The seasons are already shifting here - I can feel it. Although winter in coastal Southern California is little more than an abstract concept, there are changes I've come to recognize as signifying the onset of spring. One of these, as I described
in my last post, is the explosion of blooms on our ornamental pear tree,
Pyrus calleryana, which seems to occur overnight. At the same time, I notice that the hummingbirds are getting feistier and other birds show signs of nest-building, while spring bulbs produce their first blooms.
In preparing this week's vase for the meme sponsored by Cathy at
Rambling in the Garden, I was juggling the winter and spring blooms in my garden. I thought I'd pair some of the new blooms of my pink
Alstroemeria with wintry stems of
Grevillea lavandulacea 'Penola' which has been blooming for a good 2 months now. But the 2 just didn't seem to belong together. So, yet again, I ended up with 2 vases, one geared to spring and the other to winter.
The spring blooms went into a cut glass vase with a heart-shaped throat, as appropriate for the week heading into Valentine's Day. I don't often use this vase as its tapered opening has proven awkward to work with.
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| The finished vase shown from different angles |
The spring-like elements I included are:
- Alstroemeria (no ID)
- Bulbine frutescens
- Coprosma repens 'Plum Hussey' (foliage)
- Freesia
- Jasminium polyanthemum
- Pelargonium tomentosum (foliage)
- Zantedeschia aethiopica (common Calla Lily)
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| This short-stemmed Alstroemeria is traditionally one of the first spring flowers to bloom in this garden each year |
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| The Freesia, loved for its scent as much as its flowers' shape, is appearing on roughly the same schedule it did last year but earlier than it did in 2013 |
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| The Jasmine doesn't actually belong to me - it spills over the fence from my neighbor's garden |
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| This Zantedeschia, shown here with the snake-like blooms of Bulbine, grows along the stairway leading down our back slope |
In addition to the
Alstroemeria, I tried pairing the
Grevillea lavandulacea with the Calla Lily and the Jasmine but neither seemed right with the strong gray color of the
Grevillea. So, I cut some of the blue-gray foliage of
Senecio cineraria (syn.
Jacobaea maritima, commonly called Dusty Miller in the US) and popped it and the
Grevillea into one of my favorite mugs and left it at that.
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| The rose-red blooms say Valentine's Day to me |
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| Blooms like these cover literally every stem of the 6-foot tall Grevillea |
The glass vase landed in the entry way, where it can be viewed from a couple of angles.
And the wintry mug landed on the fireplace mantle in the master bedroom.
To get a look at vases put together by other gardeners from materials on hand in their gardens, please visit
Rambling in the Garden.
All material
© 2012-2015 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
