A few new blooms popped up last week but there wasn't a plentiful supply of any of them so the challenge was what to make of each. That led to three arrangements: one large, one medium-sized, and one small.
The largest arrangement was designed around stems of Delphinium 'Cobalt Dreams' from my cutting garden. I cut the plant back in April after its first flush of blooms and it exploded with another flush this month. The floral stalks were much taller this time and one of them toppled over under its own weight late last week. I put the broken stem in water, which made it an obvious starting point for an IAVOM arrangement.
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The 3 Delphinium stems were ridiculously tall. I had to get out a tape measure to determine how much to cut them to ensure that the stems wouldn't interfere with the lighting fixture that hangs over our dining room table.
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Back view: Finding plant material in the right colors with sufficient height to complement the Delphinium wasn't a simple matter either
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Top view
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Clockwise from the upper left: Abelia grandiflora 'Hopley's Variegated', Eustoma grandiflorum, Delphinium elatum 'Cobalt Dreams', Pandorea jasminoides, and Plectranthus scutellarioides 'Salsa Verde' (aka Coleus 'Salsa Verde')
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My second, medium-sized arrangement was inspired by the first Lilium 'Pretty Woman' bloom, which I paired with stems of Dahlia 'Southern Belle'.
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The second lily bud is on the verge of blooming, while one of the dahlia flowers was already fading
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Back view: I added a stem of white Lisianthus from one of last week's arrangements, as well as a couple of noID zinnias to pick up the coral pink of the dahlias
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Top view
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Clockwise from the upper left: Agonis flexuosa 'Nana', Cuphea 'Honeybells', Dahlia 'Southern Belle', Eustoma grandiflorum (aka Lisianthus), Orienpet Lilium 'Pretty Woman', and noID Zinnia elegans
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The third arrangement was an after-thought. Dahlia 'Summer's End' bloomed on the heels of 'Southern Belle' last week and the first flowers were already fading so I cut two of them to fill the small vase that sits on our kitchen island.
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Front and back views: In addition to Dahlia 'Summer's End', the vase contains one stem of Agonis flexuosa 'Nana', 2 stems of Antirrhinum majus 'Double Azalea Bronze', and 2 stems of Digitalis purpurea 'Dalmatian Peach'
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Two other lilies bloomed this past weekend but I didn't have any idea what to do with them so they may sidestep the limelight this year. The rabbits stripped several lily stems of all their leaves before I realized what they were up to, which meant no blooms this year and probably doesn't bode well for future flowers.
For more IAVOM creations, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.
All material © 2012-2022by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
