Our Easter holiday was eerily quiet. I shared greetings with some friends by email and others by text and enjoyed watching the birds splash in our fountain - the white-crowned sparrows take their baths very seriously! I observed the holiday by refilling my bird feeders and filling jugs with flowers, which led to the creation of four vases, three of which I'll share here. As gloomy as the news is, the garden's overflowing with flowers and I find it hard not to get carried away.
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| Leucospermum 'Brandi' provided the inspiration for my first vase |
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| Back view: Alstroemeria 'Indian Summer'was responsible for tying all the elements together |
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| Top view |
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| Clockwise from the upper left: Leucospermum 'Brandi', Alstroemeria 'Indian Summer', Euphorbia x martinii 'Ascot Rainbow', Lotus berthelotii 'Amazon Sunset', and Xylosma congestum |
The calla lilies at the bottom of our back slope are plentiful this year and it occurred to me that they'd look nice on our living room mantle, which has been looking very bare of late.
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| I know many people allow calla lilies to stand on their own but I can only take simplicity so far |
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| Back view: I did manage to restrict myself to three elements in this arrangement, however |
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| Top view |
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| From left to right: Abelia grandiflora 'Kaleidoscope', Grevillea 'Peaches & Cream', and Zantedeschia aethiopica |
The dwarf bearded
Iris on the back slope are also doing remarkably well this year. To my surprise, I discovered that the dark purple variety has a beautiful fragrance so I couldn't stop myself from cutting another stem this week. It had one fading bloom but two good-sized buds and, as the buds on last week's stem opened in my vase, I thought there's a good chance these buds will as well.
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| I added 2 stems of a new Dutch Iris that just started blooming this week, filling in with a mish-mash of other flowers |
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| Back view: The fresh green foliage accent is Prunus laurocerasus (aka cherry laurel), a prolific self-seeder here |
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| Top view |
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| Clockwise from the upper left: Argyranthemum frutescens, Iris hollandica 'Mystic Beauty' (only slightly different from 'Sapphire Beauty'), Cerinthe major, Freesia, Lavandula stoechas, buds of Iris germanica (possibly 'Darth Vader'), Limonium perezii, and Prunus laurocerasus |
My husband isn't much into holiday celebrations of any kind and I'd no illusions about the possibility of finding chocolates or other tasty treats on Sunday but he did hide an Easter egg of a different sort, which I found when I downloaded photos for this post.
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| He took this photo of Pipig in a pose signifying feline nirvana on her heating pad and left it for me to find when I used the camera for my IAVOM post |
Visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden to discover more IAVOM creations.
All material © 2012-2020 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
