The
Agapanthus are making their annual appearance throughout my garden. Unlike prior years when they've arrived like a stampede of cattle, they're moseying in a few at a time. However, as I have more clumps of the plants than I can count, that's still a lot of flowers. The question this week wasn't would I use them in an arrangement for "In a Vase on Monday" but rather how I'd use them. Although I like the flowers, I've seldom been pleased by how they look in a vase. As the variegated
Echium 'Star of Madeira' is also blooming at last, I decided to see how those two plants would look together. Frankly, I wasn't too impressed by the combination once the cut stems were in my bucket but adding a few other plants seemed to improve the overall effect.
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| I tried to keep the arrangement airy but it could perhaps have used more splashes of white |
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| Back view |
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| Clockwise from the upper left, the vase contains: blue and white Agapanthus, Coleonema album, Echium candicans 'Star of Madeira', Consolida ajacis (aka larkspur and Delphinium ambiguum), and Osteospermum '4D Silver' |
I managed to take out a small slice of one finger while cutting back the weed-like growth of
Erigeron karvinskianus in the course of assembling flowers for this weeks' vases. This put a damper on my flower arranging exercise but my husband bandaged up my finger and I persevered to create a second vase, using flowers I'd had my eye on since last week.
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| This was supposed to be the front of the vase but I changed my mind |
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| This view shows off the flowers of Leptospermum 'Pink Pearl' and Dorycnium hirsutum, which were the inspiration for this arrangement. The vase itself is new, picked up during a weekend botanic garden/nursery trip with a friend to celebrate my upcoming birthday. |
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| Top view |
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| Clockwise from the upper left, this vase contains: noID Alstroemeria, white and pink Centranthus ruber, Dorycnium hirsutum (aka Hairy Canary Clover), Jasminum polyanthum (hanging over the fence from my neighbor's garden), and Leptospermum scoparium 'Pink Pearl' |
Those of you who've included peonies in recent arrangements know I suffer from a severe case of peony envy. I have 2 peony plants but the Itoh peony hasn't bloomed since the year I purchased it (in 2013!) and the Majorcan variety, which generally produces at least a single bloom, has produced none this year. So, when my hairdresser told me the market down the street from her shop had peonies, I treated myself to some. It's an IAVOM cheat but here's my third vase:
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| The rose may be the queen of flowers but I think the peony is the empress. This vase is sitting in the kitchen window where I can admire the flowers many times a day but it didn't photograph well there. |
For more Monday vases,
visit our host, Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.
And best wishes to all of you in the US for a happy Memorial Day holiday!
All material © 2012-2018 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
