Conjure up a warm summer days with flowers.
These arrangements are perfect for the season—fresh, bright, and easy.
Welcome to MONDAY MORNING BLOOMS!
Our theme this Monday is a flower arrangement in a jar
or other container with paper labels.
My inspiration for these floral arrangements comes from the gardens of my childhood.
Picking flowers from the borders in my grandparent’s European garden
is a memory still so clear in my mind, and one I cherish.
Until I was eight and moved to the U.S.,
my mom and I lived with my grandparents in their large home.
Although my grandfather had a daily gardener
he liked to walk through his garden after coming home from work each day.
His garden was his pride and joy – he loved each and every flower in his borders.
So much happened in that garden of my childhood.
It was where I learned the names of my flower friends.
It was where my aunt and I found and adopted the cutest little hedgehog.
It was where our family and friends gathered for tea parties on the lawn,
and enjoyed elegant candle lit evening dinners on the paved patios.
My arrangements are varied, as you will see,
each one features a favorite in my childhood garden.
For a casual summer dinner, I set the back garden table with our favorite
striped linen runners with the embroidered bees and matching napkins.
At each place setting I used these melamine plates with bees!
They look like paper plates, but are not.
I just had to add them to our FrenchGardenHouse Summer Gift Collection.
On top of each linen ruffled napkin, I placed an antique French laundry paddle {!!}
and a grape leaf, on which is a small round of brie, some crackers, and hazelnuts.
Shades of pink, blue, purple and yellow make up this fun color palette.
I chose peonies, hydrangeas, stock and little carnations to help fill out the arrangement.
Summer is the perfect time to mix bold, vibrant colors together in arrangements.
Because the table is pretty long, I also filled some small glass bottles
with a few small carnations or one stock stem.
In the smallest antique French jar,
the hydrangea and a purple stock flower that accidentally snapped short
are low on the rim to help hold up the taller yellow stock.
For this arrangement, I chose the beautiful green antique French jar with a Savon label.
{Of course, never mind that peonies look great in e v e r y t h i n g!}
A few purple stock and one gorgeous light blue hydrangea add a pop of color.
For the large arrangement, I chose this wonderful antique glass jar with the blue label.
It’s tall enough to hold the long stock stems,
along with big, beautiful hydrangeas on longer stems.
FLOWER RECIPE:
Pink Peonies
Blue Hydrangeas
Yellow Stock
Purple Stock
Pink Miniature Carnations
French Apothecary Vase | Linen Bee Runner | Gilt Bee Place Cards |Linen Bee Napkins | French Green Jar
French Glass Jar | Bee Plates | French Laundry Paddle
I hope you have enjoyed this Monday Morning Blooms!
Please visit my dear friends, below, by clicking on their links.
SHIRLEY at Housepitality Designs
and me, LIDY at FrenchGardenHouse
à bientôt
Welcome to our back room.
I always feel as though I am virtually sitting in a garden in France whenever you present a beautiful table in your backyard garden. You know how much I LOVE your French jars and they are so beautifully filled with the flowers of your childhood memories! I cannot imagine having a gardener working every day in your grandfather’s gardens…they certainly must have been spectacular as your memories of them are so vivid and filled with joy. Oh there are those napkins I adore! And let’s not forget the Peonies!…I think I missed my window of opportunity at Trader Joe’s for Peonies…however, I went to the local garden center and bought a Peony plant..(has not bloomed) and it will be the first thing I plant at the new house! Hedge Hog?! I love those cute critters and have one sitting on my porch (rather stone faced though)….:) Happy, happy to join you and our wonderful Bloom friends today!!…Have a most beautiful Day Lidy!!
Thank you Shirley, it’s such a joy to have our Monday Morning Blooms, isn’t it?! I’m so happy at least YOU can plant peonies…I’ll be looking forward to your flowers at the new house. (not a good match in California…boo) Wishing you a blessed week, sweet friend!!
Lovely post, Lidy. Your table and arrangement are beautiful as well as the containers. However, I most enjoyed reading about your childhood in Europe and the dinners on the paved patio. I can just picture it all.
Oh, I read something yesterday you will enjoy ~ “Life is good with peonies and Labrador retrievers.” Have a lovely week!
Sandra, what a great saying! Perfect for around here at FrenchGardenHouse, thanks for sharing that with me. Wishing you a blessed Monday, friend. xo
Your summer arrangements take my breath away Lidy! I love your combination of blooms in your beautiful jars…perfect for dining in your garden. Great minds shop alike~ I love all things bee and have the same melamine plates and Napoleon Bee flatware. I need your gorgeous bee linens! Thank you for the beautiful start to my day. I love starting my Monday morning with my floral friends. <3
Mary, I love all our bee things…especially the Napoleon Bee Flatware and the linens~ Thank you for always inspiring and starting my Monday off with a gorgeous post. I love all of our Monday Morning Blooms days. xo
Lidy, I enjoyed reading about your memories in your grandfather’s garden in Europe. I also have memories of my grandmother’s and aunt’s gardens as a child. Those memories are precious and I wish I had photographs. I hope you do!
Your table is set so elegantly french with lovely linens and antique jars with gorgeous flowers. I love your choice of flowers and your peaceful setting.
Lovely post. Have a beautiful week.
I enjoyed your Chenonceau post and went back and reread my two posts about it. I was totally blown away by the gorgeous floral arrangements in every room.
Bonnie, aren’t those childhood memories so precious? I don’t have photographs either, it just wasn’t something that people did in those days, sadly. Lots of pictures of family though, so I count myself lucky about that! The flowers at Chenonceau are amazing, aren’t they?!
The French laundry paddles all by themselves are just perfect and then you added the grape leaf etc. “Bee” still my heart! Throughout the years I’ve looked for everything bees and much to my delight they are spread throughout my home. The melamine plates,the napkins, the “honey pot” can with bee are all favorites. This morning I’ved enjoyed all Monday Morning Blooms, they enrich my life.
Alice, thank you for joining us this morning! I am so glad you are a fellow bee lover….I am always so happy when I see them buzzing around our garden in the summer.
Lidy, this is such an idyllic setting! Your jars are perfectly filled with gorgeous blooms…peonies, hydrangeas, carnations! I so enjoyed reading the memories you treasure in your heart of your grandfather’s garden in Europe. It would be so nice to have a gardener, I am sure My Renaissance Man would be most appreciative. The linens are so pretty as are the bee melamine plates, I just might need those for alfresco meals in the garden. It is always a pleasure to share MMB with my friends! xoxo
Thank you Pam…it’s such a blessing to share our Monday Morning Blooms with you, friend. A daily gardener, what a luxury. I think Mr. FrenchGardenHouse would like that too. Of course I wouldn’t mind the live in maid AND the daily maid my grandmama had either to help with children and the housekeeping. The live in maid spent afternoons with me, so she was really a combination maid/nanny : ) I remember I cried bitter tears when she got married and quit, selfish little girl that I was! Hope your Monday is beautiful. xo
Swoon Lidy! It is all so beautiful! I loved reading about your memories of your grandfather’s garden, what a magical childhood! The peonies steal the show for me, they are gorgeous! Your antique jars are so pretty, and those French laundry paddles are wonderful! Of course a garden setting should have bees buzzing around and your napkins and plates are perfect~ Oh how I love Monday Morning Blooms! Thank you for your “flower recipe” !!
Aren’t our childhood memories so precious Jenna? Thank you for your visit this morning, it’s always a delight to have you visit. xo
Lidy, this is a wonderful post. I always enjoy when you reminisce about your grandmother and being with her.
Love the styling of the flowers. Funny you have the bee plates. I bought two sets last week with summer bicycles. The baskets are filled with all different items. I can’t wait to use them for summer entertaining.
Funny how I don’t use paper plates and I now can buy dishes that look exactly like them. Boy are they pretty.
Cindy
Thank you Cindy! I agree, I don’t use paper either, but fell in love with these. : )
Oh my! How beautiful! What a lovely tablescape! From the aqua table to the linens to the ever beautiful flowers and to my favorite addition – the laundry paddles on each! ??????
Those question marks at the end are supposed to be 3 hearts… *Sigh*
Oh Lidy, what a beautiful summery table you’ve set for us! The blossoms are displayed so lovingly in your pretty setting. I’m having a big tea party for a group this coming Friday, and I’ve decorated canning jars to hold the fresh flowers. Thank you, too, for visiting my little blog.
Oh! I know it will be a wonderful party Kitty. I hope you all enjoy it beyond expectations.
What beautiful memories you have. We lived in France until I was 6 and traveled to The Netherlands and Germany and I’m sure that is what began my love affair for flowers.
Pamela, how fun to have lived in France at young age! I am sure you have your own beautiful memories of those years (hoping…although you were so young.) xo
Lidy,
I love your French jars holding the beautiful flowers. Visiting all four of you ladies for your Monday floral arrangements is always a special treat!
PS… I ordered the Royal Crest embroidered napkins in red and can hardly wait to receive them. Since seeing them last year on your blog, I have drooled over them and finally decided to buy a set. They will be part of my patriotic tablescapes in months to come.
Judith
What a beautiful post! I love your flowers and the containers too. My Grandfather was a banker by day and a gardener after work and on weekends…. he had beautiful flowers and vegetables and i have such good memories of spending summers at their home in Virginia… I have several of my Grandmothers old ball canning jars that I love to use as flower vases too.
Thank you Lidy and have a nice week!
Lidy, this is a beautiful post. Love your French jars filled with spectacular blooms. The bee plates, and the napkins…all so inviting and perfect. Loved hearing of your early memoirs with your grandfather. I think the seeds of love are sowed very early in those who love gardening so much. It was for me also.
Absolutely beautiful.
Thank you so much! That is so sweet of you to say!
Loved you’re Monday Morning Blooms. Making this cold, snowy winter day in Wisconsin a bit easier to take, knowing that in a few months I will have some Spring flowers in my own garden. Your table settings are so inviting and inspiring. The Laundry Paddles make such lovely individual Charcuterie boards, what a great idea. Thank You for brightening my Monday morning Lidy.
Janice, thank you for reading several of the MMB posts! I hope that you can bring some of the beauty of flowers inside your winter wonderland home this week!