(Not) In a Vase on Monday: Thinking outside the vase

Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, our In a Vase on Monday host, is celebrating the fifth anniversary of this popular meme.  Last week she challenged participants to put together something not in a vase.  I've previously used pumpkins, driftwood and teapots to support arrangements so I tried harder to come up with something different, with mixed success.  My first arrangement doesn't deviate far from my norm.  I used an old basket, tucking in 2 jam jars to hold the contents that required water.

The berries and the guava fruit can survive without water but everything else requires it

I mixed 2 kinds of berries.  The larger ones start out looking like tiny pumpkins but soon dry out, turn brown, and open to display sticky seeds.

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Auranticarpa rhombifolium berries, noID guava fruit; Leucadendron 'Devil's Blush', Leucadendron 'Chief', Nandina domestica berries, Plectranthus scutellariodes 'Electric Lime' (coleus), and, in the middle, Rosa 'Joseph's Coat'

I also played around with a pair of concrete shoes my sister-in-law gave me years ago.

I'd planned to add flowers after planting the shoes with succulent cuttings (Aeonium arboreum and Crassula tetragona) but decided I preferred them just like this

My other idea started with the recognition that many of my bromeliads have vase-like structures to hold water.

This Nidularium wittrockia leopardinum illustrates the "storage tank" that collects water in many bromeliads

I use a bench surrounding our Magnolia tree in the front garden to display a variety of bromeliads and other potted plants.  On Sunday morning I filled the water tanks of 4 bromeliads with flowers.  In retrospect, I think the bromeliad arrangements would have been more attractive on their own rather than grouped together but I'd run out of time to fuss with them when I reached that conclusion.  As the nasty Santa Ana winds have started blowing again, it's not clear that these flowers will last long anyway.

This Aechmea fasciata (aka silver vase plant) holds stems of Leptospermum scoparium 'Pink Pearl' and Cuphea hybrid 'Starfire Pink'.  The larger pink flower stalk just visible behind the bromeliad's leaves is part of the plant itself.

Nidularium witttockia leopardinum made do with the feathery plumes of Pennisetum advena 'Rubrum'

Orange Aechmea blanchetiana was fitted out with Tagetes lemmonii, Abelia 'Kaleidoscope', Correa 'Ivory Bells, and Lantana 'Lucky White' 

This was my biggest flop.  This noID Aechmea (possibly A. orlandiana 'Rainbow') hosts Erigeon 'Wayne Roderick', Gomphrena 'Itsy Bitsy', Polygala fruticosa, and Osteospermum 'Violet Ice'.  It might have looked better without the busyness of the Gomphrena.

To see how other garden bloggers responded to Cathy's challenge, visit her at Rambling in the Garden.

Cathy's challenge was a nice distraction from the stresses of the past week.  First there was the tumult of the midterm elections; then a White House firing that raises concerns about where the political roller coaster is heading; then yet another mass shooting, this one close to home; and then wildfires.  The fires dredge up both apprehensions associated with living in a fire danger zone and memories linked to the 1993 fire that leveled my in-laws' home in Malibu.  We're some 50 miles from the nearest fire, currently burning unchecked in Malibu.  Thus far we've only had periodic whiffs of smoke; however, my brother and some friends in the West San Fernando Valley are uncomfortably close to the action.

My brother took this photo from a hill near his home on Friday night.    The last I heard, the so-called Woolsey Fire is only 10% contained.  (Photo used courtesy of Eric Peterson)

All material © 2012-2018 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

July Foliage Follow-up

The focus on flowers during the spring and summer months can relegate foliage to the role of a bit player, at least when it comes to nursery shopping.  However, even if colors are carefully coordinated, buying too many flowering plants can create a sense of chaos in the garden, as I've learned from personal experience.  Now that I've had a larger garden to play in for 2 years, I think I've finally curbed my flower fixation.  When I plan revisions to a planting bed, I'm paying more attention to foliage than I did in the past.  I can't say that I've done an 180 degree turn but I think I can claim to be a recovering flower fanatic.

Since the beginning of this year, I've added several new foliage plants to the garden, including:

Acacia cognata 'Cousin Itt', the 3rd added to my back border

Ajuga reptans 'Catlin's Giant', added around the flagstone pathway in the side yard (Sure, it flowers too, but I grow it mainly for the textured, purple-infused foliage)

'Florida Sun Jade' coleus (Solenostemon scutellariodes), currently the star attraction in a pot also containing a Japanese maple and a fuchsia

Coprosma repens 'Plum Hussey' and peppermint-scented Pelargonium tomentosum, merging together prettily in the side yard

3 Hypericum x moserianum 'Tricolor', slowly spreading in my back border

Strobilanthus dyeranus (aka Persian Shield), used to replace flowering plants in 2 large pots

Stipa tenuissima (Mexican feather grass), added to the 3 placed in the back border last year

I added Rumex to the vegetable garden mainly to add foliage interest to a bed otherwise dominated by rather common vegetables:

Rumex 'Raspberry Dressing'

I also recently also picked up an interesting Chinese Evergreen for the living room.  Maybe a house plant shouldn't count for the purposes of a foliage follow-up post but it's too pretty to exclude.

Aglaonema (no ID on the variety but it may be 'Siam Pearl')

As a play on blending the inside and the outside, I also took some pictures of foliage visible from inside my living room.  Unfortunately, they didn't turn out very well - in addition to finding a way to manage window glare, I seriously need to spend some time cleaning my windows.

Persicaria 'Red Dragon', photographed from the inside of a dirty window

You can see foliage highlights of other gardeners' foliage selections on Pam's blog, Digging.  Thanks for visiting my blog.