In a Vase on Monday: From subtle to vivid

This is my one-thousandth post since starting this blog in late December 2012.  I've participated in several memes in that period but none more frequently than "In a Vase on Monday," which I joined in March 2014, so it seems entirely appropriate that this post falls on a Monday.  As it's December, there's less blooming in my garden than usual but, hey, when you''re lucky enough to live in coastal Southern California, there's always something.  Today's vases may be far from the most unique or interesting I've created over the course of well over 200 IAVOM posts but every week I'm still surprised at just how much I can find to cobble together to fill one vase, if not two or more.

The blooms on Correa 'Ivory Bells' are more profuse than those of any of my other Australian fuchsias and the buttercream flowers of the Mimulus (monkeyflower) I picked up several weeks ago complement them perfectly

I added Moroccan daisies (Pyrethropsis hosmarinese)  to the back of the arrangement

The buff color of the ornamental grass's plumes echoes the underside of the Correa's leaves

Clockwise from the upper left: Abelia x grandiflora 'Hopley's Variegated', Correa 'Ivory Bells', Laurel nobilis, Pennisetum 'Fireworks', Pyrethropsis hosmariense, Westringia fruticosa 'Morning Light', and Mimulus 'Jelly Bean Buttercream'

The orchid is reportedly a hybrid combining genes of Oncidium, Odontoglossum, and Miltonia, now classified as Oncostele. (Orchid genealogy makes my eyes cross.)

I picked up the red color in the orchid using Celosia 'Intenz' (shown here at the back of the vase)

and the red flower-like bracts of two Leucadendrons, but I think the variegated foliage of Leucadendron 'Jester'  did more to pull the composition together

Clockwise from the upper left: Celosia argentea 'Intenz', Coleonema pulchellum 'Sunset Gold', Leucadendron 'Devil's Blush', L. 'Safari Sunset', Leptospermum 'Copper Glow', Oncostele 'Wildcat' and, in the center, Leucadendron 'Jester'