Multiples make more

Summer marches down the table....

After renovating old dairy barns twelve years ago, we started collecting pint and half pint milk/cream bottles.  Since then, these regularly march down the center of our dining table filled with seasonal flowers. This time of year our dirt roadsides offer a multitude of blooms to choose from and they are FREE!  Talk about sourcing locally!

This group of flowers are blooming on our roadsides now. Ferns, dock, daisies, and what I call cow parsley - the green Queen Anne's lace-looking plant - blooming above on the road side with a flat dill-like flower head and chervil-like leaves.  What is it?

  Multiples of inexpensive and recyled containers such as these can cover a large space requiring only a few flowers and creating a great impact.  

 Here pint and half-pint bottles march down a light green linen runner.  I don't worry about the height of these arrangements as we don't use this table in the summer.  It becomes a great staging place for all sorts of designs.

The eagle-eyed will spot the feverfew (smaller clustered daisy flowers) which I rip out of my front garden every week.  They are a pleasant flower, seed in prolifically and bloom much of the summer.  However they are a constant reminder to me that I wanted double feverfew, darker leaves and a double bloom with no yellow center.  I am determined that they will disappear this season!

Any variation you make can tell a different story.  On a twig runner, they look even more rustic country.  I use this runner from many seasons ago at Crate & Barrel often.  It has a neutral color and great texture, especially on this table which is made from recycled floor planks from our barn, and includes several different woods including oak and tiger maple.  

Happy first (hot) day of summer & Cheers!