Fall flowers

This past weekend I hosted a small party of my garden club friends at my house for an afternoon tea. I had a wonderful time and I enjoyed coming up with ideas to decorate for my gardening friends. I decided to go "semi-organic." I picked flowers from my sister's mop-head hydrangeas. Some were turning a bit brown and they were drying but since they had turned from white to a beautiful color of pink and green, I thought they would be perfect for a fall get-together.

I just quickly put them into my vase and then I chose one of my favorites,

cuttings from a magnolia tree. I have always loved to decorate with magnolia leaves. I also love the fuzzy seed heads. My mother used to surround punch bowls and decorate mantles and just about everything with magnolia leaves and flowers. They give a very nice, warm southern welcome.

I bought the yellow sunflowers at Kroger. One pack of eight flowers for less than a dollar each. I believe I paid $6.99. They make beautiful accent flowers. If we still had them in our garden I would have picked them rather than buying them but they did make a lovely fall arrangement.

To finish, I added some yellow wildflowers, maybe they were a type of black-eyed Susans or Rudbeckia but I do know they were little wild flowers and then some ivy from my yard.

I had two arrangements, one in my foyer and one in my living room and I only paid $6.99. I could have done a better job arranging but I think the price was perfect for a beautiful September afternoon.