I sacrificed a few of my favorite flowers this week when putting my arrangements together. The first were three stems of Leucospermum 'Royal Hawaiian Brandi'. This year, the majority of the flowers are growing on the back side of the shrub, facing a hedge. As my back garden faces east, I suppose that may account for its annoying behavior as it tries to gain maximum sun exposure - or perhaps it has to do with the way I pruned it last year. In any case, I didn't feel too bad to cut flowers that I can't readily see.
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| The arrangement is a bit heavy on peach tones so I added several stems of Lotus berthelotii to give it a punch |
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| Back view |
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| Top view |
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| Clockwise from the upper left: Antirrhinum majus 'Chantilly Peach', Leucospermum 'Royal Hawaiian Brandi', Digitalis purpurea 'Dalmatian Peach', Lotus berthelotii 'Amazon Sunset', and Xylosma congestum |
I also cut a stem of a bearded Iris, a species that has been relatively rare in my garden for the past several years. I discovered a couple of noID Iris blooming at the bottom of my slope last week but they're relatively ordinary and my bum knee wasn't up for another trip down there yesterday anyway so I cut a recent arrival in a more accessible spot alongside my back patio. That was a little painful too but in a different way. At least I can enjoy seeing it up close this week.
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| Iris germanica 'Autumn Circus' is the star of this arrangement but I threw a lot more into the vase, like the first larkspur blooms from my cutting garden and stems of Psoralea pinnata (aka kool-aid bush for their grape soda scent) |
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| I dressed up what started as the front of the vase and ended up as the back side with stems of Abelia 'Confetti' and Pericallis 'Bi-color Violet' (aka florist's cineraria) |
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| Top view |
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| Clockwise from the upper left: Abelia 'Confetti', blue and white Consolida ajacis (larkspur), Coriandrum sativum (cilantro), Nigella papillosa, Orlaya grandifloa, Pericallis 'Bi-color Violet', Psoralea pinnata and, in the middle, Iris germanica 'Autumn Circus' (I also included Lagurus ovatus but haven't shown it in a closeup photo) |
I spotted the first two sweet pea blooms yesterday morning. Will I have enough to fill a vase next week? Maybe, but I'm not counting on that yet. Our temperatures are expected to stay below 70F/21C throughout the week and the marine layer is expected to return.
For more IAVOM creations this week, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.
All
material © 2012-2023
by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
