In a Vase on Monday: Rhapsody in blue

Ominous rain forecasts followed us all weekend but both Saturday and Sunday were relatively sunny, if not exactly warm.  The onset of rain was pushed back several times but Monday will almost certainly see some and, unless the forecasters are really off their game, Tuesday will see more.  The front page of the Los Angeles Times on Sunday featured a front page article on my area's long-running issue with a slow-ball landslide that started in 1956 and continues to this day.  The affected area is about five miles from us but it's a cautionary tale.  Last July, just ten miles away, a nearby city on our peninsula lost a dozen homes built in the 1970s to a slide that dropped eight of them forty-five feet down into a canyon in only hours.  Although that slide occurred months after the end of our rainy season, the higher rainfall we had was identified as the principal cause.  A geological survey we'd done in 2019 indicates that our seventy-plus year old house is on bedrock so we hope we're okay whatever comes with these atmospheric rivers.

Blue seemed the appropriate color to accompany the rain and, once I looked around a bit, I found more in that color than I'd anticipated.

My blue Anemones took center stage but I also turned up some white flowers, including scented Freesias

Back view: I used stems of a noID Ceanothus as filler material, along with a handful of early sweet pea blooms

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Felicia aethiopica, white Freesia, Lathyrus odoratus (maybe from 'Mermaid's Dream' mix), Anemone coronaria, Osteospermum '4D Silver', Teucrium fruticans 'Azureum', and noID Ceanothus

Here's a musical accompaniment, a short version of 'Rhapsody in Blue' from Warner Brothers (circa 1945), should you wish to listen to it as you finish reading this post.

I've been planning to cut stems of Grevillea sericea for some time but was at a loss as to what I could use to complement its small, delicate flowers.  Inspiration was found in the flowers of the sweet pea bush and my second arrangement came together better than I'd hoped, although I suspect the arrangement looks better up close than in photos.

A noID Anemone planted years ago appeared in my cutting garden with a white bloom bearing just a faint hint of pink, its name now lost.  The pinky-purple Osteospermum flowers stole the show from both the Anemone and the Grevillea flowers.

Back view

Top view: I added stems of what I think is an Ageratum of some kind, although I have no record of planting it and it grows far taller than A. houstonianum, the species commonly grown here.  It also acts like a shrub, not an annual.  It produces white floss-like flowers.  The stems I cut have buds but aren't yet in bloom.  I doubt they'll flower in a vase but I thought their buds were attractive enough to use as a filler.

Clockwise from the upper left: noID Ageratum, Cuphea 'Starfire Pink', Daphne odora, noID Anemone coronaria, Grevillea sericea, Polygala myrtifolia, and Osteospermum '4D Pink'

My husband and I celebrated our anniversary over the weekend.  He made one of my favorite meals for dinner and brought me an orchid so the kitchen island has its requisite decoration.

The pot contains 2 Phalaenopsis and a clump of Dracaena marginata

For more IAVOM creations, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who runs the weekly show.

All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party