August
and September used to be my least two favorite months. I hated to be
hard on them but they were hard on me.
I love summer and the produce but
this Farmer has about all he can handle of this Georgia heat by the end
of July. After that month, Dixie lets loose what we only thought was
heat and the August sun beats down on us only followed by September –
not that September is hotter, but it is still hot. Still hot when I’m
thinking towards pumpkins, falling leaves and cooler days – not another
month of heat.
Well,
Cashiers, North Carolina, has given me a new outlook on August and
September. Getting to spend good portions of said months in said town is
just a dream. The Cashiers Designer Show House has for the last three
years beckoned and called me to be a part and I have gladly obliged!
I’m
like Brer Rabbit and the Briar Patch – please don’t throw me in that
briar patch! Please don’t make me go work (not really work when I’m
having fun), write, eat and play in a gorgeous mountain setting with
clients and friends alike all escaping the summer sun. Brer Rabbit was
facetious about that briar patch as I am about throwing me into Cashiers
– like Brer, I’m all in and ready to go!
For some
friends throwing a party in Cashiers towards the end of the summer, I
did some flowers echoing the season in an all green and white color
scheme.
Pee Gee, Limelight and Annabelle hydrangeas in their varying
shades of white, cream and chartreuse are still holding great color in
the mountains and the hosta blossoms, Joe Pye Weed and grasses are going
strong.
Yet, one of my absolute favorite things about August and
September in the mountains is this – you literally get the best tastes
of summer and fall with peaches and apples overlapping one another. For
this party, green Granny Smiths punctuated the hydrangeas and grass
plumes for an accent and pop of one of the best greens nature provides.
Using my
friends collection of wonderful faux bois planters for containers, a
tulipiere and other gorgeous forms for floral bases, I had a wealth of
choices to arrange the flowers. Hosta leaves in varying shades of green
formed skirted bases and added grace to the bouquets. One of my favorite
indigenous plants, Euporium spp. or Joe Pye Weed added a soft,
lavender blue to the scheme which fit right in with the blue and white
color scheme of the interiors.
To me, pine boughs are not simply for the
Holidays – I love using the aromatic greenery year round – especially in
the mountains. You can take the boy out of the Georgia pine lands but
you cannot take the pine lands out of this Georgia boy!
Even though
summer is still in full swing up there, the fever of heat does break
sooner than deep down in Dixie. Cooler nights and this cooling green and
white color scheme make a marvelous combo. August and September, you
two do a good thing together up there in the Appalachians. Keep it up!
Middle Georgia will always be home to me, but Cashiers and the
surrounding mountains is ever so tempting – especially to close out
those formerly dreaded months!
