Monday, June 30, 2014

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.


24 comments:

  1. Nice bouquet
    Thanks for all the kind comments about my garden.
    It was a very successful day.
    Thank you and have a nice time.
    Mariana

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  2. Gorgeous colours. The blue , mauve and white are lovely together. I love the vase. Your arrangements are always stunning.
    I think your Echinacea goes better with the bathroom arrangement.

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    1. I like the Echinacea better in the small vase too, Chloris. I'm sure I'll find a better opportunity to use Echinacea in a larger arrangement sometime this summer.

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  3. Very very pretty! I never seem to get around to cutting flowers and putting some arrangements together for the house.

    Love those purple lisianthus

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    1. Maybe you should join the party and cut flowers for a vase next Monday, Deanne. I probably wouldn't have a new arrangement in the house every week without the discipline imposed by this weekly post.

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  4. It's beautiful! Eustoma is absolutely gorgeous!

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    1. Thanks, Dewberry. That double Eustoma is one of my favorite summer flowers.

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  5. I wouldn't have thought of putting purple with blue but is looks fabulous. I like the airiness of this arrangement and you were right to change the Echinacea; it is more dynamic with the Eustoma. Fun to have flowers in the bathroom too!

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    1. I think the blue and purple work in this instance largely because the vase repeats the 2 colors.

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  6. Lovely combination of white and blue - they go so well together. I also think the Echinacea looks just right in the small vase, so I think you made the right choice! ;-)

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    1. Thanks, Cathy. The castoff flowers gave me the opportunity to decorate the bathroom for guests, too.

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  7. Yep, better without the coneflower! Isn't it nice when a plant you thought would succumb to the heat wave didn't and it actually thrived? Fab bonus! :)

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    1. Yes, and I found I really like the forget-me-nots. It'll be better still if it self-seeds but that may be pushing my luck too far.

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  8. I liked the first arrangement with the striking coneflower, but wow! The second one is great. Love that Lisianthus with the blue of the Chinese forget-me-not.

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    1. This time, Susie, I had a vase that added something to the flowers.

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  9. Wow, Kris - the blue of the forget-me-not is stunning when picked and against a different background. The colour is a real knockout like this - and you were right to swap the echinacea for the lisianthus. What conditions does the lisianthus prefer? it's gorgeous and so is your salvia. The last picture is real serendipity, isn't it? Thanks for sharing :)

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    1. I'm pleased with the forget-me-not, Cathy, although, now that I have a better read on the flower color, I'll probably place it elsewhere the next time I grow it. The Lisianthus (Eustoma grandiflorum) is a short-lived perennial usually grown as an annual. It can take full to partial sun but needs regular water.

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  10. Stunning! You encouraged me to get more creative with my daisies! I LOVE your arrangement and blog!

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    1. Thanks, Kristin. I look forward to seeing your future creations.

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  11. Were you thinking of matching the tablecloth when you made this bouquet? It is perfect!

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    1. I didn't consider the table runner when I created the 1st bouquet containing the Echinacea but, when I placed the vase on the table and decided that the Echinacea really didn't belong, the table runner made the the decision to cut a stem of Lisianthus to fill the space the obvious choice.

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  12. I put some traditional and Chinese Forget Me Not seeds in a pot a few months back. They shot up lots of foliage at first and then some of the leaves started to brown. I moved them into shade with maybe a little morning sun and all of a sudden the Chinese Forget Me Not is blooming. Sometimes you just never know what is or isn't going to work in our Zone so I guess it's always worth a shot! p.s. Very pretty with the blue and white bouquet.

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    1. I wasn't sure the forget-me-nots would survive here either, Danielle, but partial shade during the hottest part of the day and extra water (the plants are in pots within the border) did the trick for me.

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