Create an Easy Arrangement With Garden Flowers

Endless Summer Hydrangeas are blooming! We have several Endless Summer Hydrangea shrubs that are loving our abundance of recent rainfall. I cut some blooms for a quick and easy centerpiece for a table.

Endless Summer Hydrangea is a re-blooming variety of bigleaf hydrangea. Early season flowers are produced from buds on old wood from the previous year. Flowers also bloom on the new season’s growth later in the summer. Blooms can be blue or pink depending on your soil’s pH level. Blue blooms develop in acidic soil and pink blooms in alkaline soil. If your soil is not acidic and you want blue blooms, you can amend your soil with composted oak leaves, pine needles and coffee grounds, or find a product in the garden center that is sulfur-based that will produce blue flowers.

I started with a galvanized box that I had for an arrangement. Instead of filling the whole box with water or floral foam I used an easier method to arrange the flowers.

For a quick centerpiece, I added six acrylic cups as vases to a galvanized planter which makes it easy to replace individual flowers as they fade and change your water. . . no flower arranging skills required with this easy method! You can use jars, cups, glasses or whatever you have as vases.

I used plastic bags from the grocery store, placing them between the cups to keep them from shifting once they’re filled with water and flowers. Hydrangea blooms are so large it doesn’t take many to fill your container or box.

I also cut some hosta leaves from the garden to add to the arrangement.

Cut hydrangeas are notorious for wilting.

Here’s a tip to keep them from wilting: Alum!

Cut your hydrangeas in the morning with they are fully hydrated and not stressed from the heat. When arranging them, cut each stem at a 45 degree angle for maximum water uptake and dip 1/2 inch of each cut stem in alum powder, found on the spice aisle at the grocery store.

Place your dipped hydrangea stems in your vase of room temperature water (the temperature it runs from the tap).

I always add the floral preservative packets to my vase water to prolong the life of my flowers. If you don’t have any floral preservative, you can make your own with this easy formula.

Another tip to help prolong the life of your cut hydrangeas is remove the leaves as they cause evaporation loss and take water from the head of the flower. Keep your finished arrangement away from the heat and out of direct sunlight and check your water levels in your arrangement, topping off as needed as hydrangeas are heavy drinkers.

In addition to hydrangeas and hosta leaves, I added some Verbena Lollipop that’s blooming around the Potting Shed.

Verbena Lollipop grows in USDA zones 6 – 10, prefers full sun in well-drained soil and is a butterfly and bee magnet!

I highly recommend planting an Endless Summer Hydrangea if you have room in your landscape. They mature to 3 – 5 feet in height and width and are hardy in USDA zones 4 – 9. They need sun to bloom, preferring morning sun with afternoon shade especially in the hot and humid South. . .just like me. ;)

Here is the centerpiece at my table. The centerpiece didn't cost me anything to create as I used flowers from the garden and already had the container. More photos, details and table sources at the blog link below!