06/29/2025
When planning the garden over the winter for the following season, I try to make sure I plan for all the things. Do I have enough focal flowers, will the colors be cohesive to make a variety of arrangements, what about greenery, do I have enough fillers….and the list just keeps going 😁. It is very easy to think about the bigger showy flowers (here is looking at you sunflowers). However, I feel like the fillers may be as important or maybe even a little more important. To me fillers are the things we don’t really notice or pay attention to at first, but if they aren’t there we immediately recognize something is missing. Something is not quite right. They provide a solid backdrop and foundation for the focal flowers to really shine against. As I have worked more and more in the garden, there are so many parallels to life and the teaching of the Bible. We are called to serve different roles and each one is so important. These roles are not always the same. Pictured here are celosias. These are great flowers to grow in Louisiana. They seem to laugh in the face of the heat. Depending on the variety you have so many styles, colors, sizes for different types of arranging to choose from. Like our roles in life, celosias can be used in so many “roles.” They are not only a great filler, but they are used for a line flower to provide structure to an arrangement. If you have a large grouping, they make a great focal. They dry beautifully. The variety of styles and colors are really mind boggling. In the grower’s or arranger’s hands, they are grown and used very intentionally to create something beautiful. Just as we are in our Father’s hands. Nothing God does is by happenstance. I pray this encourages you all to look for His hands in whatever role you are in this day and season in your life. Pictured is “Shimmer” and “sylphid” celosia. Johnny’s Seeds online is a great source to buy the seeds.