A Mountain Party

August and September used to be my least two favorite months. I hated to be hard on them but they were hard on me. 

I love summer and the produce but this Farmer has about all he can handle of this Georgia heat by the end of July. After that month, Dixie lets loose what we only thought was heat and the August sun beats down on us only followed by September – not that September is hotter, but it is still hot. Still hot when I’m thinking towards pumpkins, falling leaves and cooler days – not another month of heat.

Well, Cashiers, North Carolina, has given me a new outlook on August and September. Getting to spend good portions of said months in said town is just a dream. The Cashiers Designer Show House has for the last three years beckoned and called me to be a part and I have gladly obliged!

I’m like Brer Rabbit and the Briar Patch – please don’t throw me in that briar patch! Please don’t make me go work (not really work when I’m having fun), write, eat and play in a gorgeous mountain setting with clients and friends alike all escaping the summer sun. Brer Rabbit was facetious about that briar patch as I am about throwing me into Cashiers – like Brer, I’m all in and ready to go!

For some friends throwing a party in Cashiers towards the end of the summer, I did some flowers echoing the season in an all green and white color scheme. 

Pee Gee, Limelight and Annabelle hydrangeas in their varying shades of white, cream and chartreuse are still holding great color in the mountains and the hosta blossoms, Joe Pye Weed and grasses are going strong. 

Yet, one of my absolute favorite things about August and September in the mountains is this – you literally get the best tastes of summer and fall with peaches and apples overlapping one another. For this party, green Granny Smiths punctuated the hydrangeas and grass plumes for an accent and pop of one of the best greens nature provides.

 

Using my friends collection of wonderful faux bois planters for containers, a tulipiere and other gorgeous forms for floral bases, I had a wealth of choices to arrange the flowers. Hosta leaves in varying shades of green formed skirted bases and added grace to the bouquets. One of my favorite indigenous plants, Euporium spp. or Joe Pye Weed added a soft, lavender blue to the scheme which fit right in with the blue and white color scheme of the interiors.

To me, pine boughs are not simply for the Holidays – I love using the aromatic greenery year round – especially in the mountains. You can take the boy out of the Georgia pine lands but you cannot take the pine lands out of this Georgia boy!

Even though summer is still in full swing up there, the fever of heat does break sooner than deep down in Dixie. Cooler nights and this cooling green and white color scheme make a marvelous combo. August and September, you two do a good thing together up there in the Appalachians. Keep it up! Middle Georgia will always be home to me, but Cashiers and the surrounding mountains is ever so tempting – especially to close out those formerly dreaded months!