Harvest – Late Summer Blooms

Late summer inspiration

Late summer is all about jewel coloured exotics, seed pods and grasses. Harvest time invokes thoughts of cereal crops such as wheat, oats and barley.

ENTER SHOP

Cereal crops and dried grasses

 

Wheat sheaves like this one add late summer charm on the cusp between summer and autumn.

Harvest festival has a great tradition in the UK and you don’t have to be religious to celebrate the turning of the seasons. Harvest is often an opportunity to share with others.

Wheat sheaves like the one in the pic are traditional, but it’s possible to make a sheaf or stook from many other stems or even a mixture. Lavender is an example, and if you’re lucky, sheaves can also be free-standing! It’s easy to make your own: take three or four bunches and tie tightly below the seed heads so that the stems flare out below.

Buy Wheat bunches for a DIY sheaf

 

More grasses to try:

• Oats
• Barley
• Natural brown Lagurus
• Phalaris
• Miscanthus
• Quaking grass
• Timothy

 

Deep shades of flowers

This dried Amaranth is a luxurious dark red. Other harvest hues include golds and sunshine yellows, deep pink, orange and warm brown.

More flowers to try:

• Lagurus grass dyed in deep shades such as orange or crimson.
• Golden rod stems – a late summer flower that dries well too.
• Natural sunshine yellow Achillea umbels.

Seed pod stems

Poppy seed heads are just one example of a large range of seed pods available at this time of year. Poppies often come in three broad sizes, the Poppy pods above are about as big as you can get, but at the other end of the scale, field poppy pods can be less than 1cm across.

Other seed pods might include:

• Lunaria for their silvery coins.
• Nigella orientalis unusual seed heads add shape and interest to an arrangement.
• Nigella pods natural – these round seed pods often have rich purple tones.

Late summer ideas for home decor

• See our Late Summer and Harvest inspiration catalogue page.
• Why not place a few stems of each of grasses, seed pods and dried flowers in jewel shades in a tall vase for an informal mixed arrangement.
• Or choose just a few stems (odd numbers work best) of a single type for a more architectural, minimalist look.
• Add warmth to your home before you even set foot in the door by making a wreath.

More seasonal ideas around the year

 

Harvest into Autumn

 

More inspiration

 

Earlier in the summer