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"Garden Works" offers mix-and-match bouquets of fresh cut flowers at a little stand by the side of a road in New York State. - Mark Golbach

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• The original Chautauqua

Black-eyed Susans and purple coneflowers are glowing in gardens all over town this month -- just not mine. Truth be told, by this time of year I am ready for a steady diet of greens outside my windows.

As silly as it may seem, I'm hitting the flower stands at the west side farmers' markets as well as on the Square to add a dash of seasonal color inside my house with cultivated cut flowers. There's nothing like an awning-covered stand filled with buckets of flowers just waiting for buyers to mix and match them into their own personal bouquets.

Drive out into the countryside, and you'll find that flowers often are a part of roadside produce stands. But it's rare to encounter a country stand devoted entirely to flowers the way we so often find them at urban farmers' markets. The only such stand I've encountered this summer was the same one I patronized last summer -- located on the outskirts of the historic community of Chautauqua, N.Y., home of the famed Chautauqua Institution (see sidebar).

We noticed the homemade "cut flowers" sign at the side of the highway just in time to turn off the main road. We were that famed species -- summer house guests -- and were desperately seeking an offering to present to our hostess on arrival. What could be nicer than a fresh bouquet of country flowers?

The "Garden Works" stand is located next to a non-descript clapboard house half-buried behind a bank of single yellow roses. Under an awning that was being buffeted by a strong breeze off Chautauqua Lake was a big wooden table with sawhorse supports. The table had a double row of holes cut into the top. Each opening held a galvanized bucket full of flowers -- one variety per bucket. Above them was a sign that declared "Cut flowers: 12/$6 or 75 cents per stem."

During our visit in the first week in June, the buckets were filled with peonies -- pale pink as well as Festiva Maxima, the old-fashioned white ones flecked with red -- snapdragons, columbines, Thalictrum, German and Siberian irises, and perennial bachelor buttons. We put together a fabulous bouquet, wrapped the stems in the plastic bags provided and left our money in the wooden box that said "Pay and Take."

We drove away with a lovely gift and a memorable experience. But what I really took away from "Garden Works" was a question: Why aren't more folks doing something like this?

Locally, Troy Community Farm on Madison's north side offers a country-in-the-city flower experience with their "Bounty of Bouquets." The program lets you pick your own local, organic flower bouquets. It's a punch card system with a choice of six or 12 bouquets ($30 or $55 respectively) that you come out to the farm to cut during the growing season. The Web site for the bouquet program is http://www.troygardens.org/gifts.html. For more information, call 240-0409 or e-mail info@troygardens.org.

Though they might not sell their flowers at picturesque country roadside stands, many gardeners offer cut flowers at local farmers' markets. For a list of south Wisconsin markets by location and day of the week, see http://www.reapfoodgroup.org/atlas/farmers_markets.htm.

Those blooms will do just fine until my next trip to Chautauqua.