My Very First Garden Bouquet

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This post is sponsored by WD-40® Company and its new Multi-Use Product 2.75 oz.oz. can.

This last two weeks marked a new first for the UDH: my very first bouquet of flowers that were created entirely from my own gardens and shrubs!

Granted, the bouquet was small: just one (yes, that’s just one!) bloom from my hydrangeas in the back yard, one flower and stem from my gardenia beds, and one small bloom of purple phlox from by the front door (remember all of those random plants I got on clearance a couple years ago?).

The weirdest part of all of it? Finding the guts to actually cut them off of my plants in the first place. After spending years struggling to get my gardens in shape, I’ve got a mix of new plants and ones that have been growing for a few years. So, I’m pretty used to having plants in the yard that are just starting to grow and not wanting to disturb them until they are better established. Apparently, my gardening/floral confidence is nowhere near my lets-hammer-a-hole-into-that-wall confidence.

But, when I saw how big and full one of my hydrangea plants was growing, I patiently waited for it to bloom. Both it and the gardenia shrubs bloom and re-bloom all summer, but the gardenias were sort of *off* on their timing since I replanted a few of them at the beginning of spring. I managed to get at least one stem that hadn’t yet wilted and popped it next to the hydrangea. I hope that next year, I’ll have them all better established so that the blooms happen more in sync with each other, and I can get a good variety to put on display in the house at the peak of the flowering season.

As for the phlox, it is growing in beautifully, but it really should be something I’m growing on the side of the house rather than in front (it’s been such a butterfly-and-bee-friendly plant that I didn’t want to snip off any of the larger buds, but I can’t say I’m a fan of the number of insects loitering around my front door). Still, the lilac + white + pinky-purple all looked really sweet together, so I hope I can create bigger versions of it in the future.

As you can see from the photos above, I first tried out my bouquet near the new primary bathroom shower. It’s been getting some great light in the evenings and I wanted to simply take it in there just to have some fun with my camera. But eventually, the bouquet found a new home on the living room coffee table (another DIY project here).

Oh, and small tip: I realized I wasn’t super prepared for making bouquets at all. I’ve been trying to reorganize my garage in preparation for the big shed project I’m working on (more on that later of course), but I somehow seemed to have lost my favorite (read: really good quality) pair of gardening shears in my attempt to get everything better organized. Story of my life — as soon as I actually tidy up, that’s when I lose things!

I managed to find a cheap pair of dollar store shears in a miscellaneous drawer, but they aren’t exactly comparable to my “good” ones and kept sticking (I suspect they could already be rusting). The solution: a cute little 2.75-oz can of WD-40® Multi-Use Product.

WD-40® Company had sent me these “handy cans” as part of a sponsorship/giveaway they’re running with me (the giveaway is posting tomorrow first thing!), and they came in… er… handy (bah-dum-tss) before I’d even realized it.

I never even knew the product came in small versions like this, but I learned from my dad that it’s always a good idea to keep a can or two around. So far this year, I’ve used WD-40 Brand products to fix issues with my A/C unit (the fan blades get stuck and it’s the quickest/easiest solution to save on handyman repairs), a rusting issue with my primary bathroom tub, the front door’s deadbolt, and more. Still, I think the thing I forget to use it on most are the little household items since I constantly think of it as a tool in my DIY arsenal. And since it’s bio-degradable, it posed no threat to prematurely wilting my new bouquet (I checked). *Note to self, this is probably a good time to also go into my gardening supplies and treat those blades, too (I have a bad habit of leaving things out to rust).*

So, there you have it… another first for me and this wacky little house (update: I posted bouquet #2 on IG as well!). What do you think of my little bouquet (how amazing is it that it blooms SO BIG???)? And have you used WD-40®’s Multi-Use Product to fix anything unusual? Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for the giveaway… it will be a bundle of products, so you’re sure to find something in it you’ll want to win!