Sunday was Mother's Day here in the US. Both my mother and my mother-in-law passed away in 2013 and my husband and I don't have children (unless you count the furry kind) so we had no specific plans for the day but I thought it might be nice to put together a few small arrangements and leave them curbside for neighbors to take. I've done this before but I didn't really think about a giveaway until early Saturday evening when it was too windy to accomplish much. As it turned out, I received a call from a family member about a medical emergency that got me up before dawn Sunday morning. I was rattled by the call and found it hard to focus but, once I was up and moving around, I started cutting flowers to distract myself. By the time I'd filled two water jugs with cuttings, I'd received a text letting me know that an emergency room visit had ruled out the worst case possibility. Although it was already a bit late to put flowers on the curb, I threw together several tiny bouquets anyway.
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| If I give away flowers, I try to leave them out either in the late afternoon or early morning to catch the attention of people that walk the neighborhood but I didn't get these out until late Sunday morning. They didn't represent my best effort but they'd still disappeared by early afternoon. |
Calmer, I went to work creating my own arrangements for "In a Vase on Monday," both built on blooms that have only recently appeared in my garden. The first, inspired by the fragrant purple pea-like blooms of Psoralea pinnata, is a mish-mash and not entirely satisfactory.
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| The noID bearded Irises are also new blooms but their color, which leans toward the red end of the purple spectrum, seems off to me relative to most of the rest of the materials |
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| Back view: I added a few stems of the color-chameleon 'Blue Shift' sweet pea to the mix in an effort to play off the Iris but they didn't help much |
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| Top view |
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| Top row: Centranthus ruber 'Album' and blue and white Consolida ajacis (aka larkspur) Middle row: noID Iris germanica and a variety of Lathyus odoratus, including 'Blue Shift', 'Navy' and 'High Scent' Bottom row: Orlaya grandiflora (aka Minoan lace) and Psoralea pinnata (aka Kool-Aid bush because the flowers smell like that grape drink) |
The second arrangement is more pulled together in my view.
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| The new arrivals in this arrangement include Allium 'Violet Beauty' and Salvia canariensis, visible in the front view |
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| and Melaleuca thymifolia (aka thyme honey-myrtle), visible in the back view |
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| Top view |
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| Top row: Allium aflatunense 'Violet Beauty', Centranthus 'Alba', and Consolida ajacis 'Splish-Splash' Middle row: Digitalis purpurea, Lathyrus odoratus 'High Scent', and Melaleuca thymifolia Bottom row: Pelargonium 'Lady Plymouth', P. 'Lemona', and Salvia canariensis var candidissima |
For more IAVOM creations from contributors drawing inspiration from the materials around them, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.
All material © 2012-2021 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party