In a Vase on Monday: Petite Posies

It rained lightly but steadily on Saturday and, as the forecast called for even heavier rain on Sunday and Monday, I clipped flowers in the late afternoon to arrange on Sunday.  As it turned out, Sunday was mostly sunny, which goes to show that even the shortest-term weather projections can be wildly inaccurate.  

My Hemerocallis, including the one I brought inside last week, still aren't blooming so I made do with what I could find to fill two small vases.

I've had a few Anemone coronaria blooms, all blue thus far.  The stems grow longer as the flowers age but these 2 were still relatively short.

Back view:  I also used some very short stems of blue Pericallis, which is largely hidden behind Acacia foliage in this view but somewhat clearer in the earlier front view

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Acacia cognata 'Cousin Itt', Antirrhinum majus, Delphinium grandiflorum 'Diamonds Blue', Anemone coronaria 'Lord Lieutenant', Pericallis x hybrida, Nemesia 'Plus White', and Prostanthera ovalifolia 'Variegata'

Saturday's rain brought down over a dozen Camellia blooms and, with heavier rain in the forecast, I felt compelled to cut a couple of stems for an arrangement to sit on our kitchen island, where we could enjoy them, if briefly.

The Camellia flowers are beautiful, no matter how long they last

Back view

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Alstroemeria 'Inca Lucky', Boronia crenulata 'Shark Bay', Camellia williamsii 'Taylor's Perfection', and Pentas lanceolata

I removed the spent Grevilleas in last week's vase and gave it a simple refresh to fill the spot that was held by the two week old arrangement featuring Aeonium 'Zwartkop' and Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder'.

The tweaked vase is on the left and the original version is on the right

Monday is still projected to be very wet - as I prepared this post Sunday afternoon, the local forecast gave us a one hundred percent chance of rain.  We got nearly an inch of rain on Saturday and I'm hoping for at least another half inch on Monday.  Since Sunday was dry, I took the time to move the rainwater I captured in plastic trugs to my largest collection tank, which means all three tanks are full once again.  That's a good way to start off the week.

For more IAVOM creations, visit our host, Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

In a Vase on Monday: Sun, Blue Sky & Fluffy White Clouds

We got a teeny tiny amount of rain Saturday night and awoke on Sunday (late due to the start of Daylight Savings Time) to clear blue skies, scrubbed clean of their usual dingy brown layer of smog, a few lingering fluffy white clouds, and bright sunlight.

View looking southeast at the Port of Los Angeles from our back door after we received 0.06/inch of rain overnight.  If you look closely at the left side of the shot you can see the Royal Princess cruise ship sitting in port, probably being scrubbed from stem to stern.  It pulled out past Angel's Gate headed to Mexico just after 5:30pm yesterday.  I belatedly learned that the cruise was cancelled due to a link to the Grand Princess.  The Royal Princess sailed out of port but I'm not sure where it went.

View from our back patio looking northeast.  The Port is disturbingly quiet at the moment as the volume of transport ships has dropped dramatically over the past few weeks.

The sunny scene inspired the contents for my first vase.

Although the blue tips of the Dutch Iris are just beginning to emerge, none were ready to be cut yet so I sought out other flowers in shades of true blue, including the first flowering stem of Portuguese squill (Scilla peruviana) for the front of the vase

and Pericallis, Salvia, lavender and Aristea inaequalis, a South African Iris relative, for the back

Top view: Jerusalem sage (Phlomis fruticosa) and Freesias provided the yellow notes and marguerite daisies (Argyranthemum frutescens) provided fresh white

Clockwise from the upper left: Argyranthemum frutescens, Aristea inaequalis, Freesia, Lavandula multifida, Pericallis, Phlomis fruticosa, Salvia 'Mystic Spires' and, in the middle, Scilla peruviana

My second vase is very different in terms of color and contains a mix I'm fairly certain I've used before; however, it shares a connection to the first arrangement in that both vases provide examples of nyctinasty.  Nyctinasty describes the natural phenomenon which causes leaves and/or flowers of certain plants to close in response to diminished light levels.  Interesting as that is, it's a bit irritating when it comes to creating flower arrangements.  I usually avoid using flowers with this characteristic but I'd utterly forgotten that the South African Iris relative, Aristea inaequalis, did that when I cut two stems for my first vase.  I remembered it when I found myself struggling to find open flowers to photograph.  In the case of the second vase, it wasn't the flowers that presented an issue but rather the foliage.  

The new red-tinged foliage of the pink powder puff bush (Calliandra haematocephala) folds when the light level is reduced, although the flowers and mature foliage are unaffected

The powder puff flowers don't last long in a vase.  I included a few flowers still tightly in bud to help dress up the back of the vase.

Top view

From left to right: Calliandra haematocephala, Freesia, and Grevillea lavandulacea 'Penola'

Finally, as I've grown accustomed to eating breakfast with flowers on the kitchen island, I cut a few florets from the florescent yellow bloom stalks of the succulent Aeonium arboreum to fill a small cactus-shaped vase.  Much as I love flowers, I'm not particularly fond of these flower stalks, which give the succulents a misshapen appearance.  In February, I had a dozen or more of them and, as new ones continue to appear, I've started cutting the older, scruffier stalks down so I decided to use a few of the florets before they all end up in our green waste bin.

Aeonium arboreum bloom stalk in garden and individual florets in the cactus vase

For more In a Vase on Monday creations, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

All material © 2012-2020 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

In a Vase on Monday: Rainy Day Hustle

Rain was predicted for Sunday, expected to interfere with red carpet activity at the Oscars, but it arrived earlier here than anticipated and exited earlier than I'd hoped.  Thinking I'd get out early to cut flowers for "In a Vase on Monday," the meme hosted by Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, as it turned out I was out scrambling to do that during what proved to be our heaviest downpour (not that we got much rain in total).  Suffice it to say, I didn't make my usual leisurely Sunday stroll around the garden to select plant material but simply grabbed what I could and headed back to the house to dry out.

As we celebrate Valentine's Day this week, I immediately fixated on the Grevillea 'Scarlet Sprite' now dominating my garden on the northeast side; however, I ran into a bit of a challenge finding suitable companions for it.

When the first match I'd thought of for Grevillea fell flat, I picked one of the next plants I saw that I thought might work, the foxgloves in my cutting garden.  The foxgloves and the other 2 plants I selected ended up eclipsing the Grevillea stems, at least in this front view.

'Scarlet Sprite'  shows up better in the back view but, in hindsight, I should have cut taller stems to give the plant more prominence in this vase

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: noID Alstroemeria, Leucadendron 'Safari Sunset', Grevillea 'Scarlet Sprite', and Digitalis purpurea 'Dalmatian White'

I'd initially thought I'd cut a stem of hellebore or two to pair with the Grevillea in the first vase but, not only was the hellebore significantly shorter than the Grevillea, the color was off.  Whereas the Grevillea leans toward rosy-pink, the hellebore's flowers had a definite blue bent.  As I got wetter, I quickly regrouped.

I used Helleborus 'Blue Lady' in this vase. pairing it with flowers that were blue or leaned in that direction

Back view: I used the blue Echium handiense with pink buds again this week

Top view: This turned out to be my own favorite vase this week.  The daisy blooms of hybrid Pericallis 'Magic Salmon' I picked up for a pot by our front door turned out to be the perfect complement for the hellebore.  I was perplexed by the name of the Pericallis when I bought it but the centers of the blue flowers shifted after it'd been in place a few days, offering an explanation for its odd cultivar name.

Clockwise from the upper left: Pericallis 'Magic Salmon', Echium handiense 'Pride of Fuerteventura', Helleborus 'Blue Lady', Grevillea sericea, and Lavandula multifida

Last week's vases were still in good shape so I gave them fresh water and a few minor touch-ups and found new spots for them.

The "sunshine" vase, less sunny now, landed on the kitchen island.  A simplified version of the blue and pink vase landed on the mantle my husband built for our living room fireplace, which we installed last week, finally bringing our remodel to a formal conclusion.

Meanwhile, the new vases assumed the vacated spots.

For more IAVOM creations, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.  Have a happy Valentine's Day!


All material © 2012-2020 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Bloom Day - March 2017

Spring may still officially be several days away but it's already arrived here in my area of coastal Southern California.  After an extraordinary winter rainy season, warm temperatures arrived and my garden literally exploded into bloom.  It might actually be easier to list the plants not in bloom than to show those that are.  I'll warn you now that I took a lot of photos but even so these don't capture everything.

I'll start with some of the plant combinations making the biggest splash at the moment.

Felicia aethiopica has formed a pool of blue here, surrounded by ornamental grasses.  Echium webii to the left of the Felicia is in bud. 

There are too many blooming plants to enumerate in this photo but the pink glow is provided by Freesia, Cuphea hybrid 'Starfire Pink, and Argyranthemum frutescens

Lavandula multifida takes center stage here, backed up by more Cuphea 'Starfire Pink' and Colenema pulchellum 'Sunset Gold'

Here, Limonium perezii is surrounded by succulents with self-seeded Osteopermum in the background (upper left)

NoID Narcissi backed up by Erysimum linifolium 'Variegatum' with Felicia in the distance on the upper left and Freesia bombing the shot on the lower right

Zantedeschia aethiopica and seed-grown California poppies (Eschscholzia californica 'White Linen') growing at the bottom of the back slope.  A Matilija poppy (Romneya coulteri), not yet blooming, sits in the background in front of the mass of ivy spilling down the slope).

As usual, there are a number of genera contributing to the current bloom count, including these:

Arctotis 'Opera Pink' is on the left and A. 'Pink Sugar' is on the right

Freesias are blooming throughout the garden

The flowers of Grevillea lavandulacea 'Penola' on the left are fading but still plentiful and covered with busy bees.  Grevilleas 'Ned Kelly' (top right), 'Peaches & Cream', and 'Superb' never stop blooming.

Two forms of Lotus berthelotii are aggressively covering ground in the back garden.  'Amazon Sunset' is shown on the left and the more common golden-flowered form is on the right, mingling with Abelia 'Kaleidoscope'.

The Osteospermums all responded well to our winter rains and cooler temperatures.  Clockwise from the left are O. '4D Silver' and a self-seeded variation of 'Berry White'; 'Sweet Summertime Kardinal'; 'Violet Ice'; a white form that has self-seeded widely throughout the garden; and 'Zion Copper Amethyst'

The Pericallis 'Senetti' hybrid on the left is blooming for its second year.  The Pericallis on the right is one of those commonly sold as "Florist's Cineraria."

Both of my Veltheimia braceteata have resurfaced and bloomed

There were also some blooms that took me by surprise for a variety of reasons:

Clockwise from the upper left are: Scilla peruviana, which fails to bloom more often than not; Iris x hollandica, which made a poor spring showing throughout our 5-year drought; Eschscholzia californica 'White Linen', which I finally succeeded in getting to bloom; Helleborus 'Anna's Red', which produced a single bloom in year #2 in the ground; Helleborus 'Phoebe', which produced a couple of blooms after 5 years in the ground; and Salvia africana-lutea, planted last April, which produced its first bloom on Monday

As has become my habit, I'll conclude with collages of other blooms, organized by color.

Top row: Alyogyne huegelii, Anemone coronaria, and Brachyscome 'Enduring Blue'
Middle row: noID Ceanothus, Erysimum  linifolium 'Variegatum', and Euphorbia characias 'Black Pearl'
Bottom row: Gomphrena decumbens 'Itsy Bitsy', Ipheon uniflorum, and Lantana montevidensis

Clockwise from upper left: noID Alstroemeria, Coleonema 'Sunset Gold' (with Cuphea 'Starfire Pink'), noID Dianthus, noID Lathyrus  odoratus, Pelargonium peltatum 'Pink Blizzard', and Pyrethropsis hosmarianse 'Marrakech'

Clockwise from the left: Russelia equisetiformis 'Flamingo Park', Alstroemeria 'Inca Husky', Calliandra haematocephala, noID Cymbidium, Gaillardia aristata 'Gallo Bright Red', Gazania 'White Flame', and Viola 'Pandora's Box'

From the left: Zantedeschia aethopica, Argyranthemum frutescens, Auranticarpa rhombifolia, Coleonema album, Convolvulus cneorum, Jasminum polyanthum (which actually belongs to a neighbor but hangs over our common fence), and Pyrethropsis hosmariense 

Top row: Aeonium arboreum, Bulbine frutescens, and noID Cymbidium
Middle row: Euphorbia rigida, Euryops 'Sonnenschein' and self-seeded Gazania
Bottom row: Papaver nudicaule, Phlomis fruticosa, and Sparaxis tricolor

Have I burned out your retinas?  For photos of what's blooming elsewhere in the country and around the world, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens, our Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day host.



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