We've reached that point in the year when the garden enters its sulky phase - or maybe it's not the garden so much as the gardener. Early summer blooms like the Agapanthus and Shasta daisies are just about done while my dahlias and zinnias are taking their time again this year. There are still flowers to be cut but not much to inspire my inner florist. I'd been eyeing the flower stalk of a Hippeastrum, one of several bulbs I planted in the ground last fall in the hope they might naturalize in my garden, but it wasn't quite ready for take-off. So I focused on the ever-dependable Grevillea 'Superb', which blooms year-round.
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| The Dahlia 'Dark Side of the Sun' I purchased by mail order a couple of months ago offered a single flower so I placed it front and center. The plant has deep chocolate-brown foliage, which I believe accounts for its name. |
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| Back view: Succulent Cotyledon orbiculata adds its bell-like blooms |
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| Top view: The color of the 'Pink Meidiland' rose petals matched the styles and stamen of the Grevillea so I threw in a few of them |
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| Clockwise from the upper left: Agonis flexuosa 'Nana', Cotyledon orbiculata, Dahlia 'Dark Side of the Sun', Grevillea 'Superb', Rosa 'Pink Meidiland', and Tanacetum parthenium |
On my spin through my garden, I noticed a smattering of blooms on Grevillea sericea, which I haven't used much, if at all, in the past year so I let it guide me in assembling flowers for a second arrangement.
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| Although the Grevillea kicked things off, the colors in Lycoris sprengeri 'Electric Blue' led me to add blue flowers in addition to the pink ones |
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| Back view |
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| Top view: The Lycoris buds start off pink but the flowers develop blue color as they age |
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| Clockwise from the upper left: Angelonia 'Archangel White', two shades of Eustoma grandiflorum (aka Lisianthus), Prostanthera ovalifolia 'Variegata', Scabiosa columbaria 'Flutter Rose Pink' and 'Flutter Deep Blue', and Lycoris sprengeri 'Electric Blue' |
Last week's Amaryllis belladonna and a couple Lisianthus were still in good shape so I popped them into a small vase with foliage I'd cut for the first arrangement and elected not to use.
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| The foliage I added to the Amaryllis and Lisianthus is Leucadendron 'Jubilee Crown' |
We've been lucky thus far in the sense that it hasn't been really hot here, although it's been unusually humid. Monsoon rains and flash floods have plagued areas to the east of us but all we've received in terms of rain was 2/100ths of an inch almost two weeks ago. There's a chance of rain this morning but I'm not counting on it. It would be nice, though.
For more IAVOM posts, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.
All material © 2012-2021 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
