Rhapsody in Orange

Two weeks ago I cut a bunch of flower heads from my Phantom hydrangea and wired them to an 18" wreath frame. Then I realized that I should have removed the leaves and dried the flowers before assembling the wreath. Crap. So, I did some research (Hello, Internet!) and decided to try quick-drying the whole wreath in a closet with DampRid hangers. Ta-daa! Success. Check this shit out.

Those ivory, green, pale pink and rusty orange colors are the original summer colors of the flowers. They faded very little in the drying process. The leaves dried nicely, too. The rust color is from sunburn, but I like it. I think it works well against the terra cotta of the door. Meanwhile, the Phantom has flowered so prolifically that you wouldn't even know I'd removed some of the blooms.

In other news, the carving pumpkins are coloring up from yellow to orange and they have just begun to develop ribbing. They're not huge, but they are big enough to make into jack-o-lanterns. I'm so pleased that these two have made it this far. That's one for Flan and one for her man. We just love Halloween, and pumpkin carving is an important part of our traditional family festivities. Of course, if I don't get enough "meat" for baked goods out of the small sugar pumpkins, these two will end up being roasted and pureed instead! We can always buy pumpkins to carve, but homegrown pumpkins are so much better for eating than store-bought.

P.S. The powdery mildew was slowed to a crawl by my timely and thorough application of neem oil. I plan to administer a follow-up dose late this evening when there's no chance of leaf burn. Big thanks to the Green Light Company for this excellent product. None of my pumpkins were harmed. I'm gonna put that experience in the win column, especially since all the neighbors' pumpkin plants look worse off than mine. Sometimes it just feels good to see some evidence that your efforts are paying off.