There's quite a bit in bloom right now during Southern California's
"second spring" but it still wasn't easy to put together a bouquet this week. Much of what's available doesn't combine well and most of the floral material has short stems, limiting what can be done with it. So this week's vase has a little of this and a little of that.
The color scheme was set by the fluffy bloom of
Calliandra haematocephala, also known as Pink Powder Puff. I have several of these evergreen shrubs espaliered against walls. They're sheared frequently to keep them from sprawling into walkways as they're prone to do, which means that I seldom get flowers so I was pleased to find this one.
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| How long the Calliandra flower will last in a vase is an open question |
In addition to the
Calliandra, the vase contains:
- Alstroemeria (no ID)
- Coleonema pulchellum 'Sunset Gold'
- Cuphea ignea 'Starfire Pink'
- Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum'
- Rudbeckia 'Cherry Brandy'
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| The Alstroemeria stem was discovered by accident, hidden below the Cuphea |
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| This Cuphea blooms all year - at least until I hack it back |
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| The feathery plumes of the Pennisetum were beaten down by last week's rain but they recovered quickly |
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| This Rudbeckia was a deeper red than most of the 'Cherry Brandy' in my front border |
I picked a few flowers in a very different color range as well. These ended up in one of my tiny vases.
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| This vase contains 2 varieties of Gaillardia, 'Goblin' and 'Peach Mesa,' as well as stems of Abelia 'Kaleidoscope' and Bougainvillea |
Finding spots for this week's vases proved to be a challenge. The
vase I featured 2 weeks ago with Toyon berries and
Gomphrena is still sitting on the dining room table, looking very much like it did in last week's follow-up photo. And
last week's vase containing the blue and white
Eustoma is still sitting in the entryway, minus the yellow roses and the
Prostanthera foliage.
So the first of this week's vases ended up on the fireplace mantle in the master bedroom and the tiny vase landed on a side table in the living room.
This week's vases were prepared as my contribution to Cathy's weekly meme at
Rambling in the Garden. Visit her blog to see what
she has put together this week and what other gardeners have to offer. As winter descends in many areas, gardeners are finding it more challenging to assemble vases but you can trust that quite a few have risen to the challenge.
All material
© 2012-2014 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
