In my
bloom day post, I bemoaned the absence of some of my usual October blooms. Well, those blooms may have arrived late to the garden party but they're making up for lost time now, even if it feels more like summer than fall here. Temperatures have soared again, our Santa Ana winds are back, and the red flag warnings signaling heightened fire risk are up once more.
I was prepared to create 3 vases but as usual one thing led to another when I set out looking for flowers and foliage to cut and I spent time pulling weeds and cutting plants back. By the time I finished, it was too hot to spend much more time outside so I settled for 2 vases. The first features
Senna bicapsularis, also known as Winter or Christmas Senna. As it always blooms in October here, neither of those common names is meaningful to me, but I expect it must bloom in winter in the northern areas of South America, from which it hails.
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| I hadn't any idea what to use to accent the Senna but luckily Grevillea 'Peaches & Cream' offered some fresh blooms |
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| Back view, showing Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder' and Abelia 'Kaleidoscope' |
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| Top view |
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| Clockwise from the upper left are: Grevillea 'Peaches & Cream', Abelia 'Kaleidoscope', Coprosma 'Evening Glow', Senna bicapsularis 'Worley's Butter Cream', unripe berries of a noID Cotoneaster, and Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder' |
I created a second vase featuring
Barleria obtusa, the bush violet I used last week. This week I paired it with late blooming stems of
Eustoma grandiflorum 'Black Pearl'. The latter is prettier than I gave it credit for earlier but not nearly as robust as the other Lisianthus cultivars I've grown. Of the 24 plugs I planted in spring, only about half a dozen produced flowers and many of the plugs simply withered and died.
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| This photo shows how much smaller the flowers of the purplish-black Lisianthus are in comparison to the larger white cultivar |
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| I used Artemisia ludoviciana, a self-planted weed, to add light to the back of the vase |
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| Top view |
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| Clockwise from the upper left, the vase contains: Barleria obtusa, Artemisia ludoviciana, Erigeron glacus 'Wayne Roderick', 2 cultivars of Eustoma grandiflorum, Hypoestes aristata (aka ribbon bush), and Leucanthemum x superbum |
For more Monday vases,
visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.
All material © 2012-2017 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
Your fall bounty is spectacular....I do envy that Kris....stunning vases with that buttery subdued yellow against my favorite purples!
ReplyDeleteThose are 2 of my favorite colors, Donna. It's too bad the Barleria and the Senna don't look good together in the same vase.
DeleteAnd it looks more like summer than fall! Hope your heat mellows soon...
ReplyDeleteWe peaked at 101F today and now, at 7:30pm, it's still 89F outside. Tomorrow is predicted to be as bad but then the heat should start to taper off.
DeleteVery artistic as usual, Kris, the lushness is a welcome change for me as here autumn has clearly arrived and colours are starting to become muted in the borders. Have a good week, Annette
ReplyDeleteIt's very summer-like here, Annette, although not in a good way!
DeleteIs the weather all to pot everywhere? Here it is very mild again, for us that is, you'd probably think it was very cold. The Senna is a beautiful colour and I do like the airy artmesia.
ReplyDeleteI consider anything in the low 60sF (16C) cold, Alison! Our nights have been cool for the past month but I'm not sure we're going to get much of a cool-down tonight.
DeleteLovely as usual, we get the Senna here and Barleria, though I have neither yours look wonderful with their friends in the vases.I have a friend in LA who keeps posting the temps, time to stay in the A/C,hope it breaks soon.
ReplyDeleteThe forecast was for 4 days of higher than average temperatures before a slow cool-down. It hit 101F here today, with humidity stuck at 10% and below. The rolling heatwaves are getting more than a little annoying...
DeleteThe senna is very similar to my coronilla which blooms in winter. I love the fabulous Grevillea Peaches and Cream, what a pretty colour scheme. I love the colour scheme of your second vase too. I was surprised to hear that the lovely artemesia is a weed. Both vases are gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteThe Artemisia is weed I've let stay. Artemisia ludoviciana is a lot prettier than the A. californica I planted deliberately.
DeleteSuch a rich mix of varied blues - I must remember to pick Barleria (in April when it blooms for me again)
ReplyDeleteThe Barleria does drop its blooms fairly steadily but they fall intact (i.e. they don't make much of a mess) and the buds continue to open so I count it a vase-worthy plant.
DeleteLove how you always do such different bouquets, and they're both equally interesting! I also have such envy of your blue lisianthus! I need to try them in Austin, but I suspect they would either melt or fry.
ReplyDeleteI think the Lisianthus would be worth a try in Austin, Lori. The foliage is very succulent. The plants will over-winter here but we don't get freezes - I expect they'd be annuals in your climate.
DeleteI always love your arrangements, Kris and this week is another lovely two to admire. Standouts are E.Black Pearl, Barleria and G.Peaches and Cream. I realized that I've begun to recognize plants in your climate, whereas years ago they were all new to me. Blogging is a learning experience! ;)
ReplyDeleteNow you're probably ready for garden tours of Australia and South Africa, Eliza! A good many of my plants originate from those countries.
DeleteSorry about the return of your heat. Your blooms seem to be soldiering on nicely in spite of the weather. The Senna bicapsularis arrangement is so carefree and summery looking and for those of us up here in the cold and wet, that's a good thing!
ReplyDeleteI'd gladly exchange some of our heat for a bit of your rain (heck, all of it!), Peter.
DeleteIs the loopy-petalled flower in your first arrangement also Grevillea? It’s other-worldly!
ReplyDeleteYes, that's also Grevillea 'Peaches & Cream'. The flowers start out a creamy yellow and develop the peach color you see in the fuller blooms on the left as they mature. I've fallen head-over-heels for Grevilleas, especially the large-flowered varieties like 'Peaches & Cream' and 'Superb'.
DeleteYour vases are always an inspiration Kris; I'm sure everyone was shocked to read that it became too hot to stay out to pick more flowers; here that would have been true a few weeks ago but now our temperatures have taken a huge dip. 6°C (42.8°F) yesterday morning at 8.30.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping for a similar precipitous dip in temperatures here, Christina, but it looks as though we'll probably have to settle for a slow cool-down. Our temperatures soared above 100F (38C) on Monday and Tuesday and are expected to be just slightly cooler today. Our humidity level also remains dangerously low.
DeleteA favorite quote of mine, probably written by Charles Dudley Warner... “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.”
DeleteBeautiful again!
ReplyDeleteSurprised you have anything at all that isn't brown and crispy. This heat is terrible. The overnight low was 84F.
Our rooftop weather station registered 92F at 11pm Monday night! It's already down to 88F at 5:30pm today so things are improving, at least a little...I cut the flowers on Sunday before the heat got really intolerable; however, the bush violet (Barleria) has taken this week's heatwave in stride. Let me know if you want me to save you some seed. It spreads readily but it's manageable and the foliage is attractive too.
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