I had plants in mind when I stepped into the garden on Sunday to select flowers for "In a Vase on Monday," the meme hosted by Cathy of
Rambling in the Garden. For a change, I stuck pretty much to my original intent.
Vase #1 was arranged around the foxgloves that finally bloomed in my cutting garden. I grew these plants from plugs, not from seed, but for a while I thought they weren't going to do much of anything. On Friday, I also feared that weeks of high winds, followed by a spike in our daytime temperatures and a sharp drop in our humidity levels, was going to put a premature end to the sweet peas I'd earmarked to accent the foxgloves. However, a 10 degree drop in our temperature and a substantial increase in humidity gave the sweet peas a reprieve on Sunday.
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| Front view: the mottled white vase, decorated with a ribbon-like painted overlay, was a gift my mother brought me many years ago after a trip to her parents' Finnish homeland |
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| Back view, showing off the maroon sweet pea stems and my weed-like Centranthus |
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| Top view |
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| From left to right, the vase contains: Centranthus ruber (pink and white forms were used), Digitalis purpurea, and Lathyrus odoratus |
Vase #2 was constructed around my white
Alstroemeria, which is looking especially pretty right now. I allowed myself 2 last minute additions to the vase in this case.
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| Front view: the last minute additions were the rose and the Grevillea stems. I got the rose, a David Austin selection, from my favorite mail order nursery last November and have been growing it in a pot - this is its first bloom. The Grevillea blooms sporadically. |
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| The back view is all about the Alstroemeria |
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| The top view highlights the flowers of the humble dusty miller plant (Jacobaea maritima) |
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| Clockwise from the left, the vase contains: Alstroemeria 'Claire', Abelia 'Kaleidoscope', Grevillea alpina x rosmarinifolia, Jabobaea maritima, and Rosa 'Golden Celebration' |
On my final round through the garden, I latched eyes on another recent bloomer I want to use in a vase but I stopped myself at 2 this week. Hopefully, the other plant will still be vase-worthy next week. For more vases,
visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.
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| My vases in their places |
All material © 2012-2017 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
