I have a happy combo post combining two blogs that offer a challenge. It is day seven for participating in Becky’s Life of B square challenge of Simply Red. I’m using the Christmas in July Santa Mug floral arrangement as part of Cathy’s IAVOM challenge on the Rambling in the Garden blog. A thank you to both of these ladies for the energy and time it takes to host challenges. I enjoy them very much!
Inside my Santa Mug are Simply Red flowers from my garden and a bit of foliage. A Mr. Lincoln rose, red geranium, and Lady in Red salvia. I like the curve of the mug that extends through the drape of the flowers. Happy Monday to all.
The roses in this arrangement are a type of damask Rose. The blossoms are usually one of the earliest to open in my garden beds. They are a lilac-blue color, and the soft petals are abundant and fragrant. The small arrangement is within a crystal votive, easy to fit in a nook of the house that needs a bit of brightening.
I hope everyone has a blessed Easter Monday. My IAVOM (In a Vase on Monday) is a day old since it was Easter Sunday’s table arrangement. Three rooting bottles hold a sprig of Aucuba evergreen, deep purple Iris with a slightly grapelike fragrance and variegated tulips. All flowers and foliage were gathered from my garden beds. A piece of glittery tulle ribbon dressed up the bottles a bit, and the arrangements were slim and not cumbersome as they decorated the tables.
I love receiving palms at the end of the Palm Sunday service. I added mine to my IAVOM (In a Vase on Monday) arrangement. The only other plant material is crabapple buds draped gracefully from slender branches. They are lovely, about to bloom, and seem to have the slightest of sweet scents. A small handmade cross, received at Hart’s Sunrise Easter service in Northeast Maryland two years ago, adds a touch of gratitude for Christ’s sacrifice for us.
The vase is a blown glass pitcher of Jamestown Glass. Thank you to Rambling in the Garden for hosting the weekly challenge, and to the Ragtag Daily Prompt challenge host.
I hope the days leading up to Easter Sunday will be a blessed week for all my blogging friends.
The hydrangeas I displayed as my IAVOM two weeks ago, have dried beautifully. The colors have deepened into a beautiful purple and sage green. They rustle when I lightly brush them, and the sound reminds me of old book pages. I was so happy with the shade of their flowers that I used them as the inspiration for the Autumn mantel and strayed away from my usual golds, burgundy, and rust.
The hydrangeas are in a vase that, while a bit minty, can almost pass for sage green. I frequently use this McCoy Swan vase for arrangements. Surrounding the vase are gourds we bought in farm markets and garden centers this past weekend. A wise owl looks on the display; his heart-shaped face expresses fond approval of my choices. A wooden mushroom, last year’s birthday present from a sister, seems to fit in with the theme. I love to strew beads and garlands of bells over the mantel in a haphazard way. It adds a bit of interest.
What you can’t see are the old books and other Autumn decorations to the left, all in the same shades. Thanks for visiting and thank you to Rambling in the Garden, the host of IAVOM.
This week’s IAVOM arrangement is of hydrangeas in a utility vase for drying.
At this time of year, outdoors, my hydrangeas all appear to be a burnt-out rose color.
Flip that flower right side up again and witness a stunning transformation as the most beautiful watercolor tones appear.
To dry my hydrangeas, I cut them in late summer, when most of the moisture in the petals is gone, and place them in a vase of water. Half of these are already dried. They are ready to remove from the water in a week or two.
I’m attempting to have flowers on my kitchen table every day, especially in the summer months when my garden is bursting at the seams with colorful blossoms. This plan will fulfill two goals, and I will also create a vase for In A Vase on Monday. (IAVOM) This challenge is hosted by the Ramblings in the Garden Blog.
When I gazed out the window this morning, the coral petals of two roses grabbed my attention. They would perfectly match the lilies blooming in another garden bed. I added white Snapdragons and some cream-colored Echinacea to the bouquet.
The vase looked so pretty in the guest room I almost felt guilty moving it to the kitchen.
Monday morning, I’m enjoying the brilliant sunshine after a rainy Mother’s Day. My family was so sweet and showered me with flowers. All the raindrops were forgotten amid such love. The vase I’ve created is a hybrid, filled with flowers blooming in the garden and also with the small broken stems of the larger bouquets I received.
For today’s IAVOM, I used as a focal point a beautiful Iris that blossomed for Mother’s Day. I also included False Indigo stems from my garden, an excellent perennial for flower arranging. Can you spy the puffy chive blossoms near the Iris? The kangaroo paws, mini-carnations, tulip, and lily were broken stems from the Mother’s Day bouquets.
In memory of my mother, I placed a bunch of yellow tulips in the living room. In her last months on this earth, her house was filled with vases of silken yellow tulips. When I look at them, I remember her and the cheerfulness of the flowers she chose to place in her home. A Willow Tree figurine, titled Tenderly, seemed perfect to include.
It’s a purple kind of day. It is not a gloomy deep purple mood, but instead, the bright lavender of the Boomerang Lilac that has put on quite a display in the side-yard. This is not a sprawling bush, but I hope it grows a few feet taller than the 3.5 to 4 feet it is now.
The flowers smell slightly of Lilac but do not envelop you in scent when you approach as I had hoped when I purchased it. This variety’s charm is that it is supposed to rebloom in the summer.
A few Iris buds, some Vinca Vine in a lovely shade of Periwinkle, and sprigs of Wisteria are included. The vase is a small watering can I bought years ago because I loved the sparrows on the front.
This post is part of this week’s In A Vase of Monday (IAVOM) hosted by Rambling in the Garden.
The antidote to the windy weather of yesterday was to take a morning walk around the yard and gather Spring flowers for IAVOM.
I have placed a few of the flowers blooming in my garden inside the vase. The inner petals of the tulip are gorgeous. What a sanctuary for a bee! If I were small and had wings, I would dive in after the pollen and buzz in delight. There is nothing ho-hum about these beautiful colors and forms.
Other flowers in the vase are Iris, Bleeding Heart, and Vinca.
I keep hearing the children’s chorus, This Little Light of Mine, as I gaze at the bright area around the tulip’s stigma and anthers.
The In a Vase on Monday challenge allowed me to use the pink McCoy Swan Vase I found in Goodwill a few weeks ago. I didn’t have much in my yard that would look nice in a vase. After the recent snowstorm, there is very little dried material to be salvaged for bouquets. I added evergreen sprigs from my gardens, Nandina, Aucuba, Vinca, and purchased Lily stems. The pink color of the vase seems an appropriate way to welcome in the first week of February.
Thank you to Rambling in the Garden for hosting this challenge.
Seven hundred days…that is how long the weather forecasters told us our area had not seen accumulating snowfall. This week, when the skies greyed and beautiful snowflakes began to descend, it created a swell of joy in many, especially children with new sleds and toboggans. It was a superb snowstorm, not so much as to cause a complete standstill, but enough to have a bit of fun in. Even the most winter-weary could not feel hostility toward it when they gazed at a landscape frosted with white.
There is little left in my yard to vase. I took advantage of an amaryllis that had grown so top-heavy it had to spend its last days in the garage. I found a basket instead of a vase. Anything glass or porcelain might have cracked in the freezing temperatures. I plucked a few stems of sedum that still had some dried flowers and placed them in the spring-green basket. The amaryllis mirrored the brilliant snow. It is a fun way to celebrate IAVOM (In a Vase on Monday) and the glorious snowfall.
The Farmer’s Almanac counts down how many days of winter are left. As of today, there are 63 days left until Spring. Whoo-hoo! I have some sprigs of daffodils showing above ground, and this week, when storms knocked over pots planted with tulip bulbs, I saw that beneath the soil, the bulbs had rooted and were beginning to send up shoots. I hope being overturned won’t stunt the growth.
I have no flowers or interesting dried-out sprigs left to display in a vase for Rambling in the Garden – IAVOM. Happily, I do have a few evergreen plants growing in the gardens. I have gathered sprigs of Nandina, English Ivy, Barberry, and Vinca vine inside today’s vase. I also added a dried-out tassels of a Bald Cypress. To add some interest, I plucked Wisteria pods off the bush and added those into the mix.
The bouquet is so-so, but the vase is a treasure I found this week. Searching for unique containers to craft into hanging planters, I stopped at the local Goodwill. Usually, I find junk, and a caution for other treasure hunters; I often have seen Dollar Store items in the Goodwill store marked at $1.99. To be blunt, this always annoys me. I am often tempted to point it out to the manager, but the earnings from Goodwill Industries go to non-profit groups. Many of the stores have very high rents to pay in the shopping centers they are located in. For this reason, I don’t say a word.
Back to the find in the Goodwill, though. I found treasure—two beautiful McCoy Swan Vases. One is pink, and the other is blue. I used the blue vase for today’s arrangement. I do not have an eye for antiques as some do, but I love McCoy pottery, and I am good at spotting that variety.
My beautiful McCoy vase twins are, Whatsoever is Lovely to me—a perfect choice for Xingfu Mama’s Week Two Challenge.
I don’t have much growing in the garden, but my IAVOM arrangement for the first day of 2024 contains the few flowers and pieces of foliage still blooming.
Contained in the vase is a Bidens blossom. This tiny flower is about the size of a quarter. It is inconspicuous in the garden border during the summer, overtaken by plants that grow exuberantly. After these plants die back in the cold temperatures, the Bidens thrive for several months. The Spruce has a great article on how to grow Bidens perennials in the garden.
One pansy was blooming brilliantly in a terracotta pot in the backyard. Hurrah! It is bedraggled in a few places, but on the whole, it is still lovely and perfect for Cee’s Flower of the Day.
Dandelions are within the vase but opened after I took the photograph. There will be more to come on dandelions tomorrow. I love the spent seedhead. It’s done its job, and the umbrella-like pappus dispersed all the seeds into the air.
Fennel is still filling the garden beds in various heights and sizes. When I picked a few sprigs for the vase I momentarily smelled that distinctive licorice fragrance the foliage puts out. This wonderful herb is one of my major host plants for butterflies. I imagine many Black Swallowtail caterpillars on the fennel come to Spring when I daydream about my 2024 gardens.
Lastly, I picked a few pieces of Butterfly Bush foliage, still glowing blue-green in the grip of winter weather, and used those leaves as a base for the flowers.
My IAVOM (In A Vase on Monday) floral arrangement has a definite Christmas theme. Although no flowers are left blooming in my backyard, I have many evergreen trees and bushes to use in vases. The vase in this arrangement is a heavy-bottomed crystal bowl. The weight helps keep the long piece of floral foam/oasis steady. I used an entire piece for this project and trimmed the top corners. to a Christmas tree shape.
The bottom layers are inserted into the oasis with a downward curve, the following few middle layers are inserted straight out, and the top layers of greens are inserted pointed upwards. I added a few purchased roses and some baby’s breath. A friend created the tree with me, and it’s interesting how different our trees were when finished.
One caution if you create a similar tree, place the container in the sink for a few hours. Gravity caused the water in the oasis to drain downward. The result was overflow. I also put a plate under the arrangement; a bowl would have worked too.
Here is the same arrangement in color. Both of my sons wore the shoes around the bottom. The little pink slippers were mine as a baby. They look sweet around the Christmas tree; having them out allows me to cherish the memories again.
The baby shoe display is part of Xingfu Mama’s ‘Whatsoever is Lovely’ challenge. I applaud all who take the time to offer challenges for WordPress bloggers, and a big end-of-the-year thank you to the readers who leave such gracious feedback in my comment section. It is appreciated.
My IAVOM (In A Vase on Monday) this week contains half garden/half purchased flowers. The foliage from my garden is Pine, Holly, and Aucuba leaves. The arrangement is my revolving Christmas table decoration. As the flowers fade, I remove them and add new stems.
The greenery will last for the entire month and even longer if I keep it. The Aucuba stem has rooted for me in the past, but the bush takes years to become full size, and it is easier to purchase a nursery plant if you want to include it in your garden beds. I love Aucuba greens. They are lovely for arranging flowers. The sturdy, long stems are like a grid inside the vase and will help separate your flowers and hold them steady.
A Christmas Angel and an old antique crystal dish holding extra ornaments are alongside the vase. I have many empty vases and bowls filled with baubles in dark areas around the house. They speckle the dark corners in the house with Christmas cheer.
The red mini-carnations are over a week old and still blooming nicely. They have a mild cinnamon fragrance. The white roses were a lucky find, purchased in the supermarket; it is rare to find roses with such a high petal count and without browning for under $10.00.
Flower Arranging Tip: To choose a bunch of roses that will last, gently squeeze the base of the rose where it joins the stem. If it is squishy, it won’t last. If the feel is firm, the roses are fresh. Slightly open Roses will continue to bloom. Flowers that end in a sharp point are unlikely to unfurl. Cut the stems underwater at a diagonal to make roses last even longer in an arrangement. This technique keeps the stem from forming an air bubble and allows the water to flow into the entire stem.
We’ve had a hard frost and there’s not much left alive in the garden. Happily for me, there are still several roses blooming. They are rewarding me now after a summer slump. It’s easy to decide on what to use when your choices are limited.
Roses are some of the first bright blooms of spring after the pansies, daffodils and tulips. One of my best varieties is a brilliant pink miniature rose called Fairy. In the beginning days of November, it is loaded with pink blossoms. I almost hate to cut them, but since I don’t go out as frequently now that the weather has turned chilly, bringing flowers in will give me more time to enjoy them.
They are my IAVOM selection, and also a part of Cee’s FOTD. Included in the vase, a bottle I use for rooting cuttings, are pieces of foliage that are still surviving: Helichrysum Icicles and scented geranium sprigs. The vase itself looked a little plain so I dressed it up a bit with one of my necklaces.
In my gardens everything is beginning to dry out and brown. The annuals have had their summer fling, and the perennials are beginning to nod off too, ready to be put to bed for the winter months. I thought instead of picking flowers from my gardens for this week’s In a Vase on Monday, I would take a bike ride and see if there were any wildflowers to be found.
I was surprised to find a few sprigs of honeysuckle having a bit of a renaissance, blooming, and still spreading a bit of fragrance. Since it was in a spot no one would see, I didn’t feel badly picking it for a bouquet. I kept riding, picking berries, and Autumn leaves, surprised to find the goldenrod was over, I had been sure it would still be available.
A neighbor saw me peddling up the street, took note of the sprigs I held in my hand, and asked if I was giving my flowers a ride. I answered yes, and that they were free flowers.
One wild stem I found was Porcelain Berry, something new to me, and a little dangerous in appearance. If a berry ever looked poisonous to me, this one surely did. I had a plastic bag in my pocket and I wrapped it around the stem after I picked it in case the sap was deadly.
For a bit of clarity, and peace of mind, before I handled it further, I used my photo search app. Ampelopsis glandulosa is its classification. It isn’t poisonous at all, and has some health benefits. These are the culinary uses I found when I researched the plant: Leaves and buds can be consumed after being cooked, the fruit (berries) can be consumed raw or cooked.
I find the porcelain berries beautiful, however, they are very invasive and can kill native plants. Birds eat the plump berries and the seeds are spread in this way.
Health benefits of Ampelopsis glandulosa: Some health benefits are treating boils, abscesses and ulcers, bruising. They are anti-inflammatory, diuretic, has been used to treat breast cancer.
The plants used in today’s IAVOM are: honeysuckle, bittersweet berries, porcelain berries, crabapple, frost aster, autumn clematis seedpods and sassafras leaves.
I still have a few plants blooming despite cooler temperatures. Gone is the cumbersome task of daily weeding, and left to me is a rebirth of the hardier blooms to cut and arrange. Here is a sampling of a few blossoms I thought were a good representation of Autumn colors. They are perfect for the In A Vase on Monday challenge.
My hyacinth bulb vase holds some coleus leaves, Knockout rosebuds in Coral, and sprigs of Agastache Poquito Orange. (After checking 2023 seed orders, I realized this plant is not Poquito Orange, but a apricot variety from the Fragrant Delight Mix of Agastache Seeds available from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.)
I love the Agastache I grew from seeds, sown indoors in late Winter. They are a beautiful shade; the blossoms are the size of a dime. Even the buds are attractive as they elongate and open. The flowers, growing in pots, never stopped their showy display from late Spring through Autumn. The photograph of my Agastache was taken yesterday.
The plants thrived in medium-sized pots in combination with other hummingbird plants. There is evidence of a few small nibbles of insects, but the plant is basically ignored by most pests. Perhaps it is not any wisdom or luck on my part they are uninfested, but due to the fact that they are in potting soil instead of the garden beds. They are small, about 10 inches tops, and they have a graceful drape to their stems, making them perfect to place around the edges of planters and hanging baskets. Will I grow these again? Oh yes!
I’m not ready to vegetate yet where the garden or Word Press challenges are concerned. I enjoyed including several challenges in today’s post. Thanks to all the hosts of these wonderful prompts to help me keep thinking and looking ahead. The Agastache flowers are part of Cee’s Flower of the Day and all my beautiful blooms are an entry in City Sonnet’s Colors and Letters Challenge – Letter F = Flowers.
Fennel flowers, Rue seedpods, and some fennel fronds with a piece of dill added here and there, make up my rather strange vased bouquet for Ramblings in the Gardens challenge of In a Vase on Monday. The herbal bouquet has a job to do, provide food for the caterpillars feeding in the Butterfly House. They are still in the small to medium stage, the larger ones have formed chrysalis, save one, who is still deciding if the time is right to drop off the rue stem.
I have seven smaller caterpillars happily munching the new bouquet. The climate in this area has been perfect for the development of caterpillars now that the wildfire smoke is gone. This bouquet will soon be eaten down to mere nubs, not a long-lasting arrangement to be sure. All of these herbs, along with parsley and Queen Anne’s Lace are host plants for Black Swallowtail butterflies in my area.
Although they produce a lot of frass (insect waste), they don’t make any type of fracas, and are silent companions on the porch. An ongoing diary of the Butterfly rearing of 2023 can be found at the top of this page, or can be followed from this link: Butterfly Diary.
