In a Vase on Monday: Fireworks & More

I got an early start on this week's vase, or I should say vases.  I had guests coming over to watch the Independence Day fireworks on Saturday night so I put 3 vases together as decoration early that day.  The first vase, for the front entryway, is the most vibrant.

I started with the last Digiplexis stem in bloom in the backyard border and selected other flowers that played off the colors in that stem.

Clockwise from top left: Digiplexis 'Illumination Flame'; Gaillardia x grandiflora with Zauschneria garettii; Grevillea 'Superb' with G. 'Ned Kelly'; and Zinnia 'Cut & Come Again' (Not highlighted: foliage accents Agonis flexuosa 'Nana' and Abelia 'Kaleidoscope')

The completed vase sat opposite the front door, waiting to greet our guests

The second arrangement was intended for the dining table and the flowers were selected to play off the table runner and the dark tones of the glass vase.

This vase was purchased for a song during my undergraduate days from local glassblowers who sold their wares at student craft fairs

Clockwise from top left, the vase contains: Agapanthus and Jacobeaus maritima; Solanum xanti; Salvia 'Amistad'; and Eustoma grandiflorum 'Echo Blue' (Not highlighted: Leptospermum 'Copper Glow', used as a foliage accent)

In retrospect, I think white accents would have been preferable to the yellow flowers of the Jacobaeus

The third vase was intended to dress up the dessert and drink table on the back patio.  There's very little in the way of true red color in my garden so my holiday centerpiece was pink, white and blue rather than red, white and blue.  I started with the pink lily, grown from a gift received with a bulb order several years ago.  As it's undistinguished in form and has no scent, I had no compunction whatsoever about cutting it.

Clockwise from left, the vase contains: Eustoma 'Borealis Blue'; Eustoma 'Mariachi Pink'; the no ID pink lily; Cuphea ignea 'Starfire Pink'; and Trachelium caeruleum (Not highlighted: foliage accents Agonis flexuosa 'Nana' and Abelia 'Confetti', a carryover from one of last week's vases)

After weeks of hot, sticky weather, July 4th suddenly turned cool and windy.  We moved inside for dessert and drinks before heading outside later for a closer view of the fireworks, donning jackets.  "Cool" by southern California standards meant 61F (16C), which may make some of you laugh but we don't consider that shorts and t-shirts weather.

The side-lined pink, white and blue vase was relegated to my home office the next day, where it attracted the attention of the furry household resident.

The vase in backed by a quilted hanging made for me by a friend as a birthday present a few years ago

Despite local restrictions banning fireworks in residential areas due to the heightened risk of fires under our current drought conditions, LOTS of firework displays could be seen from our backyard.  As well as the authorized public park displays, many people risked fines and fires by setting fireworks off in their backyards.  As in prior years, dozens of displays were visible, some as far away as Long Beach, Fountain Valley, and eastern Los Angeles County.  Unfortunately, I have neither the camera equipment nor the photographic skill to effectively capture these, although I managed a few shots that may at least be recognizable as fireworks.

For more floral displays, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden to see what she's put in a vase this week and to find links to the contributions of other participating gardeners.


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

In a Vase on Monday: A Substitute for Roses

I'd planned to feature yellow roses in this week's vase, prepared in connection with the popular meme hosted by Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.  One of my 'Buttercream' rose shrubs has been working hard to produce blooms since the weather cooled the weekend before last.  But then temperatures heated up again before cooling once more this past weekend and the roses were left looking rather sad.  So I went hunting for a substitute and ended up with a little of this and a little of that, creating a cheerful bouquet better suited to the start of autumn than the pale yellow roses.

This week, the back view of the vase is almost as pretty as the front view

The jumping off point for the new color scheme was Russelia equisetiformis 'Flamingo Park.'

Russelia 'Flamingo Park' is shown here in a close-up with Grevillea 'Superb'

Once I had my new color scheme, I was able to find a surprising number of complementary materials.  This week's bouquet consists of:

• Abelia grandiflora 'Kaleidoscope' (3 stems)
• Digiplexis 'Illumination Flame' (2 stems)
• Gaillardia  x grandiflora 'Goblin' (4 stems)
• Grevillea 'Superb' (1 stem)
• Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder' (3 stems)
• Nandina domestica (1 stem)
• Russelia equisetiformis 'Flamingo Park' (2 stems)
• Solenostemon scutellarioides 'Honey Crisp Coleus' (1 stem)
• Tanacetum parthenium 'Aureum' (5 stems)

The Digiplexis is still producing sporadic blooms - shown here with Grevillea on one side, Gaillardia on the other, and a coleus leaf in the back

It's hard to pick a favorite when it comes to Leucadendron but 'Wilson's Wonder,' my 1st Leucadendron, is the one that most often causes me to stop in my tracks

The unripe berries of the Nandina were the perfect color for this bouquet

The vase is visible when you step through the front door, next to my favorite toad.

You can see Cathy's vase and those of other gardeners by visiting Rambling in the Garden.


All material © 2012-2014 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

In a Vase on Monday: Itsy Bitsy Bouquets

Before any discussion of floral bouquets, itsy bitsy or otherwise, I want to report that, this past weekend, we actually got a bit of rain out of the monsoonal moisture that has hung over the area for weeks now.  It was by no means a drought-ending deluge but it was certainly a great improvement over the 3-minute drizzle we got several weeks ago.  Maybe I could learn to put up with the miserable humidity if we could just get a little rain out of it on occasion - those of you in the sub-tropical areas of the US south and southeast that contend with this humidity year after year have my utmost respect.  In any case, the rain felt like a minor miracle and has put me in a much more positive frame of mind.  On to the subject of this week's floral arrangement...

Other than tickseed and feverfew, my garden doesn't have much to offer in terms of flowers for cutting right now, at least not for a conventionally sized vase.  My response to the challenge to create a vase for Cathy's "In a Vase on Monday" meme at Rambling in the Garden was to go small.  Yes, I could have stopped at one itsy bitsy bouquet but I didn't - I filled all 3 of my tiny colored glass vases (all roughly 4-inches/10 cm tall and 2-inches/5 cm wide).

Here's the first, which is my favorite, although it may have the shortest shelf life:

The centerpiece is Hemerocallis 'Cordon Rouge,' but the bouquet also includes one of the last stems of Digiplexis 'Illumination Flame,' flowering stems of Abelia 'Kaleidoscope,' Tanacetum parthenium 'Aureum' (golden feverfew), and 2 varieties of Zinnia.

Hemerocallis 'Cordon Rouge,' a reblooming daylily variety, recently started its 2nd bloom cycle

Digiplexis 'Illumination Flame' appears to have bloomed out but it may surprise me yet again

Eustoma grandiflorum 'Echo Blue' is the focal point of the second bouquet.  The flowers aren't quite as full as those of Eustoma grandiflorum 'Borealis Blue' but they're still gorgeous.

Close-up of Eustoma grandiflorum 'Echo Blue'

This bouquet also features Catananche caerulea (aka Cupid's Dart), one stem of Veronica 'Vernique Dark Blue' (recently purchased to occupy a pot), more feverfew, and a few pieces of flowering thyme.

Close-up of Catananche caerulea

The star of the third bouquet should be the Echinaceas, 'Magnus' and 'Cheyenne Spirit,' but I think Pentas 'Kaleidoscope Appleblossom' upstages them.  This bouquet also includes Pentas 'Nova,' Coleonema pulchellum 'Sunset Gold,' Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum,' and, again, feverfew.

Close-up of Pentas 'Kaleidoscope Appleblossom' photobombed by Echinacea 'Cheyenne Spirit'

The plumes of Pennisetum setaceum Rubrum look almost like fur

You may have noticed that I usually photograph my vases in the kitchen.  I haven't found a better backdrop.  The surfaces are white; it has lots of natural light as well as numerous pot lights; and the counters are usually clear (except when my husband is cooking).   This week one of my vases found a place to stay in the kitchen while the other 2 migrated to other areas of the house.

The pig in the kitchen (which holds tea bags rather than cookies) approves of the Lisianthus

The toad prefers daylilies

The pink vase landed on a living room side table, where I hope those Pennisetum blooms will not prove too tempting for Pipig the cat to ignore

What have you got in a vase this week?  Go to Cathy's site to see her composition and to find other gardeners' creations.

All material © 2012-2014 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Bloom Day - June 2014

It's Garden Blogger's Bloom Day.  Hosted by Carol of May Dreams Gardens, it's a time to take stake of what's blooming in one own's garden and an opportunity to have a look at what's flowering in gardens across the US and in other parts of the world.

My May garden was dominated by Agapanthus and, although some blooms are now looking a bit bedraggled, the flowers still dominate my garden in mid-June.

Agapanthus in the backyard border

Agapanthus in the front yard

Most of the daylilies finished blooming last month but a few are still putting on a show, most notably Hemerocallis 'Indian Giver,' which is new to me this year.

This clump of Hemerocallis 'Indian Giver' has pumped out an impressive number of bright purple blooms this month

In contrast, this clump of H. 'Indian Giver,' obtained from the same grower at the same time and planted only several feet away from the clump featured above, hardly looks like the same plant

Hemerocallis 'Persian Market' got a late start but is still putting on a nice show

And Hemerocallis 'Spanish Harlem' is still producing blooms in the front yard border (against a backdrop of mostly dead grass) 

Lisianthus (Eustoma grandiflorum), a short-lived perennial generally grown as an annual here, has added a bolt of purplish blue to my backyard border.

Eustoma grandiflorum 'Borealis Blue' stands out next to Achillea 'Moonshine'

Borage (Borago officinalis), another annual, is filling in some of the empty spaces in the border we added early this spring as an extension to the bed surrounding our backyard fountain.

Borage, planted among Salvia 'Mystic Spires, lobelia, and red-orange daylilies

The first of the Echinacea have returned.

Echinacea 'PowWow White' alongside Erysimum linifolium 'Variegatum'

Shrubs making a splash in the backyard include:

Hebe 'Wiri Blush'

Lupinus chasmissonis

Leonotis leonurus

While none of the common foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) I planted last fall have done well this year, the perennial Digitalis x mertonensis and the hybrid Digiplexis 'Illumination Flame' have fared better.

My Digitalis purpurea, if they bloomed at all, produced only short, stumpy bloom spikes like this one

Digitalis x mertonensis 'Polka Dot Pippa' was attacked by aphids but seems relatively unfazed and isn't the color pretty next to Yucca 'Bright Star'?

Only a few weeks after I cut the central bloom spike of this Digiplexis 'Illumination Flame', the plant has produced almost a dozen new bloom spikes

On the southeast side of the house, an area seemed to suffer most from our May heatwaves, Verbena bonariensis and Ageratum houstonianum 'Blue Horizon' have added a welcome touch of color.

On the outskirts of this section of the garden, two plants less known for their flowers than their foliage are providing an unexpected floral display.

I usually cut the flowers off this Helichrysum petiolare 'White Licorice' in the belief that they detract from the foliage but I let them do their thing this year

Crassula radicans 'Small Red' has produced a mass of flowers this year (despite very little water)

On the largely unattended back slope, crossvine (Bignonia capreolata) and Yucca elephantipes are demonstrating their ability to take care of themselves.

I inherited this Bignonia, a plant I'd intended to avoid after it swallowed a fence at our former house

Yucca Elephantipes continues to produce one giant bloom after another despite my husband's battle to cut the plant back to a more manageable size

And last, but not least, a Phalaenopsis sitting in a pot in an area along the street I largely ignore, is proving that orchids don't deserve their reputation as difficult or demanding plants.

I water this unidentified Phalaenopis when I happen to pass by it, which isn't often - nevertheless, it somehow it made it through 2 horrible heatwaves outside in partial shade

That's it for my June bloom highlights.  Please visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens to discover what's blooming in her garden and to find links to posts from gardeners far and wide.