tuck, those blooms can easily be brought inside to transform a favorite window or table with the colors and fragrances of summer's waning days.

And creating your own arrangement is as simple as following a few floral tips. When it comes to the contents of your homespun bouquet, joyful, sunny flowers like zinnias, asters, cornflowers, dahlias, celosia, and sunflowers are cutting-garden standbys.

"If homeowners without lush flower gardens are looking at what their yards have to offer, give anything a try," says Rebecca Perry, owner of Gardens by Rebecca in Osterville. Some of the items Perry suggests are peegee hydrangeas, rosehips, ornamental grasses, fern fronds, the plumes of purple smoke bush, the leaves of variegated weigela, and the bold colors offered by sweet potato vines and coral bells.

What intimidates many would-be flower arrangers is the quick demise of a vase's contents. So how can you create a bouquet that lasts? "Give them new, fresh water every day," says Missy Bahret, co-owner of Old Friends Farm, a specialty cut-flower and salad greens farm in Amherst and a regular vendor at the Copley Square Farmers' Market. "If the water in the vase looks like something you wouldn't drink, then your flowers wouldn't want to drink it, either."

As for the age-old advice about cutting flower stems under running water, Bahret says that procedure is meant to prevent an air bubble in the stem when it's cut. But anyone who's tried it knows it's not so easy.

Bahret's advice is to cut the stems about 1 1/2 inches from the ends. And don't worry if the flowers droop before putting them in water, she adds. They'll perk up soon after being placed in water and will do so even faster if the flowers and vase are placed in a refrigerator for less than an hour.

Just as deadheading, or removing spent flowers, helps keep a garden bed looking in tip-top shape, deadheading keeps a garden bouquet looking as fresh as the proverbial daisy. Pluck out flowers that have faded and leaves that begin to curl.

"Flowers want to be pollinated, they want to look good for the bees," Bahret says. "If we provide that environment, they'll keep looking their best."

Clear-cut tips for displays

Use sharp shears or scissors to create clean cuts.

Cut stems after the dew dries, otherwise the droplets may spread floral diseases.

When cutting, place stems in buckets of water, preferably containing floral conditioner.

For butterfly bush and hydrangea stems, place cut stems into warm to hot water immediately after cutting.

Disinfect shears with a mild (10 percent) bleach solution if you suspect you've cut a diseased stem.

Strip off any leaves that will be submerged in a vase's water. When stripping leaves, avoid tearing a portion of the stem downward as that creates a site for infection. Instead, snip leaves with shears if the stems begin to tear.

Keep the vase and bouquet out of direct sunlight.

When arranging, use odd numbers of flower types three zinnias, one celosia, for example to create a more balanced design.

Clear-cut tips for displays