In a Vase on Monday: Simple but sweet

I caught sight of a neighbor's Leucadendron bearing its reddish "flowers" last week and thought I should take a closer look at some of mine.  My own 'Safari Sunset' Leucadendrons were also looking good so I earmarked them for inclusion in a vase this week.  However, what appear to be flower petals are actually colorful bracts surrounding cones.  As the cones develop, the color of the bracts deepen.

I limited myself to 3 elements, which is unusual for me but then, while the supply of 'Safari Sunset' stems was plentiful, the same couldn't be said of many of the flowers in my garden 

Back view: I filled out the vase using stems of Grevillea 'Penola' and Correa 'Pink Eyre'

Overhead view

From left to right: Correa pulchella 'Pink Eyre' (aka Australian fuchsias), Grevillea lanvandulacea 'Penola', and Leucadendron 'Safari Sunset'

The vase in place on our dining room table

I'd intended to leave things with that one simple arrangement this week but then I noticed the first blue anemone bloom.  It wasn't the first anemone to bloom - sadly, that one got pounded by rain.  As rain is now projected to return for New Year's Day, I didn't want to leave it to the same fate.  Although I was going to simply freshen last week's small blue arrangement with the one anemone flower, I ended up replacing everything but one stem of the original Cistus foliage and the vase itself.

Overhead view of "new" arrangement with fresh Salvia stems, as well as the Anemone and a few Osteospermum flowers

Closeups of Anemone coronaria 'Lord Lieutentant', Salvia 'Mystic Spires, and Osteospermum 'Violet Ice'.   (The Cistis ladanifer 'Blanche' foliage isn't shown in closeup.)

The small vase is once again seated on the kitchen island.  It's also a simple arrangement but those blues can't be beat!

As forecast, we got a significant amount of rain last week.  The rain total for the period from late Wednesday night through Friday in my area was 2.63 inches, which was perfect for my garden.  All my rain barrels are once again full and the ground is saturated.  Unfortunately, other areas received a lot more rain, including the inland valleys and the foothills.  The small town of Wrightwood in San Bernadino County received more than ten inches of rain over the same period, leading to mudslides, evacuations, and serious damage to homes.  The areas affected by last January's fires were negatively affected too.  I haven't heard of any immediate issues facing the landowners implicated by our own peninsula's slow but steady landslide area and I'm assuming that's good news there.  However, the forecast for this week currently projects more rain, similar to last week's storm, from Wednesday through the New Year's holiday and into the weekend.  I can only hope that gives everyone time to allow the earlier rain to percolate deeper into the soil.

For more IAVOM creations, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.  I'll close with photos of our horizon viewed yesterday from our back garden.

Snow caps are back in the mountains to the northeast of us

Even more surprising, the view to the southeast shows relatively clear skies instead of the brownish-gray smog we usually see 

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