Beautiful, Fragrant Gardenias in the Last Spring Table Setting for 2021

Welcome to the 664th Tablescape Thursday, a blog party sharing beautiful table settings for all occasions!

The gardenia shrub just outside my garage is blooming up a storm right now. If you’ve ever smelled gardenias, you know how wonderfully fragrant they are! This shrub almost died during an ice storm a few years back. It has taken a while to recover but it seems to be fully back now, laden down with big, white blossoms just like the old days prior to the ice storm.

Gardenia Bush in full bloom

 

Some of those beautiful blooms found their way to the center of my table setting yesterday.

Porch Dining, Tablescape Thursday

 

We had a bit of a heatwave move through this past week, but yesterday wasn’t bad at all, or at least it wasn’t out on the porch. This morning when I rehung the bird feeders, it was only 61° out on the porch! It felt so good, I threw open both of the doors to the screened porch and let all that cool air pour into the downstairs.

Tablescape Thursday, Porch Dining

 

The gardenias put me in a green and white mood yesterday. lol

Screen Porch, Spring Tablescape

 

Green is my favorite color so I always love using it in a table setting.

Fragrant Gardenias in a Spring Table Setting

 

 

Spring Table with Noritake Carnivale Salad Plates

 

I wish there was some internet magic I could wield to make the sweet scent of the gardenias come right through the computer and into your home.

Fresh cut Gardenias in Spring Table Setting

 

With so many blooms, I was able to fill four teapots and one small pitcher. I randomly placed them down the center of the table for a simple but elegant centerpiece.

Gardenias in Spring Table Setting, Gardenia Centerpiece

 

Beaded Napkin Rings in Spring Table Setting

 

Notice how the forks on the right side of the picture below are nice and straight. Well, they didn’t stay that way. I must have bumped them when I removed the napkin from this setting below for a picture of the salad plate.

Spring Table Setting in Green and White

 

Going from memory, I think the beaded napkin rings were a find in Old Time Pottery many years ago…or it may have been Pier 1.  The glasses are from Dollar Tree–love their colorful glassware! I don’t remember where I found the green flatware, probably Marshalls, HomeGoods, or Tuesday Morning. Napkins (plaid and solid-colored) were from Pier 1. Chargers are from Horchow online back in 2008. They always have great chargers! (See their current charger selection here: Charger Plates.)

Spring Table in Green and White

 

The pretty salad plates are from Noritake a few years back. A few months ago, Noritake asked me to put together a collection of some of my favorite dish patterns. There are so many I love by Noritake, starting with Colburn, the pattern I chose as a young bride so many years ago. You’ll find just a few of my favorites here: Between Naps On The Porch Favorites. I know you’ll recognize many of the ones I chose since I’ve used them in table settings over the years.

Carnivale China, Noritake

 

I wish this pattern, Carnivale, was still available. It’s one of my favorites and came in lavender, pink, blue, and green when it was still available.

Noritake Carnivale in Apple Green, Salad Plate

 

There’s that crooked flatware! lol

Between Naps On The Porch, Gardenias for Spring Dining

 

Confession: I LOVE springtime because during spring, the daylight stays with us just a tiny bit longer with each passing day. Summer arrives this Sunday and sadly the daylight will gradually begin to decrease with each passing day. I don’t like that, I want it to be springtime forever! Is that too much to ask?! I wish I didn’t know that, that the daylight starts to lessen a little each day once summer arrives. Does anyone else ever think about these things are is it just weirdo me? 😉

Porch Dining, Tablescape Thursday

 

Looking forward to all the wonderful table settings linked for this week’s Tablescape Thursday! ♥

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Tablescape Thursday

 

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Comments

  1. Susan, I can just imagine the fragrance in your sunroom! The green and white tablesetting is so beautiful. It has the feel of the last fleeting days of spring. The Noritake salad plate is stunning! Thank you for hosting and enjoy your day!

  2. This is such a PRETTY spring table, thank you for setting it. I especially love the fact that the gardenias came from your own yard. Living here in the summer blast furnace of Tempe Arizona, it’s hard to gather flowers from anything that grows in our yards. I’m grateful for our downtown flower market, but it would be wonderful to sometimes have my own yard flowers to clip. I also love your Carnivale plates, they are very pretty and delicate. Happy Tablescape Thursday, Susan!

  3. Nothing prettier than a tea pot full of gardenias!! Such a pretty table!! Thanks for continuing to host these Tablescape Thursdays!!

  4. For some reason, your tablescapes featuring green always seem to be among my favorites. There’s just something about it .. green. 🙂 It seems so lush and full of life, yet soothing. So perfect for both Spring and Summer. My mother used to say green was ‘God’s color.’ It does seem to have a special, pleasant affect on me. And this table is so pretty with all the flowers. Just lovely.

    You enjoyed the cool weather morning! Haha. I know what a hot weather girl you are, but it’s nice to be able to embrace the various seasons too, since we can’t usually escape them, lol. I have always been the opposite, preferring the cooler weather, but your love for summer has rubbed off on me and I now look forward to it.

    Yes, I think of both the few minutes of added daylight and the fewer minutes of daylight. I usually look forward to the lessening light because I feel like my body rhythm doesn’t like the artificially long days created by daylight savings. But this year, the summer solstice seems to have barreled it’s way to us early. Ah well. Best to just enjoy it.

    Thanks for another inspiring and beautiful table, Susan.

    • I keep trying to remind myself that every season has something to enjoy and look forward to. I am thankful I live where we have an early spring and summer really goes on through September into October. I love your Mom’s saying, that’s such a lovely way to see the beauty that surrounds us.

  5. Joan Craw says

    Green is my favorite color as well. Someone told me once that, unlike other colors, various shades of green never clash with each other. I guess this is obvious everyday in nature and in today’s beautiful table setting as well.

    • Joan, you know, I never thought about that but you are so right! It’s amazing how much easier it is to combine different shades of green than it is with other colors. Love that! Green makes me think of life, springtime, summer, and vibrancy–all the good things! Just love it!

  6. Ha – you are NOT the only one – I think weird stuff all the time! 😉 I absolutely LOVE LOVE your gardenias! They’re gorgeous and huge compared to what we get – if we get anything at all – up in the PNW. They beautify and already lovely table! Thanks for another round of springtime inspiration!

  7. Green is an easy color to decorate with. Using it as the main color in the table set amongst the white is perfect for spring.

  8. franki Parde says

    “That” brought a *sigh*…even if I couldn’t catch the fragrance…just lovely…oh, did you know one of your forks was a little awry… You alone would “tell.” Enjoying these past few days…changes acomin…franki

    • Ha, ha, ha! Thanks for noticing! At least the stemware–I almost started taking pictures when I realized I had forgotten the glasses! lol

  9. Tina W Reynolds says

    Beautiful, refreshing and elegant table! I love your screen porch. I’m afraid I would live there 24/7 !

  10. Patty Brenner says

    What a lovely table setting, and I can almost smell the gardenias! I carried gardenias in my wedding bouquet, and had a few of them as the cake topper on our wedding cake. You are so fortunate to be able to grow them – I’ve tried a few times but they don’t do well in my Texas hill country soil and heat.
    You are definitely not alone with your thoughts on the lengthening and shortening days. I am definitely a summer girl – and love the long warm days of spring and summer. I get a little sad when summer officially begins, because I know those long days will be gone before we know it 🙂

    • That sounds so pretty, Patty! I love gardenias and they would be beautiful in a bouquet…not to mention how wonderful they would smell.
      Me, too…I love summer so much!

  11. Green and white are one of my favorite combinations so this table setting really spoke to me. My gardenias are blooming right now and they perfume the whole room. Such a wonderful setting. Thanks for sharing.
    Lynne, Thrifting Wonderland

  12. Susan, thanks for another lovely tablescape! I just wait for Thursdays to see your latest creation! I can almost smell those gorgeous gardenia blossoms. I have never been able to get a gardenia bush to thrive. What is your secret? I, too, love green and yes, I do think of the shortening of the days, too! But I always know that when fall arrives, I am happy to see it come in ways. I love living where we have the 4 seasons to celebrate. Winter is definitely my least favorite, but there’s something to be said for the coziness of early nightfall and being inside with lamp and candle light. There is happiness to be found in all seasons.

    • Thanks so much, Martha! I really don’t do much of anything. I got lucky when I planted this gardenia because it turns out that it’s in a pretty protective place with a fence on one side and a brick wall on the other. It survives winters pretty well, just not ice storms. It gets the east sun in the morning, not the harsh west sun, I think that also helps. If I see the leaves turning a little yellow, I sprinkle some fertilizer around it that’s especially for Gardenias…but that’s really all I do. I think I’ve only used that fertilizer once, maybe twice over the years.
      You’re right, it is nice to have four, full, very distinct seasons. Each season has its beauty and I do love that.

  13. Gardenias are one of my Faves! . . . and yours are beautiful. You are definitely NOT a weirdo–I think about the light every time the seasons change. The worst is the winter season when I get the blues. Once we get past the Winter Solstice I literally count the days waiting for the light to come back into my life. I am so in tune with the equinox/solstice goings on that I unwittingly set the date for my wedding years ago on June 21, which that year just happened to be the Summer Solstice. Could be those witching powers of mine. ; )

    • Thanks, Shelia! I know exactly what you mean, I do the same thing…counting the days. I love it once we pass that point and the days start getting longer again, even if it’s only by a few minutes each day. I also love when we get to move the clocks forward and get that extra hour of light each day.
      You intuition just told you that was THE best day for your wedding. 🙂

  14. Those gardenias are beautiful as a centerpiece. I once grew a gardenia shrub indoors for a few years and it bloomed! And it was not a bright and airy house.

  15. Susan, let me just say I love it when you set your tables, and we get to see your creativity. I can imagine the sweet smell of your gardenias, I always loved Jungle Gardenia fragrance and wore it in the past. The Carnivale plates are really pretty and all the white totally complements that essence of spring. I am like you, spring is my most favorite season, and much for the same reason of more light each day, more things coming alive. It just kickstarts my mojo in so many ways. Mr. P. is one to announce the days getting shorter beginning Sunday and I don’t like it, but know it can’t be avoided. Surely late summer, fall and winter will still be better this year than last year’s. Thanks for hosting us in sharing our tables!

    • Thanks so much, Rita! Spring really does get us in the mood to get going, especially on projects we’ve been putting off. That’s too funny about Mr. P being the one to notice. Yes! Let’s hope this year gets better and better. I’m hopeful!
      XXX

  16. What a beautiful table and the gardenias are gorgeous ! I can smell the that amazing fragrance they have up to here, lol… Such a lovely china too. Love this Spring table.
    Thank you so much for hosting this tablescape parties. I do think bloggers are not interested much in table settings. It’s a shame, but I so love to create tables with the dishes and seasonally.
    Have a nice rest of the week.
    Fabby

    • Thanks so much, Fabby! Well, that’s okay–I kind of like our tight, tablescape-loving group. 🙂 Hopefully, we’ll all be able to have friends over more this second half of the year. I miss that!

  17. I love your table Susan. Like you, green is a favorite of mine. I actually consider it a neutral . I am sure the Gardenias smell amazing. Thanks for another great tablescape Thursday. XO- MaryJo

    • Thanks, MaryJo! I so agree! It really is like a neutral, especially the softer shades. Hope you have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend!
      XXX

  18. You are SO not a weirdo for being aware of the days getting longer and then shortening after the first day of summer. Or, maybe I’m a weirdo too, because I always enjoy the lengthening days and feel the same as you do when they start getting shorter again.

    On another note, the Carnivale plates are sooo pretty. I find stripes in any sor of home decor very appealing, and the green is just fresh and lovely.

    • Well, we’ll just be weirdos together. 😉 Oh, I do too…love stripes and even a bit of plaid here and there. Happy weekend, Ann! Hope you have a wonderful one!

  19. Beautiful table, Susan! I love magnolias and those green Carnivale plates are a wonderful design. Perhaps Nortiki will listen to your request.
    I’m a fan of spring too. Summer is my least favorite season. Too hot here in Texas. Thanks for hosting!

  20. Susan, love the greens with the white. So springy summer and perfect for a tablescape. I can almost smell those gardenias! Thanks for sharing!!!

  21. Only one word necessary: wonderful!

  22. Beautiful and calming table. Love the magnolia!

  23. Cindy S. says

    Love love love the gardenia blooms, I was a florist for 28 years and gardenia is one of my favorite flowers. They smell so good and are so pretty! I wish I had that shrub you have I could enjoy them everyday!

  24. Brenda Lawrence says

    I love this table setting Susan! And I love gardenia’s! I wish I could grow them outside here in PA but they don’t survive our cold. My MIL gave me a gardenia corsage when I married my late husband and oh my gosh it smelled so good. I tried growing one in a pot once. Didn’t have a huge success with it, but I was super busy back then too raising 6 boys and helping on the farm/schools, etc…Maybe I should try one again. Green is a favorite of mine too, loving those dishes. DT does have great glass wear! I wish too, we had smellavision. lol Hugs, Brenda

  25. Ranger Smith says

    Yes Susan, I share you feeling after June 21st, regretting the shorter days. Alas, there’s not much we can do about it except make the most of each day. I’m envious of your gardenia bush! your Noritake Carnivale is a wonderful shade of mint green. I have a fondness for most Noritake patterns and the quality. Thank you for this tablescape!

  26. This table is beautiful! Greens and white are so refreshing and calming. And your gardenia bush makes me “green eyed”. I recently planted my first gardenias. They are doing great so far, but I’m wondering if I should deadhead the blooms when they turn brown or just leave them. Any advice?

  27. Thanks for hosting this week!

  28. Lovely table. Yes I watch the times for sunrise and sunset.

  29. Absolutely gorgeous! Love gardenias….and how lucky you are to have that beautiful bush. I have tried to grow them in pots…no luck! I have settled for a silk gardenia corsage that I wear on Easter!!! Your table is beautiful…and yes, this time of year is so perfect. Enjoy it while it lasts!

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