Late Summer Blooms from the Garden- Gomphrena

September is the beginning of the glory season for these cheerful little blooms. This flower is called gomphrena and it blooms from late June through mid November. But late summer and fall is when it really starts to take off. The picture above is a gathering of purple gomphrena. These were picked for Mikki and Hector's wedding last week.
This is the pink version. Both the purple and the pink are a new variety in my garden called "Audray", and so far they have been performing very well.
Here's my youngest daughter, Judy, who agreed to hold a bunch so that you could get an idea of the bloom's actual size. They are definitely petite and are what I call part of the support cast in my floral designs.
Still they are some of my favorite flowers. Gomphrena dries very well, and is great for winter and Christmas designs. The picture above shows clusters of gomphrena nestled in this pink and red Christmas bouquet.
And I am planning on adding a few the fresh purple blooms to a "Toss Bouquet" for my bride, Rachel, this weekend!