Is there anything more delightful or as welcoming than a table in full bloom … a table inviting us to simply sit alongside it, to stop and smell the fragrant beauty nature has grown into. The peonies bursting with their sweet scent and delicate petals that wilt as if aging paper, and here merely for a brief moment in time. The season’s sweetest stone fruits and berries glistening in golden sunset rays, the brisk wind that calls one to be lightly wrapped. The vintage colored glasses waiting to be filled with the refreshing flavors and notes of the season, and cheered with laughter and love…
… those are June’s sweetest glimmers …
The peony has become quite a popular flower, in weddings with brides and events, as well as in our beloved home gardens. The longer they are tended to and allowed to grow, the more peonies will bloom each year. And when Peony season is here in all its brief glory, it’s certainly here to make a statement from the boldly vibrant magentas that bloom in an instant, to the ruffly oh so romantic white and blush pink dreams. One of Mother Nature’s many gifts. And these floral beauties with such short lifespans, especially if warmer than norm, should be celebrated and cherished for however long they’re here blooming!
As any fellow peony grower, and of most garden flowers, know that more often flowers cut from our gardens end up cut on the shorter side. Because most garden flowers, from roses to peonies, often bloom in small clusters per stem, one bloom may be ready to cut while its companion blooms aren’t quite ready for snipping. If cut too soon, most flower buds won’t end up blooming, but you also want to make sure you’re allowing your flower bush to develop well, which means pruning but also allowing flowers to mature as should — or else you may stunt the growth or number of blooms for the following year.
My tip, and something I’ve done for as long as I have had a garden and been arranging flowers; is to keep small vases, sometimes known as bud vases or even small glass bottles and jars, in order to place all the small garden clippings, from flowers to herbs. And that is all you need to effortlessly create a floral runner table centerpiece as beautiful as any designer creation!
When several floral bud vases are organically grouped together down a long table, it creates the illusion of a trailing floral runner … as if perfectly designed, hand draped and sewn together by an expert florist.
Take a walk around your home, grab bud vases but also let your creativity blossom … perhaps use a vintage tea cups, espresso cups, whiskey or shot glasses work great, unstemmed wine glasses and those essential oil jars (ONLY if throughly cleaned of oil} are absolutely the perfect vessels for all your floral clippings. And will certainly help you create this uniquely beautiful tablescape!
I hope you trust when I say this floral inspiration is truly effortless. For me, it’s the perfect lovely way to design a tablescape for whatever your entertaining needs, and especially for our beloved al fresco season — a small dinner party or drinks with the ladies nestled within a shady corner of the garden, or a larger more formal affair like an intimate wedding, shower or birthday celebration — a floral table runner is something special anyone, yes even you, can create!
Gather all your small vases and vessels, the ones waiting to be filled with water and turned into tiny floral dreams; those darling little things you’re never quite sure what to do with it because a mere bloom or two can fit. As you’re grouping your flowers together and arranging your vases along the center of the table, remember to experiment with height and depth.
Since home garden blooms will most likely already be short, leave them as is. But incorporate a few stems that are slightly taller yet small enough to hit the bottom of a guest’s face sitting at the table. It’s important to keep guests’ eyesight clear when creating any tablescape, especially one with an intimate design such as this one.
Use medium sized vases or even better, ones that taper at their opening to help anchor top heavy blooms with thin stems, like fully opened peony.
Texture and Color is not one to fall behind when it comes to the details … add in snippets of greens and foliage, herbs or dried grasses, and of course any tiny bloom flower! I loved incorporating a few of the season’s last clematis draping a delicately near each place setting to evoke an even more romantic setting.
What you’ll need to create a 4ft floral table {runner} centerpiece ::
- Small bud vases, tiny bottles and jars, candleholders or any tiny vessel that can hold 1 or 2 flowers
- About 2 dozen flowers, plus several stems of slower blooms and/or greens {Number of flowers needed, dependent on size and width of flowers you select}
- Flower Cutters
**Adjust according to your table size and quantity needs**
Peonies are considered large bloom flowers, like garden roses and flowers such as hydrangeas and another spring favorite, lilacs. These types of flowers naturally take up more space on a table, thus require less blooms to create a statement — so keep this in mind when selecting the blooms for your floral table design, making sure you have enough to create visual dimension, but also for your styling needs.
It may be daunting to see a flower table completely covered in flowers and think it can be as simple as that to create, trust it is one of the simplest ways you too can design a dramatic spring/summer floral table! No complicated mechanics and wiring, no blocks of unsustainable oasis or other materials too fussy for you to want to take on, nor should one have to when wanting to create and arrange with flowers.
Add in candlelight, set the table with mismatched pieces, yes use the nice stuff it’s the most intentional nod one can do when entertaining and setting a table. And settle into this lovely moment … whichever flowers, foliage, colors, shapes, sizes you choose — create a rainbow or lush clouds of your favorite color —
a floral table runner using bud vases, is one of the best entertaining design tricks I lovingly share to you!
A lush ode to nature, one perfect for celebrating the season outdoors and all of life’s,
and summer’s, cherished glimmers …
See other monthly floral stylings here …
April I + April II
March
February
January
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