In a Vase on Monday: Rescue Operation

It got hot last week and it's expected to stay hot most of this week.  Saturday was uncomfortable enough to keep me inside most of the day and, because the forecast was for more of the same on Sunday, I got up early and cut everything and anything I thought might be incinerated by toasty temperatures to include in my vases this week.  As it turned out, I went overboard - even by my own standards.

Vase #1 was inspired by the first blooms from Dahlia 'Labyrinth':

I played off the apricot and rose colors in the dahlia blooms when selecting companions

which led me to use stems of Grevillea 'Superb' to dress up the back of the arrangement

and to cut two stems of Rudbeckia 'Sahara' as shown in this overhead view

Clockwise from the upper left: Dahlia 'Labyrinth', Abelia x grandiflora 'Kaleidoscope', Coprosma repens 'Plum Hussey', Grevillea 'Superb', and Rudbeckia hirta 'Sahara'.  Both stems of the Rudbeckia came from the same plant even though they look very different.

Vase #2 was inspired by the stems of the purple Gladiolus that were fading fast in my cutting garden:

I'd hoped to add white Amaryllis belladonna to this arrangement but Saturday's heat left those stems in an unpresentable state, hence the addition of the lavender Lisianthus

and the white Cosmos (back view)

Surprisingly, the California aster (Symphyotrichum chilense) seemed to respond to the heat by producing more blooms (overhead view)

Clockwise from the upper left: Gladiolus 'Vuvuzela', Abelia x grandiflora 'Hopley's Variegated', Cosmos bipinnatus, lavender and blue Eustoma grandiflorum (aka Lisianthus), and Symphyotrichum chilense (aka California or Pacific aster)

Vase #3 was inspired by my desire to save the last pristine Amaryllis belladonna:

I originally thought I could insert the pink Amaryllis into the first vase with Dahlia 'Labyrinth' but even my color-blind husband told me it wasn't a good fit

I used leftover stems of Abelia 'Hopley's Variegated' and white Eustoma grandiflorum with a slight pink tinge to flesh out this small vase

The last vase features 'Green Star' Gladiolus.  All the gladiola stems in full bloom were severely affected by the heat.  Luckily, I planted about half my gladiola corms a week after the first ones and those that haven't bloomed yet don't appear to have been impacted by the heat.

I added the first bloom of Dahlia 'Enchantress' and a stem of Dahlia 'Sellwood Glory', which is similar in color

I used stems of Prostanthera ovalifolia 'Variegata' (aka mint bush) as a foliage filler (back view)

Overhead view

Clockwise from the upper left: Gladiolus 'Green Star', Dahlias 'Enchantress' and 'Sellwood Glory', Ocimum basilicum 'African Blue Basil', Prostanthera ovalifolia 'Variegata', Zinnia elegans 'Envy' and Zinnia from 'Northern Lights Blend'

Four vases is a lot, even for me.  For more IAVOM creations, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

All material © 2012-2020 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party