Last week, I noticed that one of my favorite plants,
Arthropodium cirratum (aka Renga Lily), was starting to bloom. I used this plant in my last garden and it was one of the first plants I added to our current garden after we moved in. It divides easily and I now have almost 2 dozen spread throughout the shadier sections of the property. It was the natural choice for this week's vase. The only problem was selecting foliage that would set it off. I'd forgotten that I've struggled with this before. My first choice was
Pittosporum tobira but it overwhelmed the delicate lily. After diddling with other possibilities, I ended up using the feathery foliage of
Acacia cognata 'Cousin Itt'.
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| The Acacia created a skirt of sorts below the flowers, which wasn't really the effect I was looking for either |
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| Top view |
I'm still not happy with it. Much as I love the plant, I'm not sure it can hold its own in the starring role in a vase but I may try other combinations in coming weeks. Here's what went into this week's vase:
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| Clockwise from the upper left: Arthropodium cirratum, Acacia cognata 'Cousin Itt', Jacobaea martima, Lupinus propinquus, Solanum xanti, and Trachelospermum jasminoides |
Another uncommon flower also called out for inclusion in a vase this week,
Globularia x indubia (aka Globe Daisy), which I fondly refer to as my hairy blue eyeball plant. I used some of the
Pittosporum I'd originally cut for the first vase in this one.
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| Those are the hairy blue eyeballs peering at you from each side of the vase |
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| Top view |
It wasn't hard to find companions for the
Globularia.
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| Clockwise from the upper left, the vase includes: Globularia x indubia, Acacia cognata 'Cousin Itt', Aquilegia hybrid 'Spring Magic' with noID sweet peas, Centranthus ruber 'Albus', Pittosporum tobira, and Salvia 'Mystic Spires' |
Once again, I had leftover foliage and flowers, which I threw into a third vase.
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| I couldn't quite bring myself to throw out the unused flowers and foliage so I cut some ivy geranium to flesh out the leftovers |
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| In addition to more of the unused Pittosporum, this vase includes: Gomphrena 'Itsy Bitsy', dark pink Pelargonium peltatum, and Persicaria microcephala 'Red Dragon' |
This week's vases displaced last week's creations (even though the bright yellow vase from last week was still in great shape).
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| The Renga lilies sit on the dining room table |
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| The hairy blue eyeballs sit in the front entryway |
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| And the mish-mash of leftovers sits on the bedroom mantle |
Visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden to see what she and other participating gardeners have put together this week. Cathy herself ran the marathon equivalent of floral design!
All material © 2012-2016 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
