Hot Summer Colors for Brunch

Summer is in full swing and it's HOT outside — and probably will be getting hotter right through August! In the garden, flowers are blooming in deep, vivid colors, the ones we would call hot. Reds, oranges, purples, fuchsias and bright gold/yellows. Green leaves have deepened, saturated with color.

I had picked up several seed packets of summer blooming annuals, all with hot colors, but hadn't planted them yet. Where did the time go? 

Their colors were similar to those on the vintage plates we had found clearing out my mother-in-law's house.  Greg doesn't remember his mother using them so they may have belonged to his grandmother. There were just eight plates, what I would call luncheon plates now, but which were probably dinner plates when they were first purchased.

Together they became the basis of a summer table for brunch! Underneath the flower plates I placed our everyday dinner plates to provide a geometric counterpoint, and below that hemstitch place mats with matching napkins.

And in the center I placed fresh flowers in glorious hot colors, purchased at the Fresh Market.

There's a little bit of everything, augmented by white daisies and calla lily leaves from my garden.

The napkins are held by the watering can rings that I used in A Garden Table. I added plastic plant markers to serve as place cards, which can be written on then later re-used.

The table is simply arranged, with the flowers as the focal point. I cut about six inches off the stems, so that they wouldn't impede conversation across the table. 

I placed the flowers inside a ceramic cachepot that I found last summer in an antique mall. The trellis design repeats the pattern on my everyday dinner plates. I like the topiaries on each side and the bees circling the top. Fun details like these are what attracts me to vintage pieces!

On one side of the flowers is a small silver-plated covered pitcher for serving syrup or berry sauces.

On the opposite side is the cutest set of salt and pepper shakers I've seen with a gardening theme. I stumbled across them on eBay last week, just in time for this week's table! Each of the four sides is different.

I love the elegant shape of the pitcher and the design work on the handle, the lid and around the top and bottom.

I've included lots of photos to show the variety of flowers that were very reasonably priced for a single bouquet.

The opening of the cache pot is about eight inches, too large for the number of flowers I had. I used a round plastic container inside of it to bundle the flowers. 

I selected glassware with etched (the clear goblets) and pressed (vintage amber tumblers) organic designs. The goblets are our everyday pattern; the tumblers were found at the annual glass show I described in several posts, including Glassware Everywhere. 

I think the white Shasta daisies (Leucanthemum x superbum 'Becky') from my garden cool the centerpiece a bit as well as helping fill in the cache pot. 

All set for brunch!

Table resources
Dinner plates | Villeroy & Boch 'French Garden'
Luncheon plates | Homer Laughlin, pattern unknown
Iced tea goblets | Godinger 'Palm'
Tumblers | Jeannette Floragold 'Louisa'
Salt and pepper shakers | Fitz and Floyd