My next three arrangements for June and part of July featured roses. I had not used roses before because they often lack scent and don't last long. However, I used fuchsia pink roses in my European era ‘Feathers’ arrangements and lucked out—the weather was perfect, they weren't fully bloomed, and they had that precious rose scent. The scent is often missing in modern roses, as horticulturists have traded fragrance for longevity. But these fuchsia pink roses survived for more than a week, and the rooms were filled with a divine rose scent that grew stronger each day.

When it was time to replace them, I chose orange roses with purple statice. Unfortunately, these roses were all beauty and no scent. I paired the fresh flowers with green dianthus and yellow solidago from previous arrangements. These arrangements were short-lived, largely meant to warmly greet friends who visited us after many years. Our friends gifted me a gift card, and I promptly used it to buy the floral supplies I badly needed.

By July, I was running out of ideas for creating novel arrangements in unique vases. I looked around and had a brilliant idea: I would use an ombre glass hexagonal tealight candle lantern, a gift from my nephew, as a vase. I thought the bold geometrical pattern was an excellent element for recreating the Art Deco style of American floral design. In hindsight, the lantern-turned-vase was charming, maybe even contemporary, but not truly modern. I created a fountain-shaped arrangement with it. I chose white roses, red hypericum berries, and bluebells, among other flowers and stems, to signify red, white, and blue for the Fourth of July. The sunny disposition of the sunflowers stole the show, though. I wanted to write something about the significance of July 4th for me, paired with that floral arrangement, but I simply couldn't, and my thoughts dissipated. This is when I decided to visit the famed NYC Flower District, hoping it would give me more material to write about.