hello september

Saturday 2nd of September

odd objects

Do you recognize this? Being pleasantly surprised by an unexpected shop window.

We spotted a very cool collection of odd objects in a shop window in the Voorstraat of our hometown.

An enormous gathering of animal wall vases, not only the usual cigale, but also swallows, butterflies, dragonflies, beetles... and many other curious stuff and odd objects.

Pooh, it was difficult to choose between all those beautiful and cute wall vases and we allowed ourselves to choose 3 ceramic pieces.

Well we have found a nice spot on the wall for all three of them;

a brightly colored beautiful butterfly in the kitchen
a extraordinary swallow in the bedroom
and another ceramic cigale to join our collection in the living room

faded flowers

Zinnias in the garden, in the vase and for the future.

The more flowers you pick, the more you stimulate flowering. In the vase, put your zinnias preferably on a small layer of water.

Remove overblown flowers as soon as possible, therefor all energy goes to new flowers, and you have constant bloom.

However, if you want to harvest seeds to sow next year, you need to wait until the flowers finish blooming and allow the seeds to ripen. Just make sure to harvest the zinnia seeds after a few sunny days, whereby the seed heads are dry and not soaking wet.

Don't sow zinnias in the same place two years in a row.

I put these faded zinnias in a vase, and will let them dry and keep the seeds for next year. ... and I also like faded flowers.

splendid zinnias

Look at the splendid color combination of pale orange and lilac. This stunning zinnia is by far my favorite summer flower of the season.

It's the Zinnia elegans Forecast, a mixture of single and double flowers in all kind of exotic colors of purple, pink, lilac, orange, salmon, yellow and vanilla shades.

A few days after picking, the colors fade a bit and the zinnias are even more spectacular.

These ones are growing in the Villa Augustus garden. Note to self; I will definitely sow the seeds in my own garden next year.

publication - ELLE - june 2019

Publication ELLE NL

Recently I was interviewed by Lois Laverne from ELLE NL for a publication on field flower arranging 'like a pro'. You can read my tips & tricks in the latest issue of ELLE NL.

colorpop

Zinnas in nature-neon colors pop on this first rainy day since weeks.

The woman who's peeking though the flowers, is a print we made from a street art photo, shot in Palermo during the Manifesta 12 in June. The artist of the original work is BR1.

courtyard & coneflowers

Coneflowers add a flashy touch of color to the front yard.

Sunday morning reading Dream Decor in the frontyard, the colorful interior book by Bright Bazaar, brimming with inspiration!

sowing season

The sowing season has begun.

Saturday night was a wonderful summer evening and we've been 'working' in the garden until sunset.
We have sowed the zinnia seeds in our backyard, hoping for a zinnia jungle like we had in 2014!
For some reason the zinnia's we sowed last year didn't work out like the ones in 2014.
This time I've mixed three different kinds for a colorful zinnia field in the backyard.

gardenflowers in november

We're almost halfway November and I'm still picking zinnias from our garden.

The last 'bunch' from the garden...(well I've already said this a few times before)

september summerdays

Another sunny Sunday in September.

a zinnia jungle

The backyard turned into a zinnia-jungle during our summer vacation.

self-sown

The first Zinnia bouquet from the small 'flower field' in our garden.
There's nothing like flowers from your own garden...