In a Vase on Monday: Forget-Me-Not

In early May, following our first major heatwave, I mail-ordered plants I'd had on my wish list when they finally became available.  As the price for shipping is the same for 8 plants as it is for 5, I added 3 Chinese forget-me-not plants, Cynoglossum amabile, to the order as a spur-of-the-moment selection.  When the plants arrived, we were entering our second heatwave and all that came to mind was "what was I thinking?".   I'd never grown them before.  They aren't heat or drought tolerant.  And I had no place identified for them.  I plunked them in pots in a partially shaded area that had been left bare by the loss of other plants following the May heatwaves.  To my surprise, they thrived.  They began blooming about a week ago.

I selected them as the focal plant for my next bouquet because they're prolific bloomers.  In addition, the turquoise tint to the flowers doesn't do anything for the purplish-blue Agapanthus flowering above them so cutting them doesn't prompt the usual angst I feel when taking fresh blooms from the garden.

Cynoglossum amabile situated below Agapanthus in my backyard border

As this Friday is Independence Day and we have guests coming to watch the firework displays visible in the harbor area and beyond, I thought I should create a red, white and blue bouquet.  However, there's very little red in my garden.  I found just one true red flower in bloom, a coneflower (Echinacea 'Cheyenne Spirit').  I added some blue Salvia, white Shasta daisies and feverfew.  The result didn't thrill me.

The stiff form of the coneflower, which seemed in stark contrast to the looser form of the other flowers, bothered me more than the color (which matched the canisters behind the bouquet in the picture above very well!).  I pulled the coneflower and replaced it with a stem of my blue Lisianthus.  The new mix meshed much better with the blue and purple vase I'd selected.

The revised bouquet contains the following:

• 4 stems of Cynoglossum amabile 'Blue Showers' (aka Chinese foret-me-not)
• 1 stem of Eustoma  grandiflorum 'Borealis Blue' (aka Lisianthus)
• 3 stems of Leucanthemum x superbum 'Snow Lady' (aka Shasta daisy)
• 3 stems of Salvia 'Mystic Spires'
• 2 stems of Tanacetum parthenium 'Aureum' (aka golden feverfew)

Close-up of Cynoglossum amabile and Tanacetum parthenium

Close-up of Eustoma grandiflorum 'Borealis Blue'

Close-up of Salvia 'Mystic Spires' and Leucanthemum x superbum 'Snow Lady'

The coneflower was banished to the guest bathroom with some other floral remnants.

The bathroom gets a tiny red, white and blue bouquet, which looks bigger than it is with flowers duplicated in the mirror

And my featured bouquet ends up on the dining table, replacing last week's edition.

This is my contribution to the weekly meme hosted by Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.  Please click here to see her composition and to find links to posts by other contributors.