Bloom's Day

I'm taking a break from cutting stencils to concentrate on my son's bar mitzvah. Perhaps my natural sense of "I can figure out how to make this work" has gotten the better of me, since I'm doing it myself (cooking, decorating, flower arranging) with just a couple of helpers.

We've hung the decorations (round paper lanterns in aqua and grass green with orange and silver stars) and the paper goods have been delivered (deep blue, orange and lime green.) So now I'm working on the flowers. Is there such thing as "masculine" enough flowers for a 13-year-old boy? Sigh. I guess not. So I'm doing orange and blue (hooray for pansies!) because someone is a huge Mets fan. There are also African daisies called osteospurmum and ranunculus. The sculptural foliage of perennials (foxglove, salvia, hosta) will be featured in the bimah (altar) pieces. 

So here are the flowers about to be reconfigured for centerpieces and altar pieces. Afterward, they'll grace the bar mitzvah of a friend's son, then be planted in front of the synagogue. No cut blooms to go in the trash! 

While these flowers will dress up the bar mitzvah, I'd also like to dedicate them to our friend Michelle Ward's sister, Shannon, who is putting up with hospital food and working on healing. Shannon, these blooms are for you, too. I hope you don't mind virtual flowers.

If you'd like to learn a little bit more about Shannon and add your good wishes, go to Michelle's blog here. 

Now, back to planting. Knee pads, anyone?