A friend scheduled an open house to show off her newly refurbished condo on Sunday. To celebrate its completion and her return from an extended work assignment in Phoenix, I brought her a fresh bouquet from my garden (and a bottle of champagne). I decided I didn't really need 3 color-coordinated gray-blue vases and, as their color meshed well with her new decor, I added one of those I'd recently purchased to my house-warming package.
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| Front view: The vase dictated the color scheme and I took pains to select flowers that have a good vase life |
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| Back view |
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| Top view: Sweet peas, Freesia, and lavender provided a touch of scent |
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| Clockwise from the upper left, the vase contained: noID lavender Alstroemeria, shown in the first photo with stems of noID Lathyrus odoratus; Coriandrum sativum; the last intact white Freesia; Ixia; Lavandula stoechas 'Silver Anouk'; Ozothamnus diosmifolius; Pelargonium cucullatum 'Flore Pleno'; and Polygala myrtifolia 'Mariposa' |
Of course, I had some leftover flowers so I plunked those into a small vase for my own front entryway.
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| Front view |
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| The vase contains: Helichrysum petiolare 'Silver Mist', Limonium perezii, and Osteospermum '3D Berry White' (or what I think is 'Berry White', another of the new-ish Osteospermums with flowers that remain open in low light) |
I also threw together a vase for my dining room table as last week's creation, with the exception of the
Leucadendron and
Alstroemeria stems, had fallen apart. The first version (not pictured here), which utilized foliage from my
Xylosma congestum hedge, was a complete mess so I replaced the
Xylosma with stems of
Agonis (aka peppermint willow). It was still a hot mess but I had a party to get to so it had to do!
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| Front view: The vibrant red blooms of parrot's beak (Lotus berthelotii) established the fiery color scheme |
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| Back view |
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| Top view, cooled down just a little by the variegated Abelia |
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| Clockwise from the left, the vase contains: Lotus berthelotii 'Amazon Sunset', Abelia 'Hopley's Variegated', Agonis flexuosa 'Nana', Grevillea 'Ned Kelly', Grevillea 'Superb', Lobelia laxiflora, and various orange and coral Papaver nudicaule |
For the record, I was wrong when I said earlier that the flowers of Lotus berthelotii wouldn't be as showy when used as a ground cover rather than trailing from a pot or a wall. At least in the case of 'Amazon Sunset', they've shown that they can definitely make a splash.
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| This photo taken in my back garden last week shows one swath of 'Amazon Sunset' dominating everything around it. The orange-tinged foliage above it is Agonis flexuosa 'Nana', which provides a nice, if more demure, color echo. |
The small vase and the sizzling hot one assumed their respective positions. The third was delivered to my friend's lovely condo.
Visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden to see what she and other participants have put together this week. Better yet, join the fun and share a creation of your own by posting a link on Cathy's site!
All material © 2012-2017 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
