In a Vase on Monday: Begging to be picked

I was on my way home from the Washington DC area last Monday after attending the 2017 Garden Bloggers' Fling and, arriving home in the late afternoon at the height of a heatwave, I missed out on "In a Vase on Monday" for what I think was the first time since I began participating.  As much as I missed joining in on the meme, I also lamented the absence of flowers in the house as I've grown used to having them there to greet me every time I walk in the door.  I thought of cutting some flowers "off schedule" but it was a busy week and I never quite got round to it.  The garden was screaming for attention too but I've barely made a dent in that either.

The biggest issue in the garden at the moment is the blanket of pink fuzz from the mimosa tree (Albizia julibrissin) which covers a large area of the back garden.  This tree, inherited with the garden, is a major mess-maker, especially in the summer when it's in full bloom as it is now.

The tree sits just beyond the edge of the back patio, stretching its branches in all directions.  It flowered lightly during the height of our drought but it's over-achieving this year and the floral free-fall is continuous.

I'll save the specifics of my complaints about the mimosa for another post at another time.  On Sunday, I decided to try making lemonade out of lemons and cut a few small branches from the Albizia to use in an arrangement, along with a host of other pink blooms that recently made an appearance.

This mason jar contains the pink ensemble I collected on my pass through the garden.  The fuzzy pink blooms on the right are those cut from the mimosa tree.

I soon became frustrated with the Albizia flowers, as they dropped all over my kitchen and stuck to my clothing.  In the end, I omitted them from my arrangement.  I had plenty of better-behaved plant material to use.

This is the completed arrangement, sans the annoying Albizia blossoms

Back view

Top view, showing off the free noID lily I planted 5 years ago.  It's not flashy and it has no scent but it's returned every year while other lilies disappear after one or two years in the ground here.

Clockwise from the left, the vase contains: Eustoma grandiflorum (from one of my original plants, hanging on for yet another year), Abelia x grandiflora 'Edward Goucher', Artemisia ludoviciana, Coprosma repens 'Plum Hussey with Origanum 'Monterey Bay', and the noID lily

I cleaned up a couple of small stems of the Albizia and plopped them in a tiny vase on the kitchen counter.  I vowed that as soon as the flowers started to drop, I'll toss the lot.

They were jettisoned by dinner time

There were plenty of other flowers begging to be cut.  I forced myself to stop after creating two more vases.  Here's the first:

A simple arrangement consisting of shades of yellow, silver and white with another returning Lisianthus front and center

And Shasta daisies adding interest in the rear

Top view, highlighting the silvery cones of Leucadendron 'Pisa'

Clockwise from the left, the vase contains: pale yellow Eustoma grandiflorum, Abelia 'Hopley's Variegated', Leucadendron 'Pisa', Leucanthemum x superbum, and Tanacetum niveum

And here's the last vase:

This one features a deep blue Lisianthus as well as a white variety showing just the faintest touch of lavender 

Back view, featuring Cupid's Dart 

Top view

Clockwise from the left: blue Eustoma grandiflorum, a white form, Catananche caerulea, Duranta 'Sapphire Showers', and Vitex trifolia

Hopefully, I'll have more Lisianthus to share in future weeks.  I planted plugs of a variety said to produce flowers that are nearly black, as well as a white variety edged in blue.  Neither has bloomed yet.

For more IaVoM posts, visit our host, Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.


All material © 2012-2017 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

June Favorites

My garden is a mess.  That's not all that unusual for summer, which is the toughest season in my garden, but several days away during a heatwave didn't help matters any and a full schedule has yet to give me time to dig into a full-scale clean-up even though the return of our marine layer has made working in the garden pleasant again.  So, when I stepped into the garden to take photos for the monthly favorites post hosted by Loree of danger garden, I was hard-pressed to see what was looking good.  The biggest problem is that everything within 20 feet of the large mimosa tree (Albizia julibrissin) in the middle of my back garden, is covered in a layer of pink and brown fuzz.

Although I love the structure and presence of the multi-trunked Albizia in my back garden, I HATE the mess it creates every year, starting from the moment it begins leafing out in late spring and continuing into winter when every seedpod it drops seems to produce viable seedlings.  During the height of the drought last year, the litter was low by comparison to prior years but, after our solid winter rains this year, it seems to be making up for lost time in the litter department.  Within an hour of arriving home late Monday afternoon, with the temperature still in the low 90s, I spent half an hour sweeping up the back patio, just because I couldn't stand the mess.  The picture on the right was taken on Wednesday, just hours after the gardeners had visited to blow the debris clear.  Those fuzzy pink flowers stick to everything!

But I persevered and, after a couple of rounds of the garden, photographed quite a few plants that held their own against both heat and pink fuzz to share with you.

All the Abelias in my garden are looking good right now.  I have at least 4 different cultivars and perhaps a dozen plants but Abelia 'Kaleidoscope' stood out from the pack.  It's done a nice job here of acting as a ground cover, although, as you can see in this photo, it does have the odd habit of throwing up a few straight stems.  As soon as I get more time in the garden, I'll be cutting those off to encourage the plant to extend out rather than up.  One bonus with this plant is that pink fuzz does not adhere to its glossy leaves.

I'm chagrined to report that I don't have a name for this dark-leaved Aeonium arboreum.  I clipped a rosette from somewhere and stuck it in among the green-leafed variety when I planted the area above the dry-stacked wall we extended last year.  Its rosettes seem to be flatter than the dark Aeonium I grow elsewhere.

The Agapanthus I inherited with the garden are in full bloom in both the back and front gardens.  The largest clumps are in the back but those are covered in pink fuzz so I photographed these fuzz-free specimens in the border fronting the house.  I probably have a month more of blooms before I start cutting the flowers back.  Last year, I stopped counting the bloom stalks I cut after I passed 250.  Most are various shades of blue but there are a few clumps of a white-flowered variety too.

This Coprosma repens 'Plum Hussey' planted alongside our south patio looked terrible last year.  I gave it a judicious pruning during the winter months but I think the winter rains deserve most of the credit for its resurrection.  I love its glassy foliage, which I frequently use as an accent in floral arrangements.

I didn't have this plant listed in my personal directory but I believe it's a Cotyledon orbiculata.  It's taller and has larger leaves than the 2 other Cotyledon I have.  It's surrounded by another Abelia 'Kaleidoscope' on one side and Grevillea 'Superb' on another.  The flowers play off the colors in both of those plants and the leaves contrast nicely with their textures.

This is Duranta 'Sapphire Showers', which is the heaviest bloomer by far of any of the Duranta I grow.  I dump gray water from the kitchen on it once a week and it flowers without fail during the summer months.  (I picked the pink fuzz off of it before taking my photographs.)

I returned home from the Garden Blogger's Fling to find that the wisteria I've been trying to eradicate almost since we moved in had crept onto the side patio along my cat's screened enclosure to weave itself up this potted Kalanchoe orgyalis.  Although there was no way I was going to leave the wisteria in place, I admit that I like the way its green and bronze foliage complemented the succulent.

The wispy foliage of Leptospermum 'Copper Glow' isn't easy to photograph but this tall shrub, one of 2 in my front garden, deserves special mention for the large sprays of small white flowers it produced this year.  The second shrub has just a few widely scattered blooms.  Neither produced much in the way of flowers at all in prior years.  Perhaps this is yet another impact of our heavier-than-usual winter rains.

Certain Leucadendron develop red foliage during the summer months.  L. salignum 'Chief' is one of those.  Its foliage is finer than that of most of the other Leucadendron I grow.  The smaller dark-leaved shrub in front of 'Chief' is L. 'Ebony' and the burgundy-foliage plant to the rear on the right is another Coprosma 'Plum Hussey'.

Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder', one of my all-time favorite plants, also develops red color during the summer months.  This is the smaller of my 2 specimens, planted 2 and a half years ago.  I'm hoping I can keep it smaller than the one I brought with us when we moved here over 6 years ago, which is probably 6 feet tall and at least as wide.  (You can see a photo of it in its summer glory in an earlier post here.)

For more June favorite plant selections, visit Loree at danger garden.

Best wishes for a wonderful holiday weekend for those of you in the US celebrating Independence Day!


All material © 2012-2017 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

In a Vase on Monday: Sour Grapes

In last week's "In a Vase on Monday" post, I featured artichokes as a prop.  After the fact, it occurred to me that I could have tried using them in the vase as I've seen professional flower arrangers do on occasion.  Later, as I was walking by my grapevine, I decided I should try incorporating some of the immature grape clusters into my next arrangement.  I've used the leaves before but not the grapes themselves; however, as we never manage to get more than a handful of semi-ripe grapes from the vine before the critters strip it clean, there's little reason not to use them in an arrangement.  And, the truth be told, I'd let the vine get completely out of control so it can only benefit from a little thinning.

The grapevine is shown in the background in the photo on the left, framed by 2 guava trees.  Conveniently for the critters, the grape clusters are growing low to the ground this year.

I kept the arrangement very simple.

Front view: I'm sure a florist would have come up with something more creative but I was stymied when it came to finding suitable companions for the grapes

Back view: It occurred to me (again after-the-fact) that it might have been easier to have stuck the grapes inside the vase rather than trying to balance them on the vine outside of it

Top view

Close-ups of the materials included, clockwise from the upper left: Achillea 'Moonshine', grape leaves, sour grapes, and Tanacetum nivium

I put together a second vase but also kept it simple.  While the overall volume of flowers in my garden may be greater now than it's been to this point, there's less variety at the moment.  Yellows and blues dominate.

Front view of triangular vase with its heart-shaped opening

Back view, showing the purplish-blue backs of the petals of the Osteospermum

Top view

Close-ups of Osteospermum '4D Silver' (top) and Duranta erecta 'Sapphire Showers' (bottom left) and more Tanacetum niveum (bottom right)

Visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for more vase creations.  I'm grieving with those of you in the UK over the latest senseless act of violence on your side of the pond.  My condolences and best wishes to you all.

All material © 2012-2017 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

July Favorites

During the dog days of summer, it's hard to get really excited about the garden here.  The heat is oppressive and most of the plants are acting as though they're in a witness protection program, hunkering down and trying their best not to be noticed.  It helps to take one's camera on a stroll just after sunrise, when the garden feels freshest, which is what I did this week.

There are plants that are adept at standing up to the heat.  I got a jump start in calling those out last week with my post entitled "the good, the bad and the ugly."  I complemented the Leucadendrons and showed photos of 'Wilson's Wonder' and 'Safari Sunset' but 'Pisa' also deserves recognition.

Leucadendron 'Pisa' with the sun showing through its silver leaves (left) and the cones decorating its branches (right)

In the bed opposite that occupied by 'Pisa', Melianthus major is also looking good in the early morning light.

Melianthus major is nestled in between Arbutus 'Marina', Grevillea 'Ned Kelly' and Leucadendron 'Jester' where it gets a bit of shade during the hottest part of the day

The ornamental grasses are also coming into their own.

Pennisetum 'Fireworks' also makes the most of the morning light

Seslaria 'Greenlee's Hybrid' mimics the display of Pennisetum 'Fireworks' on the other side of the flagstone path

It's probably too soon to get excited over Bouteloua gracilis 'Blonde Ambition' as the 5 small plants here have only been in the ground a few weeks (hey, it was on sale and I couldn't resist - and it's drought tolerant!) but I love that they're already sporting the flowers that look like blonde eyebrows

On the back patio, Phylica pubescens (aka Featherhead) has managed the heat thrown at it.

Okay, the 2 plants I put in the bad border were quickly killed by that miserable heatwave in June but this one in a large pot has settled in nicely

On the other side of the patio, also in a pot, I'm amazed that Duranta erecta 'Sapphire Showers' is blooming well on a steady diet of graywater from the kitchen sink.

Anything that can get by on weekly infusions of graywater alone is a winner in my book

Many of the Echeverias are blooming now but Echeveria 'Afterglow' is my favorite.

'Afterglow' has survived in this pot for about 3 years now without complaining and gets watered only every couple of weeks (if I remember)

Out along the street, the last of the three Chondropetalum tectorum (aka Cape Rush) I planted in 2013 has finally come into its own.  Situated in front of the Xylosma congestum shrubs we planted in spring as a continuation of our existing street-side hedge, it's responded to the extra water provided to those shrubs.  I'd like to find a few more of these to add elsewhere in the garden when the fall planting season comes around.

Rush viewed from the street (left) and from the dirt path in the garden with the late afternoon sun shining through (right)

That's it for my July favorite picks.  Visit Loree at danger garden to see what plants she and other gardeners are excited about this month.


All material © 2012-2016 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party