In scouting my garden in advance of Bloom Day, I noticed that the
Leptospermum scoparium 'Pink Pearl,' featured earlier in my January Bloom Day post, are still blanketed in flowers. The small pink flowers have burgundy centers, which I thought might provide a nice complement to the maroon red spikes of one of the
Antirrhinum majus growing in my vegetable garden. Despite my reliance on drip irrigation and the great care I've taken to avoid getting the snapdragon foliage wet, they're once again under attack by rust. They'll probably have to be pulled soon so I'd like to make use of the blooms while I can. Cathy's meme at
Rambling in the Garden provided me the necessary impetus to get to it.
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| Bouquet photographed outside the front door |
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| A shot showing the arrangement from the top |
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| Close-up of snapdragon and Leptospermum flower |
As my husband had taken over the kitchen, my favorite place to take photographs of my bouquets, I had to go outside to take these pictures. Outside of the kitchen, which is mostly white, either the light or the background tends to present a problem.
With its woody stems, it remains to be seen how well the
Leptospermum will hold up in the vase but I cut deeply into the wood to facilitate the stems' ability to take up water. In addition to the
Leptospermum and the
Antirrhinum, I added
Abelia x grandiflora 'Confetti' as a foliage accent, cream-colored sweet peas (
Lathyrus odoratus 'Perfume Delight') for scent, and a stem of
Dianthus barbatus 'Heart Attack' for a deeper red element. I used a painted glass vase my mother gave me many, many years ago because it picked up the colors of the flowers.
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| Fuzzy close-up of Abelia x grandiflora 'Confetti' |
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| Close-up of Dianthus barbatus 'Heart Attack,' highlighting just how deep its red color is |
I'd cut
Alstroemeria and
Cuphea ignea 'Starfire Pink' when I was out in the garden but I thought they detracted from the arrangement so the extra flowers went into a separate vase that ended up in the guest bathroom.
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| This week's floral rejects |
These bouquets are my contributions to Cathy's collection of floral constructions this week. You can view Cathy's own creation - and find links to other floral concoctions -
here. My thanks again to Cathy for getting me back in the habit of cutting flowers for use in the house.
