As our rainy season approaches its end, we had an unusually soggy weekend. Rain was projected all day Saturday through Easter Sunday but I took advantage of an unexpected break between showers in the middle of Saturday afternoon to cut flowers for 'In a Vase on Monday'. I didn't dilly-dally (much) as I had the plants I wanted to use in mind when I stepped outside.
The focal point for my first vase (yes, there are two even though I had to dodge downpours) are stems of Leucospermum 'Hybrid Spider', which I refer to as my living Fabergé egg. I love all my Leucospermums but this one is my favorite.
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| It's this stage of bloom that makes me think of Fabergé eggs |
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| The stigmas of the 'Hybrid Spider' flower have a lavender cast, which prompted the color mix |
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| Back view: I used Limonium and Salvia stems to pick up the lavender color |
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| Top view |
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| Clockwise from the upper left: noID white Ageratum, Grevillea 'Superb', Limonium perezii, Digitalis purpurea 'Dalmatian Peach', and Leucospermum 'Hybrid Spider' |
With Alstroemeria flowers popping up throughout my back garden, I pinpointed them for a second vase and made things easy on myself by popping in three Leucospermum 'High Gold' stems left over from an arrangement I created two weeks ago.
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| I wouldn't generally combine pink and yellow in an arrangement but there are yellow touches in the Alstroemeria flowers so I let the Leucospermum flowers echo that color. The intact anthers of the hellebore flowers repeated the yellow color. |
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| Back view |
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| Top view |
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| Clockwise from the upper left: Acacia cognata 'Cousin Itt', noID Alstroemeria, Argyranthemum 'Grandaisy Dark Pink', Helleborus 'Anna's Red', Heuchera maxima, and Leucospermum 'High Gold' |
Leucospermums have a long vase-life and so do some Hippeastrums. I trimmed down one arrangement I created two weeks ago and another I put together last week and tucked them into spots in the kitchen.
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| The orange Leucospermum 'Royal Hawaiian Brandi' in a smaller version of their original vase sit next to the ceramic pig I use as a tea caddy. The pared-down pale yellow Hippeastrum 'Lemon Star' and its companions sit on the kitchen island. |
We got 1.86 inches of rain over the course of the weekend, which is a lot for us. There were flash flood warnings early Saturday morning but we didn't experience any issues here, although I understand there were some downed trees and road closures in nearby areas. We took the warnings seriously and didn't go anywhere while they were in effect. The biggest issue in our neighborhood is a very loud peacock who's made our area his (hopefully temporary) home. The rain didn't send him looking for new digs.
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| Poor phone photo of the peacock squawking while perched on a neighbor's roof |
For more IAVOM posts, visit our host, Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.
All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
