Without any blooms in my cutting beds, I've had to take a harder look at the rest of my garden for inspiration in preparing flower arrangements for "In a Vase on Monday," the popular meme hosted by Cathy at
Rambling in the Garden. My go-to plants for a couple of weeks now have been
Senna bicapsularis and
Barleria obtusa. While both are still in bloom, I couldn't think of anything new to do with either at the moment so I searched out some old standbys instead.
Grevillea 'Superb' literally blooms year-round here and its flowers provided the jumping off point for my first vase this week.
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| Tagetes lemmonii (aka Copper Canyon Daisy) just started its fall bloom cycle, providing a bright accent to the more subdued blooms of the Grevillea |
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| Other accents are provided by the variegated foliage of Coprosma 'Fire Burst' and berries of Nandina domestica |
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| Top view |
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| Clockwise from the upper left: Agonis flexuosa 'Nana', Coprosma repens 'Fire Burst', flowers of Echeveria 'Blue Curls', Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder', berries of Nandina domestica, Tagetes lemmonii, and Grevillea 'Superb' |
My second vase celebrates the recovery of my Hong Kong orchid tree (
Bauhinia x blakeana). The semi-evergreen tree dropped all its leaves following the horrific heatwave we had in early July, the first time I've ever seen that happen. The leaves slowly came back in the months after that event but there were few flowers until recently. I cut 3 stems for a second small vase.
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| The orchid tree's blooms don't last longer than a few days but using them in a vase allows me to enjoy them close-up |
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| I embellished the back of the vase using Celosia 'Intenz' |
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| The top view shows off the reddish-pink blooms of a new Lisianthus I recently discovered at my local garden center |
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| Clockwise from the upper left: Bauhinia x blakeana, Eustoma grandiflorum (aka Lisianthus), Gomphrena decumbens 'Itsy Bitsy', Celosia argentea 'Intenz Dark Purple', and Pseuderanthemum 'Texas Tri-star' |
For more vases created from materials gardeners have on hand,
visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.
All material © 2012-2018 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
