In a Vase on Monday: Precious little

While there are lots of plants in flower in my garden, there are precious few blooms suitable to show off in a vase, if that makes any sense.  For most of the last week, the heat bore down and, with the heat, flowers shrivel quickly.  With a few exceptions - the Gaillardia, the Coreopsis and the sunflowers - nothing much is blooming en masse either so this week I focused on small vases.

Using just a few stems of 3 different plants, I created a peaceful blue arrangement in a 4-inch tall cut-glass vase.

Front view

Top view

The vase includes (from left): Campanula primulifolia, a variegated no ID Caryopteris and a no ID Duranta (probably D. erecta 'Sapphire Showers') 

This vase landed on the mantle in the master bedroom

A selection of pink flowers, starring the Eustoma grandiflorum that began its second round of bloom as the heatwave kicked off, filled a stem-less wine glass.

This vase contains (clockwise from the left): Eustoma grandiflorum 'Echo Pink', Abelia x grandiflora, Grevillea 'Pink Midget' (a recent acquisition), Zinnias and Leucadendron 'Pisa'

This vase is sitting in the front entryway

The flowers too small for the wine glass were tucked into a tiny 3-inch vase

As the red sunflowers in the vegetable garden are still coming on strong I cut some of those again for the dining room table.

This arrangement is virtually identical to the one I created last week except that I tucked in some orange Zinnias with the Abelia

The marine layer returned this morning which should keep today's temperatures down.  If we're lucky, the pattern will hold throughout the week, making everyone around here less cranky and giving my flower supply a chance to recover before I face the garden next week to identify what I have befitting a vase.

Visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden to see what she and other gardeners have found in their summer gardens.


All material © 2012-2015 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

In a Vase on Monday: Welcome to Eustomaville!

Or, if you prefer, you can call it Lisianthus Lane.

I'd really only planned to make up one vase this week.  The appearance of blooms on the Campanula primulifolia I planted in January (featured as my favorite plant of the week last Friday) cinched the decision to focus on blues this week.  The blue Eustoma grandiflorum, which have been blooming like crazy, picked up the color of the Campanula and made the perfect focus for today's vase, prepared in connection with the meme hosted each Monday by Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.  However, it was impossible to ignore that the pink and pale yellow Eustoma were also blooming their hearts out.  I resisted but, as the Borg announced in a universe far far away, resistance is futile.  So, here you are: three vases this week, all featuring Eustoma.

I have a hard time choosing my own favorite this week but the first one I put together was the blue one, which is probably the most dramatic of the three.

It includes 4 elements:

From the left: Eustoma 'Borealis Blue' (these in their second year in my garden!), Campanula primulifolia (making its bloom debut), Tanacetum parthenium (which planted itself) and a taller form of Thymus serpyllum

The second vase, smaller than the other two, features the pink Eustoma.

It includes:

From the left: Eustoma 'Mariachi Pink', Abelia x grandiflora, Pentas 'Kaleidoscope Appleblossom' and one small Zinnia that just happened to pick up the color of the Abelia bracts

After finishing those two vases, I considered calling it quits (seriously!), but the yellow Eustoma were bending over under the weight of their blooms.  How could I let their blooms drag in the dirt?

This vase includes:

Clockwise from the left: The pale blooms of Eustoma 'Borealis Yellow', Abelia 'Kaleidoscope', Acacia cognata 'Cousin Itt', Achillea 'Summer Pastels', and Grevillea 'Superb'

The sunflowers were calling from the vegetable garden but I tuned them out.  Three vases is more than enough.  The remarkable thing is that I generally struggle to find flowers at the height of summer, when the heat usually beats them all into submission.  That's the difference a little rain makes, I guess.

Here are the completed vases all in place:

The blue vase sits on the dining room table; the pink vase sits on my desk; and the yellow vase sits in the front entry

For more summer vases, stop by and visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.  She'll fix you up.


All material © 2012-2015 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

My favorite plant this week: Campanula primulifolia

I have a tendency to get excited about plants early in our acquaintanceship, bubbling over with enthusiasm about a plant when we're really still just getting acquainted.  For that reason, I was hesitant to present Campanula primulifolia as my favorite plant this week.  But, even if I don't yet know whether it harbors a darker side than it's currently exhibiting in my garden, I can't help the fact that it's the plant I'm fixated on at the moment.  It's only just started to bloom too - I expect it may look a lot flashier in another week or two; however, I've been watching and waiting for this plant to bloom for a good 6-8 weeks now so, when I walked through the front garden and saw that it was blooming (finally!), it was settled.  It's my favorite plant this week.

This clump is comprised of 3 plants, situated in partial shade under the peppermint willow trees (Agonis flexuosa) in the front garden

More flowers opened overnight

I purchased these plants by mail order in January.  I love Campanulas but the only one that has bloomed reliably for me has been the diminutive C. poscharskyana.  Although perennial here, I can't claim that it makes a statement.

Campanula poscharskyana, a groundcover plant, is only just beginning to bloom as well

In contrast, C. primulifolia grows 3 feet (0.91 meters) tall and about half as wide.  It produces relatively large (2 inch/5cm) flowers over an extended period (or so on-line sources tell me).

It appears that the flowers generally open along the lower stem first but that doesn't seem to be entirely consistent.

Moreover, the plant is adaptable.  It's reported to grow in sun or shade and, although drought tolerant, it can take regular water as well.  It's perennial in USDA zones 4-10, according to the grower.  Mine produced flower spikes in June and I half expected it to flower for Bloom Day in June.  I was surprised, and moderately annoyed, when it didn't flower in time for Bloom Day in July either.  Perhaps our recent rain tipped the scales as the first flowers showed up soon after last weekend's unexpected thunderstorms.

Campanula primulifolia is my favorite plant this week.  Loree of danger garden hosts a monthly wrap-up of her favorite plants on the last Friday of each month so be sure to check in with her next week.

Quite a few flowers have appeared since Bloom Day in mid-July.  I can only assume that the rain prompted this as July is usually a pretty low-key (if not downright sad) month for blooms in my Southern California garden.  I'll post photos of some of these recent blooms soon but, for now, I'll leave you with a photo of my first ever Plumeria bloom, another big surprise I discovered this week.

A friend gave me 2 Plumeria cuttings earlier this year.  I didn't expect much as I've killed them off before but I followed her advice and left them confined in a relatively small nursery pot and I was rewarded with a bloom. (The other cutting is leafing out too.)

All material © 2012-2015 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party