In a Vase on Monday: Not what I planned

I've been participating in the weekly "In a Vase on Monday" meme long enough that, by Sunday morning, I usually have something in mind to fill my vase(s).  Although I did cut a stem of a 'Pretty Woman' lily as planned for my first arrangement, that's where the direction I'd envisioned shifted.  I'd thought I was going to put together another blue and white arrangement but two stems of perky fuchsias sent me elsewhere.

The first stalk of Lilium 'Pretty Woman' has been in bloom for over a month but I waited to cut it until the last 4 flowers had opened.  I hadn't thought of leaning into the pink touches at the base of each flower until I noticed that Fuchsia 'Windchimes Upright White' had 2 long stems just begging to be cut.

Back view: There's not a lot of pink in my garden at the moment so I took advantage of abundant blooms of Daucus carota 'Dara' and the pinky variegated foliage of Leucadendron 'Jester'

Overhead view: On this occasion I removed all the pollen on the lily's anthers to prevent stains to the bright white petals

Clockwise from the upper left: noID white Agapanthus, Daucus carota 'Dara', Fuchsia 'Windchimes Upright White', Leucadendron 'Jester', and Orienpet Lilium 'Pretty Woman'

As the Leonotis leonurus (lion's tail) recently swung into bloom in response to steadily warming temperatures, I'd planned to go all in with orange flowers for my second arrangement but I dumped that plan when the first two zinnia flowers opened in my cutting garden.  I'd never gotten around to pinching my zinnia seedlings and I couldn't bring myself to do that once they'd formed fat buds; however, these initial blooms encouraged me to get on with it.  I wasn't sure what use I could make of two zinnias but I challenged myself to try.  I'm relatively pleased with the result.

The zinnias didn't even match but they were both reddish

Back view: The seedpods of Cercis occidentalis (aka western redbud) made this arrangement in my view.  The 2 trees I inherited with the garden have never borne as many seedpods as they have this year and I should probably cut them all off soon to discourage self-propagation.

Overhead view

Clockwise from the upper left: Cercis occidentalis, (more) Daucus carota 'Dara', Leucadendron 'Jubilee Crown', L. 'Safari Sunset', Zinnia elegans 'Benary's Giant Wine', and Z. e. 'Queeny Red Lime'

I ended up with a third arrangement (also unplanned) as I cut several foxglove stems to flesh out the first arrangement but then decided they were more distracting then helpful.  I threw them into a small vase with a couple of leftovers from prior arrangements.

The heat hasn't been kind to the Digitalis purpurea in the container on my back patio so cutting all the stems was a good decision in any case.  The Leucanthemum (Shasta daisy) was a leftover from one of last week's arrangements and the Leucadendron 'Jester' stem is 3 weeks old.

It's been in the low-to-mid 80sF (28C) here for the last several days and it looks as though we can expect more of the same in the coming week.  The inland valleys will be about ten degrees hotter so we're lucky.  Meanwhile California's San Luis Obispo County is now battling the Madre Fire, which has burned over 80,000 acres since Wednesday with only thirty percent containment, already dramatically eclipsing the Eaton (14,021 acres) and Palisades (23,448 acres) Fires back in January.  At least the new fire is burning in a largely uninhabited forest area.  No cause has been identified yet but it certainly looks like we're facing another bad year in terms of wildfires.  You'd have thought people would keep that in mind when it came to the Independence Day celebrations last week but, while illegal firework displays were moderate leading up to the holiday, July 4th was as untamed as ever.

For more IAVOM creations, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party