The summer solstice is the longest day of the year and the true beginning of summer—it’s an embrace of the sun, its vibrancy and power. We welcome the poppies, coneflower, and yarrow blooms in all their glory, dotting backyards and gardens like flames. We see an abundance of grasses and seedheads after the late spring rains and the first stretch of warmer days.
Wild Summertime Vibes
This time of year, our arrangements have more wildflower vibes: unruly, wild, mismatched, with a much broader range of color and less dependency on roses or spring bulbs for bright tones. We get a lot more local stuff this time of year, and we find it has this non-standardized, extra je ne sais quoi that’s indescribable—more delicate, less uniform, always a lovely surprise.
We usually have to get double the amount of poppies, sometimes opening them by hand, because they may not open on their own. We play with feverfew, flowering herbs (like basil), Queen Anne’s lace, airy dara, torch lilies, and “dog eye” euphorbia. We see a lot of stonecrops and succulents, too. We love the local snapdragons we’re able to source this time of year.
Close to Home
Walk your neighborhood, and you’ll find amaranth, borage, delphinium, lisianthus, dahlias, aneones, scabiosa, safflower, eremurus, scotch broom, rabbit brush, yuccas, and bees crowding around the super-fragrant Russian sage. You know the plants that look like they’re blooming fireworks? Those are alliums—the flowers of onion, garlic, scallion, shallot, leek, and chive plants—and they’re popping up everywhere right now.
Wild + Free Floral Designs
With so many flowers and plants in peak season, we recommend letting our designers create a beautiful arrangement with the freshest blooms available through our Designer’s Choice option, available in a full range of sizes. The untamed, whimsical Wild + Free arrangement also takes advantage of where we are in the season to show-off of-the-moment blooms, grasses, and flowering plants. Each arrangement is a celebration of summer: the warm weather harvest, lavish color, and untamed beauty.
Happy solstice from us here at Beet and Yarrow!