Explore flowers and foliage right outside a backdoor (and make something beautiful too)!

A backyard can be a pretty magical place. Over the years, we’ve created little nooks to welcome birds and transformed the base of a large tree into a fairy garden. We’ve picnicked on red and white checkered blankets and even hitched a tent a time or two. You don’t really need to do much in a backyard to make it feel special. Some days, just stepping outside into a safe space and taking a deep breath (especially when flowers are blooming), noticing white clouds and watching the branches sway in a gentle breeze can be enough.

Today the sun is shining after several days of rain, so it’s a perfect (and much needed) day to check on some newly bloomed spring flowers in our backyard, and maybe even make a flower bouquet. It’s also a good day for company (social distanced company), so we are inviting you to step outside to join us and make a backyard flower bouquet with us too!

Step outside into our backyard, and explore some newly bloomed flowers with us! (Photo credit Arno Smit)

If you want, you can grab a pail or basket and some garden shears or scissors. A small human would be lovely too.

To make a backyard bouquet you will need a pail and some scissors. We like to have a spray bottle with a little vinegar mixed in water to lightly mist the cut stems. This will help remove any small bugs and larva.

Some backyards have more greenery than flowers, and an arrangement made using just leaves from trees and shrubs makes us feel happy too. But today, we do have flowers…pink flowers!

Hi pink flower. You’re so pretty. (Photo credit Nazym Jumadilova)

“Feels pink and soft.” (Photo credit Tim Cooper)

Gathering backyard flowers can be a wonderful sensory experience for children. Some flowers are very delicate, so it may be better for an adult to cut them. But be sure to select a few extra - just for observation. Picking flowers makes for exciting (and important) conversations too. You can ask your child if the flower is just starting to bud or if it’s in full bloom? How does it feel? Is it prickly or soft like a ruffle? Does it have a smell? Does the scent tickle your nose? Taking the time to really notice and pay close attention to the flowers, will make your bouquet extra beautiful, and it is also the Jewish value Shmiat HaOzen (attentiveness).

Fun things for children to do with backyard flowers: count the petals, mix some petals with water in a magic potion, string stems together in a crown, draw or paint a still life, take care of them in a glass with fresh cool water. (Photo credit Senj… — Fun things for children to do with backyard flowers: count the petals, mix some petals with water in a magic potion, string stems together in a crown, draw or paint a still life, take care of them in a glass with fresh cool water. (Photo credit Senjuti Kundu)

While you’re talking and exploring, fill up your pail with greenery and flowers.

When you feel like you have enough, separate the stems and lay them out on a flat surface (children are great at this). Today, we cut, viburnum, magnolia blooms with green and brown leaves, a flowering jasmine vine, dark green ligustrum leaves and pink bougainvillea.

Once everything is freshly cut and laid out, it’s time to make a backyard flower arrangement.

Backyard flower bouquet

Step 1: I like to begin the flower arrangement by holding the largest flower stem in my hand, then adding additional greenery to create a round shape. I started this bouquet with two magnolia stems. Magnolia leaves and blooms are on the larger side, and they became the focal point of our bouquet.

how to make a flower bouquet from flowers in your backyard — Magnolia stems

Step 2: Next we tucked viburnum stems at a slight angle, on the right and left side of the magnolia stems. These leaves are soft and floppy, and they helped give a round shape to our arrangement.

Magnolia stems in the middle with viburnum stems on the right and left side of the magnolia blooms.

Step 3: We added the some longer wispy jasmine vines on the right and left side of the bouquet.

Step 4: When the arrangement starts to look full and have a nice round shape, we trimmed the bottom stems to the same length and placed it in a small mason jar.

how to make a flower bouquet — Mason jars make everything look pretty.

Step 5: We added some additional fullness to the bouquet with the ligustrum leaves, and added more jasmine and viburnum leaves in areas on top that looked a little bare. Children can help with this too! Finally, we tucked in the bright pink bougainvillea, and gave the entire arrangement a spray of water mixed with a little vinegar to remove any small bugs and larva.

That’s it. We’re all done! It’s ready for a garden table or to bring a little bit of our backyard inside our home.

It’s one of our family traditions to have flowers on Shabbat, and as we get closer Shavuot next month, there is a beautiful custom to decorate our home with flowers and plants for this Jewish holiday. With flowers and leaves to bring inside right now, it’s nice to get a head start (and we think it’s pretty special that all this prettiness is right outside our back door).

We hope your backyard feels like a magical space for you. If you don’t have a backyard, then I hope you have a favorite neighborhood park. Let us know if you explore your backyard, and even make a flower arrangement. You can read more about spring and Shabbat activities, including a simple flower craft that’s great for little fingers, baking mini challah and welcoming the new week on a Saturday night with fragerant besamim (spices).

Be well, be safe and be happy. ♥