Our house on tour

[iris lilies]

Our house is on our neighborhood’s house tour in a few weeks. This is a big deal for us because we’ve lived here 30 years and we’ve never had our house open although our garden has been on the garden tour many times.

We typically have 1000 people through these houses during the weekend of the house tour.


I’m glad they ask us to be on tour. I hadn’t really thought about it because I had always planned to be on a Christmas tour before we moved because I would like to decorate in one big blowout holiday event one time.

It is good timing because our first floor looks good – we redid our kitchen last year, DH completely painted and refurbished the front porch, so things look as good as they’re going to be. Tour guests are only coming through our first floor.

So, it occurred to me that yeah it’s not Christmas but I can still do a lot with florals, and I ran across this Pinterest image of a spring garden on a mantle. That is absolutely perfect for my living room theme which is green and pink, colors of a spring garden. So this fireplace floral design will be the focal point of our house, sample below.

2686

[Float On]

Fun IL. I think an explosion of spring florals throughout would be great! I just redid my porch decor for early spring...hope it doesn't blow away today in 50 mph winds!

[Teacher Terry]

That looks great!

[Tradd]

Love it!

[dmc]

Congratulations on the house tour. It’s been years, but there are some very nice homes in your neighborhood. We looked at a couple back in the mid 80’s, but ended up building in Lake St. Louis instead, due to having kids.

[catherine]

Wow! That's great! The mantel arrangement is beautiful.. what are the flowers? What kind of flowers would you use?

[iris lilies]

Wow! That's great! The mantel arrangement is beautiful.. what are the flowers? What kind of flowers would you use?
I want to use spikey ones like delphiniums and green Bells of Ireland for the upward motion.

Round pink ones will be lower, and will be whatever the florist has cheapest, likely ranunculus and whatever white things that are round and cheap. I do love blue hydrangea but they are so fickle in staying fresh. It is unlikely my own pink hydrangeas will be in bloom that early.

There may be just a touch of yellow. I will probably clip pink roses from community garden rose bushes as well,and will use some trailing ivy and hosta leaves from my yard.

That gorgeous airy Sprengeri aspersgus fern (not really a fern!) has to be purchased from the florist. I buy in bulk at wholesale prices for a big job like this. I live less than a mile from the florist wholesale district.

I have already warned DH that we are going to have a giant floral bill in May with cut flowers and bedding plants. I wouldn’t be surprised if we spend $1500+ on this shebang.

[catherine]

I want to use spikey ones like delphiniums and green Bells of Ireland for the upward motion.

Round pink ones will be lower, and will be whatever the florist has cheapest, likely ranunculus and whatever white things that are round and cheap. I do love blue hydrangea but they are so fickle in staying fresh. It is unlikely my own pink hydrangeas will be in bloom that early.

There may be just a touch of yellow. I will probably clip pink roses from community garden rose bushes as well,and will use some trailing ivy and hosta leaves from my yard.

That gorgeous airy Sprengeri aspersgus fern (not really a fern!) has to be purchased from the florist. I buy in bulk at wholesale prices for a big job like this. I live less than a mile from the florist wholesale district.

I have already warned DH that we are going to have a giant floral bill in May with cut flowers and bedding plants. I wouldn’t be surprised if we spend $1500+ on this shebang.

It will be gorgeous. My annual college mini-reunion is in Charleston, SC this year, and when this year's organizer suggested a few things, one of the popular choices among my friends was Mrs. Whaley's garden (http://www.mrswhaleysgarden.com) I bought her book to prep myself, and it's a delightful read. She's in a completely different hardiness zone, so many of the flowers wouldn't translate in VT, but she has some good ideas.

[Yppej]

Way to go out in style if you are tired of St Louis, or was it only the small houses there you were selling?

[iris lilies]

Way to go out in style if you are tired of St Louis, or was it only the small houses there you were selling?

we have a general plan to move to Jermann but that is years down the road.

[razz]

You will take pictures to share when you have the house all ready for the tour, won't you please? That is taking floral arranging to whole new level.