What should I use for a summer floral arrangement?

When asked about summer flower arrangements, Nancy Wharton, who has been in business for twenty-six years and is the founder and owner of Casa Verde Florist in Austin, Texas, suggests, "For summer, sunflowers are very inviting. They make beautiful arrangements. You still have a little bit of the spring flowers that are great to throw into arrangements. There are irises and various lilies. You can use those in a sunflower arrangement. We use a lot of sunflower miniatures. Orchids are also coming on real nicely in the summer."

"Better Homes & Gardens Flower Arranging", published in 1957 by Meredith Publishing Company, suggests, "Capture the heady perfume of summer in a bouquet of roses...They're America's favorite flower, and you can have them - from your florist as well as from your summer garden." The book goes on to say, "Just because the desire to smell a rose is universal and irresistible, try to place the bouquet where all can indulge and so reward the sense of smell as well as the eye. Roses are resplendent in line arrangements with nothing more then their own foliage. And they're also magnificent when massed and combined with spiky or feathery stalks of such plants as delphinium, snapdragons, larkspur, buddleia... or the rosy loosestrife."

Two other ideas for summer dining centerpieces, comes from "Marjorie Reed's Party Book: Entertaining with More Style Then Money": "For a real summer look, use flats of grass as centerpieces. Stud them with short blooms of inexpensive flowers such as daisies. Create height by using two or three tall, firm stalked blooms, like tulips. Put stems in individual glass vials and plant in the soil...An easy, surprising arrangement can be made by studding a watermelon with a few blooming branches of hydrangea or forsythia. The juice of the melon keeps the flowers fresh."

If you do not know what certain flowers or plants look like, ask your local florist to show you. There are many books devoted to the art of flower arranging and magazines are also filled with advice on decorating for summer parties and celebrations, including the creation and use of floral arrangements. One important tip, Nancy claims, is to "use lots of color in the summer".

Summer invokes images of "fun in the sun", so incorporate whatever reflects that to you in your arrangements and others will see it too. As "Better Homes & Gardens Flower Arranging", so eloquently reads: "Summer's free and easy mood, her fullness, color and generally extravagant ways ought to inspire us when we design bouquets appropriate to this luxuriant season."

For Fourth of July celebrations you can even add little flags in between the flowers or small drink umbrellas for everyday parties. Vases can be draped with shiny "Mardi Gras" beads or miniature grass squirts for outdoor festivals. The possibilities are endless. Nancy sums it up best, "Your imagination is the only thing that limits you."