After almost a solid week of rain, my garden is saturated. That may bode well for my spring blooms but at present there's not much more in flower than there was last week. I couldn't think of anything new to do with my large-flowered
Grevilleas so I checked my back slope on the off-chance that the calla lilies might have made an appearance. They haven't, but while I was down there I cut a few stems of
Ribes viburnifolium, aka Catalina Perfume Currant, challenging myself to come up with something to bring out the color of the currant's tiny flowers. I'm not at all satisfied with my results. The color variations are too subtle and there's no real focal point to the arrangement but the high winds that kicked up in the afternoon tabled whatever thoughts I may have had about a re-do.
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| In retrospect, I should have traded the greener Leucadendron"flowers" for more red and yellow-tinged specimens. After reviewing my photos for this post, I pulled one stem of green bracts out of the vase but the light required for passable photos was gone so I won't be showing the impact here. |
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| Back view, showing off the variegated foliage of Hebe 'Purple Shamrock' |
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| Top view, dominated by the more colorful bracts of Leucadendron 'Safari Sunset' |
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| Clockwise from the upper left: Grevillea rosmarinifolia, Coprosma repens 'Plum Hussey', Hebe 'Purple Shamrock', Leucadendron 'Blush', L. 'Summer Red', L, 'Safari Sunset', and Ribes viburnifolium |
Last week's vases stood up relatively well. After a little tweaking, I shifted them to different spots with the new vase stationed in the front entry.
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| All the middle vase needed were new stems of paperwhite Narcissus while the vase on the right was simplified, stripped of its rose, poppy and Grevillea stems |
For more Monday vases,
visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.
There are positive signs on the horizon in my garden. My
Freesias, Ceanothus, Calliandra, and one
Echium all have buds and
Camellia 'Taylor's Perfection' produced its first bloom on Saturday. How long it'll take for the buds to bloom isn't clear to me but they have me looking forward to the days ahead. I participated in a local "sister march" associated with the third
Women's March this past Saturday and found positive signs for the future there too.
All material © 2012-2019 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
