HYDRANGEAS IN THANKSGIVING ARRANGEMENTS -- Naturally dried for unique color

This cornucopia container holds some naturally dried hydrangeas.  When left to naturally dry, either on the plant, or dried right in the vase where you've had a cut flower bouquet, they dry in gorgeous, muted colors. Each year they are a little different, depending on when cut, when cold weather arrives, or how long they've dried.

Here are some examples of the different colors this year's flowers. Some years they are much more blue and purple. This year we had warmer temperatures through fall, and maybe that's why their coloring is a bit different.

No special care is needed.  The arrangements can be kept indoors and will last for many years. They might seem fragile, but they are actually quite durable.  These particular blooms were left on the plant and harvested the first of November. Other years I have used the white, blue and pink live hydrangea blooms in an arrangement, dried them in the vase, and used them in the fall as a dried flower arrangement. 

FLORIST CHRYSANTHEMUMS -- LATE BLOOMERS ADD BEAUTY TO FALL GARDENS

These florist mums are an exceptional fall bloom. Flowering late in the year, from the end of October and all of November, makes them a much-needed color in the late fall garden. The only down part is that if we get an early killing frost, they don't have to bloom.  This hasn't happened to me yet, and I've grown these beautiful blooms for 7 or 8 years now. 

This arrangement was made November 13. However, I had harvested them two weeks earlier. I have two boxes in a community garden, and they required us to clean up our boxes October 30, so I cut off all the stems, most in bud stage, and kept them in a large bucket on my back porch. I made the arrangement two weeks later. The arrangement lasted well over two weeks. The mums have the very longest vase life of any flower I grow.

The two varieties here are florist mums light lavender/white decorative variety "Resomee" and a beautiful reflex variety, rosy lavender, "Bill Holden" 

These medium-sized plants were still 5 feet tall, and they really needed to be staked at that height.  I am going to pinch them off next year even shorter than I did this year to keep them more manageable.  They can be pinched back to as late as July 4 here in zone 6.  Next season I will cut them down to 6" at that time.

No garden should be without some mums for the fall. Their color, hardiness and longevity is unmatched for blooms at that time of year.