This week, I’ve combined yellow and orange with a touch of purple and white, using 
bi-colored hybrid daylilies (Hemerocallis x), white flowering tobacco (Nicotiana alata), yellow woodland sunflowers (Helianthus divaricatus), goldenrod (Solidago sp.) and purple hosta (Hosta x) for accent color. The greens are katsura (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) from a low-hanging branch that needed pruning and bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum).
The hand-crafted, blue-green, crackled-glass vase (one of my favorites), belonged to my mother, probably from the 1940s. A hand-crocheted, vintage antimacassar sits upon an orange towel matching the daylilies and a small white porcelain dove reminds us to keep peace in our hearts.
Around here, August is the month for goldenrod, the predominant plant in our fields and, if it had its way, my gardens, too. I used to resent it because it signaled the waning of summer and also for its invasive nature. For years after we let much of our lawn go to meadow, we attempted to eliminate it by pulling it out wherever we found it – talk about a Sisyphean task!
Eventually, I made peace with it. It is native and an excellent pollinator plant packed with energy just as these insects are stepping into high gear in preparation for the coming winter.
It makes a beautiful, long-lasting cut flower. The young leaves are edible, it can be made into a tea as a kidney stone tonic and the leaves and roots were chewed for relief from sore throats and toothaches by Native Americans.
It is a myth that it causes hay fever allergies; it is ragweed (Ambrosia sp. – they named it after the drink of Greek gods?) that blooms at the same time, causing the suffering of so many.
Daylilies opening at dawn
Thanks to Cathy at Rambling In the Garden, who hosts a weekly meme to showcase what is blooming in our gardens by creating arrangements to enjoy inside our homes. Wander over to see what gardeners all over the world are arranging this week. Feel free to join in, sharing your own weekly vase with a link to Cathy’s blog.
Eliza Waters 
Lovely!
Thank you, Cindy!
Beautiful!
Reblogged this on Travels with Mary and commented:
So beautiful!
Thanks so much for the compliment and reblog, Mary!
You are so welcome Eliza~ 🙂
Another gorgeous arrangement, Eliza. And I love how you teach us a little about the flowers/plants. 🙂 I can’t believe your goldenrod is blooming already. I will have to take a walk out to the meadows to see if ours is, too.
Thank you, Robin. A lot is still in bud, but the wave of yellow has started. I expect yours are a couple weeks in the future. I guess it’s downhill from here. 😉
I remember that vase! All kinds of beauty here….the arrangement, the photos & the reminder to “allow”…….
Thank you, my dear, that vase is one of my favorites from the ‘ol’ days’…glad you liked the post! 🙂
Your arrangements are so beautiful and so artful, and also quite different from your creation each previous week. Truly impressive. If they were offered at a florist shop in L.A., the price tag would be impressive also!
Thank you kindly, M! Good to know in case I find myself on the street! 😉
Beautiful flowers/arrangement.
Thank you very much, Gigi!
I love all the different flowers!
Thank you, Maria! 🙂 It is hard to limit myself to a few, right now there are many to choose from in the garden. How I love summer! 🙂
Oh, beautiful arrangement and thanks for the tutorial on goldenrod. I have always loved it, primarily for the color it brings to unexpected places.
Thank you kindly!
I’m always impressed by your arrangements each Monday, and love the bright, summery colours you have chosen here. The coordinating orange towel really brings out the orange of the lily. Another very beautiful arrangement. 🙂
Thank you very much, Joanne! 🙂
So absolutely beautiful. Love this post.
Thanks so much, Sylvia! 🙂
I love your arrangements Eliza! Your photos would be so beautiful in a weekly calendar 🙂
Aw, thanks so much, Val. What a wonderful compliment! ❤
Beautiful arrangement Eliza! I’m glad you made peace with goldenrod. I am always amazed at the amount of pollinators that one can find on a single plant of goldenrod!
Thanks, Kathy. Resistance is futile! 😉
Beautiful, as always – and I had no idea of those uses for goldenrod (including thinking about it as a cut flower).
Thanks, Sarah. Surrender is often for our own good! 😉
The balance of colours in this works really well, Eliza, with the greens and yellows supporting the brighter day lilies and with that splash of ‘blue’. Interesting to read about the solidago, especially as I don’t think it causes a problem in the UK. I love your Mum’s vase, by the way – lovely shape and colour.
Thank you, Cathy. There are many species of Solidago, so perhaps the introduced ones are better behaved. We have about 6 species here and the seeds are dispersed by the wind, so it goes everywhere in the fall. I read that parts of Europe are recognizing it as an invasive. ‘Rots of Ruck’ I say, the horse is out of the barn!
You sure have an “EYE” for putting a vase together….hmmm…sounding like a broken record me:-)
Thanks, Robbie, so sweet of you to say! ❤
+ an eye to put it together in a photo!
😉 thanks!
What a beautiful arrangement of flowers you made, Eliza, and how much thought and Love you put into it. I too have a few items that belonged to my Grandmother and to me they are beyond precious. I was just thinking (sadly) how I already feel and see signs of Autumn and to think of what is coming, I shake my head as I hear an inner wail. (smile) Your post reminded me that even though Summer is winding down already(!), that when we make Peace with reality, our inner warring stops. Just now my Roses have begun to form buds and are beginning to bloom. Some I’ve waited years to see. Patience and working with the forces of Nature instead of fighting them, have produced the award I have been waiting for.
Yes, all these thoughts came about from you post. I wish I could have a beautiful flower arrangement in my home, but some of my cats eat flowers, hence I avoid spilled water, broken vases and destroyed flowers. I enjoy my flowers in my garden at every opportunity I can get.
Have a wonderful day, my friend. Love, Amy ❤
Thank you, Amy. I’m glad you enjoyed the arrangement and post. You’re right about the ‘inner wail’ but it is best to accept and let go of resistance and the suffering it brings. Like the Serenity Prayer, we eventually gain the “wisdom to know the difference” between what we can control and that which we can’t. 🙂 Blessings!
I have that Serenity Prayer right on my kitchen wall so that I see it EVERY day. I plan on doing what I did last year … begin to embrace the winter season by photographing it. I am going to be doing that very thing even more this year. I am an outdoors person, Eliza, and to be cooped up is so difficult. Yet … between Yoga and walking and the gym, and photography I will make it through the cold, snow and ice. Thank goodness I am fortunate enough to have the outerwear to keep me warm!!!! I also make my own soap and body butters, so this winter I plan on stocking up on the soap (body butters have to be made to order) with the plan of word of mouth (I have begun) to sell what I make. My “speciality” is rose scented soap bars as well as a matching body butter. There is more to Life then just waiting through winters to get to Spring (my favorite season!). 🙂 Blessings to you too, my friend! ❤
Your body products sound like a great thing to do when you can’t be outside much. Will you sell through a site like Etsy? Just keep it fun, you don’t want more stress, right? ;-D I look forward to reading more about it on your posts.
Actually, Eliza, I was thinking of just selling locally here, starting out with my Yoga class. When or IF it gets to be stressful, I will put it aside. I Love creating, yet if the JOY is no longer there, I will not allow it to continue. I am not about to mail my products out. OH now that sounds like a headache. Nope, just locally. Or IF friends through WP are interested, I will make the exception. 🙂 I am not sure if I will write about it, Eliza. I really don’t want to be overwhelmed with oodles and oodles of orders coming in. YIVEH! I have enough in my Life now as it is. No, this is just a means to keep me occupied during the cold months of winter. 😉 ❤
I hear ya…you do have a LOT on your plate, to be sure! 😉
PS I have a story I think you will appreciate. I went to reorder Aloe butter at a site I have shopped at before. It’s been a while. I was shocked to see a $20 administration fee attached to my order because it was under $100. I called up to ask about this fee. I was told blah blah blah and in return, very nicely, without emotion, said, “I think I spend enough money now as it is. If you will not remove the $20 fee I will go elsewhere. Good bye.” And I hung up and went elsewhere. I saved $50 by doing so. Yeah, right like they are not making enough now as it is. Gimme a break!!!
Good for you, Amy. Vote with your feet! 😉
Oooh. Awe. I always love seeing your photos. SO beautiful.
Thanks so very much, Debra!