Falling for Fall… I do this Every Year!

There is no doubt – fall is my favorite season. As Editor at Large with Southern Living, I have the privilege of contributing fun stories and ideas to the magazine as a whole, but my fall stories seem to always make the newsstands! I’ve said it over and over and this mantra of mine is worth repeating: “Fall is a Southerner’s reward for surviving summer.” I’ve even seen this printed on a cocktail napkin – thanks y’all for the advertising!

So as y’all peruse the pages of the October Southern Living, I’d love to walk y’all through some of the fun from behind the scenes that didn’t make the cut – as if me and my uber stylish outfit weren’t cute enough for the pages of SL… ha! From the cracker-jack team of my BFF Jess “Frou Frou” Margeson, Stacey and Laura Lyn from JFI to the senior stylist Mrs. Buffy Hargett Miller herself to editor Jen Kopf and photographer extraordinaire Helen Norman (who has photographed A Time to Cook and Porch Living), we managed to somehow not only set, style and shoot and amazing venue, but have an absolute blast doing so! Time certainly flies when you’re having fun, and I’m here to tell y’all it was a blast from start to finish!

Jen Kopf, Helen Norman, yours truly, Buffy Hargett Miller

The setting was a dear, sweet friend’s home in Cashiers. I was at her house one lovely summer day for cocktails before sunset and jokingly said I wanted to transform her immaculate, stunning, antique-filled, absolutely gorgeous home into an autumnal oasis to celebrate the season… and pitch the idea to my editors at Southern Living. This, y’all is never an easy task to ask, but thankfully, my adorable friend (and her family) obliged. I cannot thank my precious friend enough!

With unparallel views of Whiteside Mountain just beyond the tree line, the crisp autumn air glowed with the hues only fall can afford to lend the sky. My friend, an antiques dealer out of Atlanta, has treasure troves of l’objets d’art from her forays through Parisian flea markets, Portobello Road in London and scouring the French and English countryside for just the right barley-twist candlesticks. If ever there was a “set” to photograph a celebration of the season, this home was it. From the mountainsides and gardens and farmers markets, I gleaned the season’s best. Tables were set, flowers were arranged and mantels bedecked with the flair of fall. Give me a pumpkin, some leaves and bittersweet, and I’ll give you a mantel!

Dried hydrangeas, rose hips, beauty berry, dahlias, Free Spirit roses, bittersweet, magnolia, cabbage, apples, pumpkins, oak leaves, acorns, pecans and plumes upon plumes of grasses were all woven together to create a tableau as rich as the season could present.  I could go on and on and on about this shoot. From the feel, the textures, the scents, the sights, the hues, tones, arrays and luscious combinations my favorite season gives us, I am rejuvenated and invigorated for this time of year.

I hope y’all are inspired to kick off the holiday season with a fanfare for fall. I know I am! Enjoy these behind the scenes pics and be sure to check out the October issue on newsstands now!

Jess and I have just as much fun taking selfies as we do making outrageous pumpkin arrangements. Her work is phenomenal! Like her hair, her pumpkin creations are a work of art!!

I love antique crocks and pottery. Here, these fantastic old jars with a deep tobacco glaze. These jars are filled to the brim with nandina berries, sweet gum, dried hydrangea, celosia and viburnum for some fall fabulousness. 

A garland of oak leaves, maple leaves, magnolia and dried hydrangea cloaks one side of the massive stone mantel. I love symmetry but I love balance more. Though this mantel scene is not symmetrical per se, it is balanced. Of course I had to throw some pumpkins and ornamental cabbage for good measure. 

Give Ol' Jimmy a jug of sweet tea and I can decorate for hours. You can take the boy out of Perry, but... y'all know how it goes!

 I love to use dough bowls as centerpieces. They are long and set a table oh so well. Here, I mounded bunches of dried hydrangea, fall foliage, artichokes and even a few turtle shells for texture. The nandina berries just pop against the autumnal palette. I love too how this is so fall but not filled with orange pumpkins. The green 'Cinderella' ones make for a stylish departure for this set up. Plus, this arrangement will last all through the fall with the hydrangeas and leaves and berries drying and the pumpkins lasting for months if they're not carved. 

Don't forget your windowboxes! As for a fall display, I kept the ivy that was spilling out but planted ornamental cabbages that will last all through the winter in the the Deep South. Magnolia, a few pumpkins nestled in here and there, bittersweet winding its way throughout the scene and even an artichoke or two can be found alongside the cabbage. I added a few stems of millet for texture too - because it is fall and I can!

Is there anything better than working with a hydrangea as big as your head? As big as Jess' hair even? No. the answer is "no." Nothing better y'all! Ha!

As wonderful and fabulous as all this created fun is, nothing beats The Almighty's handiwork on an autumn day in Cashiers!

Happy fall, y’all!

Magnolias from My Neck of the Woods to Yours

As a young child growing up on a farm in Hawkinsville, the native flora that surrounded me instilled this Farmer with a love for the indigenous plants that I still treasure today. One native plant family I have always admired is the magnolia clan, with the Southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) and its cousins, the big leaf magnolia (Magnolia macrophylla) and the sweet bay magnolia (Magnolia virginiana), growing wild along our creek, down towards the Ocmulgee River, and in the woods in between.

Evergreen, long lasting in arrangements and native across wide portions of the country, the magnolia has become a quintessential specimen in the Southern landscape. From holiday bouquets to garden backdrops, I have come to rely on a variety of magnolia species and cultivars not only as constants in nature’s tableau, but as mainstays for decorating and bringing the garden indoors.

I will arrange their velvety brown backs for contrast in compositions, float single blossoms in a pretty bowl, or arrange branches laden with buds to herald the coming spring– whatever the use, I have a magnolia in mind.

Here are a few magnolias no garden or landscape should be without for year round interest and seasonal splendor:

• Magnolia grandiflora ‘Alta’-This fastigiate or columnar growing species is ideal for screening and high hedges and wonderful architectural accent to the landscape.
• Magnolia grandiflora ‘Little Gem’-Smaller leaves and flowers than other magnolias; this showstopper boasts lustrous green leaves with cinnamon brown backing and blooms profusely throughout the warm months. ‘Little Gem’ is one of my favorite magnolias to use in decorating the house any time of year.
• Magnolia grandiflora ‘Bracken’s Brown Beauty’- “BBB” for short, this is a typical magnolia in my mind’s eye. Large green leaves, velvet-like brown backs on the leaves, and large, alabaster colored flowers that scent any garden or room with a single bloom.
• Magnolia grandiflora ‘Claudia Wannamaker’- Claudia, as she is known in the landscape world, is a true success story, for this pyramidal growing specimen blooms from an early age, boasts gorgeous foliage, and is more tolerable of northern exposures.
• Magnolia grandiflora ‘Teddy Bear’ – Appropriately named for the dense indumentum or fuzz on the back of the leaves. Very compact, this slower growing magnolia will surely be a fun addition to the garden or décor.
• Magnolia soulangiana or Japanese magnolia-one of the first signs of spring, this “tulip tree” bursts forth in the early vernal season with a show of magenta, fuchsia, lavender, pink and white blossoms paired against elegant gray bark. The velvet covered buds make for striking winter displays as well.

• Magnolia stellata- The star magnolia is a small tree to larger shrub with white or pink flowers in late winter or early spring. This striking specimen is sure to be a star in your garden.