In a Vase on Monday: Responding to a challenge

Cathy of Rambling in the Garden is celebrating the eleventh anniversary of her "In a Vase on Monday" meme. Last week she threw down a challenge to participants with the simple suggestion to use "eleven" as a theme. Even though I tend to create more than one floral arrangement each week, eleven new arrangements, even tiny ones, was out of bounds, especially as the volume of flowers in my garden is at a low point now. Instead I decided to pull photos of one arrangement for each year I've participated in IAVOM. I joined up in late March 2014 and therefore pulled photos of arrangements for years 2014 through 2023, delivering a newly prepared arrangement for 2024 as the eleventh.

The search process was fun initially but I admit it did get a little tedious by the time I slogged through my 2023 photos.  I tried to balance the colors and choices to prevent repetition so I won't claim that each choice represents the very best arrangement of that particular year but here they are:

Left, created August 2014, and right, created June 2015

September 2016 and January 2017

March 2018 and July 2019

March 2020 and November 2021

August 2022 and September 2023

For the eleventh arrangement, I elected to use stems of Camellia sasanqua as my centerpiece.  The Camellias won't last long so I used one of my smaller vases.

The vase features 2 clasped - and well manicured - hands arranged to hold flowers, although as usual I mostly covered up the hands with too many flowers 

Back view

Top view

A closer look at those manicured hands

Clockwise from the upper left, the vase contains: Argyranthemum frutescens 'Aramis Apricot', noID Camellia sasanqua, Leptospermum scoparium 'Pink Pearl' with foliage of Prunus caroliniana, and Plectranthus scutellarioides 'Florida Sun Rose' (aka coleus)

For the record, we received not a drop of rain here last week.  However, I understand that the foothill areas got some and the mountains to the east received a dusting of snow.

Photographed Saturday morning, the mountains in the distance show the snow, partially hidden by clouds.  On Sunday, when you could still see the mountains behind the smog, the snow had already mostly retreated.

For more IAVOM creations, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.  Thanks, as always, for hosting this weekly meme, Cathy!  I know it's appreciated by many, whether they throw their own arrangements into the mix or not.

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