Bouquet of the Week: Picnic-Perfect Beach Flowers
As part of our recurring Bouquet of the Week series, Garden Collage continues to present a weekly inspirational bouquet that incorporates intriguing new elements into the traditional practice of floral design. This week, Garden Collage Editor-in-Chief Molly Beauchemin styles a “beach bouquet” in Maine– using exclusively local, purple flowers.
For as long as I can remember, my family has spent summers in southern Maine, on a gorgeous rugged beach nestled on a peninsula of old growth forest, away from the more touristy environs of Kennebunkport. GooseRocks Beach gets particularly beautiful light in the afternoon, and with it’s wide swathes of white sand and gorgeous, deep-blue waters, that makes it the perfect place for a summer picnic– one of life’s simple pleasures.
I decided to adorn the affair with some beautiful local flowers, so I incorporated ornamental flowering onion (Allium ‘Milennium’), Daddy Blue Portulaca (Portulaca oleracea), and ‘Essence Purple’ English lavender (lavandula angustifolia) from Snug Harbor Farm in Kennebunk– an amazing local nursery known all over the country for its impressive topiary collection, wild ponies and peacocks, succulent greenhouses, and its beautiful farm shop and floristry barn (where I once participated in a “flower forage“).
I then swung around the corner across Port Road to buy dark purple and light purple roses from Fleurant, which is right across from one of my family’s favorite restaurants, Pedro’s (which, weirdly, has one of the best vegetarian burritos I’ve ever had…in Maine or anywhere). Once arranged, I realized that the bouquet consisted of exclusively purple flowers that were all grown in Maine– a distinctly local bouquet. Then, eager to relax in the summer heat, I filled a water challis with cucumber from my mom’s garden, packed up a picnic basket, and headed down to the beach.
