Our Year in Flowers

Happy New Year, dear flower loving friends! For this Monday Morning Blooms, we're doing a round up of seasonal centerpiece inspiration and DIY floral arrangements. Our Year In Flowers is a look back at our beloved flower therapy, with tips to help you create affordable flower arrangements with locally bought inexpensive flowers or flowers from your own gardens. Get ready for a flower-filled image heavy post! Just the thing with a winter's cup of tea or coffee. Welcome to Monday Morning Blooms! I hope your holidays were everything you hoped they'd be, and I'm praying that we’re finally heading into a healthier New Year. Shirley, Mary and Pam and I are always so excited to join with all of you on our special first and third Mondays of every month. Thank you so much for joining us, and for taking the time to comment so that we know you've enjoyed your visit. If you are new here, cozy up with a cup of hot coffee or tea, and stay a while. It’s a joy and a blessing to have you join me here! I hope to see you each time Mary, Pam, Shirley and I gather on the first and third Monday of the month to share our floral therapy. Today we’re sharing a look back at highlights from our year of flowers.

Our Year in Flowers

JANUARY

We began the year with A Year in Flowers, looking back at all the beautiful flowers of 2020.

FEBRUARY

I was so excited to share my Valentine's Breakfast for Two Table with you in February! This table had all the love, style and sweetness you need to show someone how special they are to you. For flowers, I'm pretty much known for following in the footsteps of my European family by buying beautiful flowers and not being too fussy about them. For this arrangement, I was thrilled to find my favorite pink roses, and these pretty apricot spray roses too. But what really made me giddy was the little bunches of helleborous. I've never seen those sold as cut flowers here in California before. So I bought 2 tiny bunches for this arrangement. I cut all the flowers at an angle, and placed them in a cut glass and silver pitcher and called it done. Honestly, especially if you keep all the flowers in the general same color family, your floral arrangement will always look stunning! Because the helleborous flowers will still going strong, I used them again in my post about The Charm of French Style with 5 tips for creating a table setting with the charm of French style. It featured a pretty and easy French inspired table, combining all the joie de vivre and formal/casual "mix it up" style my French girlfriends are so adept at creating.

MARCH

For my The Promise of Spring arrangement, I created a bouquet inspired by our garden at FrenchGardenHouse. We had the entire garden "redone" and we were just beginning to see things grow. Dreaming of lots of blue and pink and white flowers, I was surprised to find such a huge variety of flowers at the market. I couldn't help myself, I bought the long blue Veronica, the blue Larkspur, a mixed bouquet of blue Hydrangea, pink Roses, lavender Stock and little Wax flowers. Added to some leafy eucalyptus, it made this big spring bouquet. I cut the stems, and arranged the whole big bunch in an antique French ironstone pitcher with blue thistles all over - spring love! March was also the month I Set an Easter Table with Blooms, I love this one! This year’s Easter table reflected all that is beautiful about the season: the colors, the flowers, the sweetness. The flowers were a combination of the most beautiful hydrangeas my son-in-law bought for me, along with light pink ballerina roses, alstromeria and deeper pink roses left over from my birthday bouquet. I layered the table with an antique Madeira tablecloth in softest lilac/grey, and the Chintz Apple Blossom dishes. This pattern is so enchanting covered with all the flowers in pink, blue, yellow and white. It was made by Charles Kent, in England. Nothing brings on Spring more than flowers.

APRIL

April brought the beginning of SPRING! Nature awoke, and after this long season of winter, bright cheerful flowers were in order. This arrangement of Fresh Spring Flowers in a French Basket brought all the joys of spring indoors. Using both potted blooming spring plants and flowers tucked into glass water filled vases, I chose all my favorite spring flowers. Tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and more! For the second Blooms Monday, because we live in California, I was able to go outdoors for this floral inspiration! This Orangerie Inspired Flower Arrangement and luncheon table is one of my favorites! Perfect for spring and summer gatherings, big or intimate. This outdoor table inspired by the colors and freshness of oranges and lemons was so easy to create. After layering our outdoor table with an antique French cloth, I added a few antique French canning jars down the center of the table to hold the flowers. Clipped olive branches worked great both in the vases as filler as well as down the center. Oranges and lemons were added for a pop of citrus.

MAY

Have you ever needed an elegant, easy and beautiful centerpiece in a hurry? This Antique French Greenhouse Pot Arrangement is it! For this Monday Morning Blooms, we decided to “copy” one of the beautiful floral arrangements in Victoria’s book The Art of Flowers. My Antique French Greenhouse Pot Arrangement is a "copy” one of the beautiful floral arrangements in Victoria’s book The Art of Flowers. This idea from the pages of The Art of Flowers is such an easy, most elegant solution that is perfect anytime you want something stunning with little effort! I used little antique French seedling pots and a silver tray. And added some great tips for HOW TO CARE FOR YOUR PHALAENOPSIS ORCHIDS in this post.

JUNE

Summer brought Summer Flowers in Antique French Jars. In summer time our French Country style, with its relaxed but elegant feel, is just right for this time of year! Featuring gorgeous peonies in French containers, this table setting was inspired by my European grandmother. She loved a beautiful table {!! it’s genetic, what can I say?!} and I have so many fond memories of our meals together. She always set the table, always. With a tablecloth, a vase or two of flowers, or a bowl piled high with summer’s fruit. She took time to create a beautiful table setting, even if it was just for the two of us. Finally able to serve dinners outdoors, I was so excited to Embrace the Joys of Summer! I reflected on how in the past many of us dreamed of trips around the world. Last year? We were just happy to be able to SEE people around our table at home, am I right?! As our lives were beginning to go back to “normal” I know we all recognized the silver linings that came with our gap year. We made magic memories in our own homes and/or gardens with the people we loved, although often on a much more smaller scale. This casual table setting and very casual floral arrangement fit the bill for enjoying every single moment of togetherness and summer weather. For this summer table setting with a French twist, I began by layering one of our favorite summer linen tablecloths in a subtle very light blue-green called Ocean on our outdoor table. The flowers were a combination of a tall arrangement of clipped branches from a flowering bush in the front garden, and a shorter arrangement of hydrangeas in light blue and white. {ps. for those who asked, we still have a few of the French Zinc Finials available.}

JULY

The perfect month to celebrate the garden and bees with a French Honey Flower Arrangement. Since the first year of the pandemic, our front garden has come alive with bees. They dart from flower to flower, happily drinking nectar and getting all the flowers pollinated with their little legs. I love bees! Not swarms of them, but a few or twenty happily buzzing in the garden. I'm not sure if it was because here in California we all stayed home for a part of that year, but the bees and the butterfly population came back in full force. For this setting, I put this glorious antique French Provencal Boutis on the table. The golden apricot and yellow roses are in an French apothecary jar with bee label. What else but linen bee napkins would make this setting complete? And a little favor of my favorite bee skep soap for each friend to take home!

AUGUST

In August, I nestled a few of Mr. FGH's white garden roses in antique hand vases and called it An Elegant Simple White Flower Arrangement & done. A perfect addition to our sitting area in the master bedroom, sometimes a few flowers is all that's needed to bring a smile! The second Monday Morning Blooms in August featured an An Easy Sunflower Arrangement styled in a French armoire in our master bedroom. We had just received a shipment of French antiques, and somewhere between photographing the beauties I bought for the fall collection, I had to figure out a way to share a floral arrangement for our beloved Monday Morning Blooms. Plus, I was shooting an ad for Southern Home magazine. An easy bunch of sunflowers in a French Green Gargoulette placed in my armoire together with some of my very favorite antique French Country pottery pieces came to the rescue!

SEPTEMBER

In September, I set my little table in the living room for an intimate but elegant gathering for just two. Taking tea is such a cherished ritual, it has been an ideal get together for generations. It can be simple, or quite fanciful and feminine. I decided to go for the fanciful setting this time. {If you know me, you know I love both the gracious finery as well as French Country simplicity.} This really is my dream tea table, set with the finest porcelain, and embellished with this Steeped in Love flower arrangement. This casual Fall Breakfast French Country Style table setting in our kitchen here at FrenchGardenHouse shows off my more casual side. As the temperatures start to dip and dreams of fall’s delights started to spark our imagination, we got in the spirit of the season and hosted a small Fall Breakfast, French Country Style. Setting the table with vintage pheasant plates that I use each autumn, and the French vintage Ecruis silver plated flatware is always beautiful.

OCTOBER

As you probably know, autumn is my very favorite season. Autumn Al Fresco Entertaining – surrounded by that crisp, cool air touched with the aroma of apples and falling leaves has to be one of my favorite things ever. I dressed up our back garden, set the table with an Autumn Al Fresco Arrangement and made one of our favorite soups, Minestrone. I wanted to go all out with a flower arrangement that celebrates the harvest colors of fall. This vintage copper champagne bucket suits the season and is wonderful filled with flowers. {I’ll tell you a secret, the burgundy dahlia bouquets are faux. eek. I know.}

NOVEMBER

A Thanksgiving table set to share an intimate meal with friends in rich warm colors, with small little bouquets from the garden in antique French enamelware pots was the perfect "blooms" offering. I try to take the opportunity to share a Thanksgiving for Friends since they are what makes my life so good. It is usually not a turkey dinner {!!} but something much more simple, and often a {gasp!} store bought dessert. I do, however, set a pretty table. Because, well, you know me by now. For my table, I used a few things that I'm crazy about. The tablecloth is an antique paisley throw, it has all the rich colors and motifs of autumn. The little bouquets were literally whatever still looked half alive in the garden. It really doesn't take much to add a touch of cheerful flowers to your home!

DECEMBER

One of my “new” traditions I began in 2020 was to have a fancy tea party with my little people in December. It’s a special treat we all look forward to. This past December I decided we’d have an Elegant Christmas Table Setting. This little tea party is really our annual Spirit of Giving Board Meeting. My grandchildren are young, but they are never too young to start thinking about others and being generous. At our special board meeting, we talked about a few different charities and decided where we would donate our holiday money gifts. I used the beautiful magnolia wreaths from The Magnolia Company we received in early November around a glass bowl that held moss and a candle. For my tea I removed that and piled the compote high with macarons {Luca's favorite!} cream puffs and decorated Christmas cookies. I set the table with beautiful antique dishes protected by our beautiful Arte Italica gilded plates. Antique French napkins are simply folded on top of the plate stack. These antique napkins are large, so that each little person can cover their whole lap. BTW - this year they chose The TreeHouse for Kids supporting foster kids and The Seattle Animal Shelter, both in their new home city. I hope you’ve enjoyed a look back at our year in flowers here at FrenchGardenHouse. We will be sending out flower love and therapy to you every first and third Monday of this coming year. Thank you so much for your visits, they are so cherished by me. I’m praying for a healthy, joy filled year with many blessings for all of you! If you've come this far, to the end of this very long post, I love you! I hope the flowers brought you joy. I am looking forward to this coming new year, and hope it is filled with joy, love and beauty for each and every one of us! Please visit my dear friends to see their stunning flowers for the past year below:

Mary at HomeIsWhereTheBoatIs

Pam at EverydayLiving

Shirley at Housepitality Designs

and me, Lidy at FrenchGardenHouse

A BIENTOT

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