Sending Grandma to the Garden in the Sky

My paternal grandmother passed away recently and her funeral was today. She was my last grandparent and the last of my father's side (he preceded her in death earlier this year) so it was extra sad. She would have been 91 on her birthday and was becoming more and more frail. It was her time so in many ways I was relieved to see her go. The picture below is of her at 18 and it's always been one of my favorites.

Grandma was a master gardener and she helped my dad in his flower shop back in the 70's so she was no stranger to flower arrangements herself. My mother and I wanted to do the flowers ourselves for her funeral. As usual we went to The Fresh Market, they have such a beautiful selection. Purple was grandma's favorite color. She had auburn hair and she liked the combination. I knew we had to do a combination of purple, green, and white. I also wanted to use roses because she grew beautiful roses. Some of which were grown from cuttings she "borrowed" from the Elizabethan Gardens. We used magenta gladiolus, purple and white limonium, white roses, baker fern, and acuba. We made two altar arrangements and one for the parish hall buffet table.

The church has a beautiful hand carved chancel surround from the 1800's. I love the painted heavens. That was done just a few years ago. 

I forgot to take a picture of the table, but here is the arrangement outside before I took it in to the parish hall. I used both the purple and the white limonium in this arrangement having only used the white in the church arrangements.

We left the altar arrangements for Sunday, but did bring home the parish hall arrangement. The building must have been quite warm last night because the roses were opened a little more than I would have liked. It took the arrangement apart for my house and put the flowers minus the greenery in a simple vase on my dining room table. Grandma grew up in the depression and in the Appalachians so she didn't waste anything. I think she would have approved of this repurposing. 

Recycled Flowers

Both the Palm Sunday and Easter flower arrangements were only used one day, but the flowers lasted much longer. I recycled the flowers into 5 new arrangements. First the Palm Sunday recycled arrangements...

 I placed the alstromeria, gypsophila and palm in a milk glass epergne that was my mother's mother's. The epergne made the flowers appear rounded without having to use oasis.

 I simply placed the pussy willows in a tall slim vase with clear gems in the base. Hopefully the branches will root so that we can plan them in the yard.

 Now for the Easter recycling...I placed the roses in a red vase with some eucalyptus and baker fern. The flash obscures the vase a bit, but the color combination is lovely.

 To recycle the tulips, I lined a square vase with tulip leaves and placed a small brick of oasis in the center. This held the tulips better than simply letting them droop on their own. The leaves hid the oasis floral foam.

 I had two tulips left, so I placed them in a hobnail milk glass vase that is one of my mother's favorites. I added some baker fern, eucalyptus, and a sprig of pink-tipped dogwood from the yard. The top two I will take to work, but mummykins gets the hobnail vase arrangement.

Holy Week Flowers

We use artificial flowers at our church normally, but I like to use live when I can on the "high holy days". For the two Sundays in Holy Week I made the following arrangements.

For Palm Sunday I used two new bell bottomed vases that I found on sale at Target. (I actually bought all 3 off the shelf.) I used pink and candy cane alstroemeria, baby's breath (gypsophila), pussy willow, and palm branches. The children sang an offertory song waving palm branches, I was able to incorporate some of the extra in the arrangement.

For Easter Sunday I used cream roses with pink tinged edges, yellow tulips, purple iris, eucalyptus, and baker fern in two large urns. My sweet mother helped me with the arrangements. The idea was to look like spring bursting forth.

I also placed several lilies in pots on the stage and in the foyer. It isn't Easter without lilies!