Decorating with Flowers at Skylands

August 28, 2017

During my stay at Skylands, my home in Maine, beautiful flowers fill nearly every room.

I love decorating my homes with fresh, colorful blooms. In Maine, we grow all the flowers in a large cutting garden that's located in the same area as the vegetable garden. Kevin Sharkey oversees the delightful task of cutting and arranging the flowers for many of my entertaining events. He always does a magnificent job of bringing the outdoors inside and creating extraordinary floral displays that capture the attention of all who visit.

Enjoy these photos.

: I use a lot of flowers whenever I entertain at Skylands. Here are the beautiful creamy white hydrangeas grown in my large cutting garden.

: The hydrangea is among my favorite of flowering plants. It offers huge bouquets of clustered flowers from mophead to lacecap from summer through fall.

: The Living Hall at Skylands is always used during summer months. This grand faux-bois cement table, made by artist Carlos Cortes, is where I like to display large flower arrangements for my parties.

: Gorgeous arrangements don’t always have to be giant in size – this pair works perfectly on this table in my foyer. I grow many different kinds of lilies at Skylands and at my farm in Bedford. This year, the lilies have grown beautifully.

: These lilies were arranged with hay-scented ferns, Dennstaedtia punctilobula, a species of fern native to eastern North America. And, they do smell like hay when bruised.

: Here is the arrangement on the other end of the table – the fragrance is intoxicating.

: Here is a beautiful collection of yellow and orange snapdragons. Snapdragons are great for arrangements as they last quite a long time.

: A palette of pinks and oranges look very pretty against the earth tones in my dining room. These snapdragons are in a giant faux bois basket. See another photo of this arrangement on my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48.

: Don’t be afraid to experiment – some of the best blooms and foliage are right in your backyard. Kevin made this arrangement using cotinus, the smoke bush – like puffy clouds of “smoke”.

: Kevin calls the Skylands flower room his “favorite office”. Here is a pretty delphinium arrangement. See more of his photos on his Instagram page @seenbysharkey.

: At Skylands, the vegetable garden and the flower cutting garden are in the same location, all protected by this good, strong fence.

: Everything is very well maintained and weeded – it is so pleasant to cut from this garden. Kevin cut nearly all the flowers we used for our arrangements.

: All the plants and flowers on my large “cracked ice” terrace are thriving.

: Some lilies can be quite tall – some grow in height up to six-feet. I love this view of Seal Harbor through the trees.

: This peaceful sitting area on my terrace is located outside my dining room. It’s decorated with a faux bois bench and Gertrude Jekyll style pots. Gertrude was an influential British garden designer, horticulturist, artist and writer.

: Lilium is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs and all with large, prominent flowers. The flowers are often fragrant, and come in a wide range of colors.

: These lilies have opened so beautifully this year.

: Here are more of these lovely lily flowers. When arranging cut lilies, handle them with care – they can bruise easily.

: And, don’t forget, all lilies have heavily pollinated stamens, which stain, so as soon as the flower opens, it’s important to gently pull the anthers with a tissue, or pinch them off with your fingers.