Today, Cathy of Rambling in the Garden is celebrating the eighth anniversary of her popular "In a Vase on Monday" meme. Last week she posed a challenge, encouraging contributors to do something different this week, specifically to create arrangements of dried materials. I've cheated a bit in that the two dried arrangements I have to offer are comprised of materials that have been kicking around my house for months.
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| This arrangement is as much about the green onyx vase as the materials in it. The vase doesn't hold water well and the opening is too small to accept any good-sized glass or plastic insert so I've only used it for dry arrangements. |
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| Top view |
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| Clockwise from the left: Closeup of the stone vase, Chrondropetalum elephantinum (aka large cape rush), and Lagurus ovatus (aka bunny tail grass) |
The second dry arrangement is a twist on the first.
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| In this case, the bunny tail grass has been combined with dried Allium seed heads |
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| I've only planted a few Alliums in my garden as they don't usually hold up and I'm fairly certain these seed heads came from Allium aflatunense 'Violet Beauty'. The dried material on the right is more bunny tail grass. |
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| These are photos of Allium 'Violet Beauty' and Lagurus ovatus in bloom in my garden in May. I planted 18 of the Alliums in 2017 but I think there were only 3 blooms this year. On the other hand, I sowed Lagurus ovatus seeds in 2017 and they've been spreading to cover a larger area every year since. |
Of course I have a fresh arrangement too. I've been cutting flowers on a weekly basis for years, even before discovering Cathy's meme and it's become a habit. The dahlias may be done for the season and my cool season annual flowers are only a dream as yet but I can almost always scrounge up something.
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| In retrospect, I probably should have tried drying the strawflowers for an arrangement but I didn't consider that early enough to have them dried by Sunday. In addition, I understand strawflowers are best used in a beheaded state as their stems don't hold up well without being wired. |
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| Back view, featuring the last of my Japanese anemones (Eriocapitella hupehensis) |
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| Top view |
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| Clockwise from the upper left: Agonis flexuosa 'Nana', berries of Auranticarpa rhombifolia, Eriocapitalla hupehensis, Corokia virgata 'Sunsplash', Grevillea 'Peaches & Cream', Senna bicapsularis, and Xerochrysum bracteatum (aka strawflower) |
For more IAVOM arrangements, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.
All material © 2012-2021 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
