A Vase Full of Summer Beauty

The white butterfly bush in front of my house is in full bloom this week. I've been sitting on the front porch glider in the mornings, watching butterflies and sipping coffee. Butterflies, moths, and humming birds hover over the horn shaped bloom clusters all day.

Purple and white wildflowers (blooming weeds) and white butterfly bush

Today, I decided to gather blooms from the butterfly bush, purple wildflowers, and white wildflowers. The wildflowers could be called weeds, but I prefer to think of the tall, woody stemmed plants as flowers. Scissors in hand, I strolled out to the field and cut about half a dozen blooms from each type of weedy plant. The summer heat was oppressive as I returned to the front porch with my floral bounty. The lower limbs of the butterfly bush quickly yielded eight large bloom clusters. Sitting on the glider, my next step was to relieve each stem of excess leaves before placing the stemmed flowers in my favorite pressed glass vase. The vase of summer beauties was so pretty that I had to share two pictures with you.