Sweet Pea and Herbal Bouquet

mixed bouquet of sweet peas, fennel, old fashioned geranium leaves,lavender  and basil in vintage celery vase.

Sweet Peas

Love the shape of the blossoms and vines

French Lavender- smells so good.

rose scented old fashioned geraniums

lemon scented old fashioned geraniums

Fennel blossoms - smell like liquorice

Pot of basil grown from seeds-

Imagine the scents of lavender, rose, lemon, basil, and fennel all together in one spot- it is truly intoxicating.  Every year I try to find my beloved scented geranium plants  and it is  a very hard mission.  This year I was able to purchase them at Monches Farm, located north west of Milwaukee and I was so happy. I usually  mix them in rose bouquets to complement the scent of the  roses.  But today I have gathered an assortment of herbs  from our garden for our dinner table  and I love all the smells and different textures together.  An old celery vase ( the Victorians actually served celery in them ) is the perfect size vase for these delicate arrangements. 

Note: gardening lesson I learned this year- my basil was much hardier because I grew it from seed.  In previous years, I have  just purchased plants and put them in the ground hoping for enough hot weather to get them growing.  Usually they are very scraggly and I  just enough for flavoring dishes, but not enough to harvest for pesto.  So this year I over seeded a pot with basil seeds  ( learned the trick at Blackberry Farm in May)  and it has grown thick and sturdy- definitely will do this again next year and add a couple more for pesto.