In a Vase on Monday: Summer re-run

After 2 pleasantly cool, fall-like weeks, summer is mounting a re-run here this week, with temperatures expected to climb back up into the mid-to-upper 80sF as our notorious Santa Ana winds return.  Those winds can shrivel flowers in record time so I felt only a little guilty about cutting the roses and other flowers that have appeared since the temperatures dropped.

My 'California Dreamin' rose produced 3 blooms on short stems.  This rose has never been robust.

I'm still cutting snippets off the top of my silver Leucadendron as I remain concerned that it's too top-heavy to hold up to strong winds

I finally got a few blooms on the white Japanese anemone I inherited with the garden

Clockwise from the left: Rosa 'California Dreamin', Anemone hupehensis japonica, Leucadendron 'Pisa', and Pentas 'Kaleidoscope Appleblossom'

A dahlia I'd purchased in a nursery pot from a garden center 6 or more weeks ago bloomed for the first time this past week so I created an arrangement around it too.  I'd been under the impression that the bloom would be a lavender/white bi-color but it looks pink with blue undertones to me.  I had a hard time finding suitable companions for it so my choices are a bit of a jumble.

The dahlia is pretty but, with just a single bloom to date, I'm not sure it was worth the purchase

The rear view isn't especially attractive so it's a good thing I've got it facing a wall

Top view

Clockwise from the top right-hand photo, the vase contains: Dahlia 'Veracruz', Zinnia elegans, Pseuderanthemum 'Texas tri-star', noID violet and white Pentas, Ocimum hybrid 'African Blue', Eustoma grandiflorum, Cosmos bipinnatus, and Abelia x grandiflora 'Hopleys' Variegated'

I've become very reliant on photo collages for my IaVoM (and many other) posts; however, this week I discovered that PicMonkey, the collage maker I've been using, has decided to charge for use of the tool.  I may opt in eventually and pay the membership fee but, for now, I'm trying another tool, Be Funky.  I tried one other but found it less than intuitive to use.  If you know of a good free collage tool, let me know!

Visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, our "In a Vase on Monday" host, to find more floral and foliage arrangements created by gardeners from materials close at hand.

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

In a Vase on Monday: Floral Flotsam

There are only a few plants in my garden producing flowers in significant numbers but, for this week's "In a Vase on Monday" post, I decided to use bits and pieces that haven't received much attention lately.  Carol of May Dreams Gardens, the host of Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, once referred to the flowers present in small numbers as the "flotsam and jetsam" of her garden, which I thought was an apt description of the materials I selected this week.  I started off with a 'California Dreamin' rose.  The shrub recently produced a couple of beautiful blooms but the first shriveled when we got a tiny bit of rain (0.24 inches/6.1 mm) early last week so I clipped the newest bloom on Sunday in advance of the weather system that passed through last night, then went hunting for other blooms to accent its yellowish pink and cream colors.

Front view

Back view

Top view

Here's what I included:

Top: Rosa 'California Dreamin', said to have a strong citrus scent but it's perfume seemed light to my nose
Bottom, left to right: Abelia 'Kaleidoscope', Achillea 'Moonshine', Correa pulchella 'Pink Eyre', and Leucadendron 'Pisa'

I cut a few flowers that I didn't use in my featured vase so I popped these stems into the tiny blue vase that sits near my kitchen sink, where it complements the ceramic pig that holds my tea bags (alas, not cookies).

The 3-inch vase holds Argyranthemum frutescens 'Angelic Giant Pink' and Leptospermum scoparium 'Pink Pearl'

For more floral and foliage concoctions, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

P.S. For those of you who expressed interest in how long last week's Bauhinia x blakeana (Hong Kong orchid tree) blooms last in the vase, the answer is 2 days.  Beautiful as they are, they aren't particularly good subjects for a vase.   The buds don't open once the stem is cut either.


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

In a Vase on Monday: It started with a rose...

There aren't many roses in bloom in my garden at present and those that do appear don't last long so, when I saw that 'California Dreamin' had a bud opening, I clipped it and, as Cathy at Rambling in the Garden does, I wandered about my own garden looking for suitable partners to go in today's vase.  I didn't start this week's project with selections in mind as I often do.  I wasn't even sure there was much out there that I hadn't already used in one form or another.  So I was surprised how well this vase came together.

Unlike many of my bouquets, this one was no struggle to photograph.  In fact, this one wasn't capable of producing a bad photo.

Photo taken from above the bouquet looking downward

This bouquet may be my personal favorite thus far.  Here's what I used:

• 1 rose bud ('California Dreamin' rose)
• 3 stems of Bulbine frutescens, yellow variety
• 1 Dahlia 'Fringed Star'
• 2 stems of Digitalis x mertonensis 'Polka Dot Pippa' (with the persistent aphids removed)
• 1 stem of Grevillea 'Superb' containing 2 mature flowers
• 3 stems of Leucadendron salignum 'Chief' 
• 3 stems of Origanum 'Monterey Bay'
• 2 stems of the always useful Tanacetum parthenium 'Aureum' (aka golden feverfew)

Close-up of 'California Dreamin' rose

Close-up of yellow Bulbine frutescens with Digitalis x mertonensis below

Close-up of Dahlia 'Fringed Star,' which has a lot less pink than than the photo attached to the bulb package

Close-up of Grevillea 'Superb,' the blooms of which start out a yellowish peach and turn pinkish coral as they age 

Back of the bouquet, which highlights Leucadendron salignum 'Chief' and Origanum 'Monterey Bay'

The vase in this case is a decorative teapot given to my mother-in-law by one of her neighbors several months prior to her death.  I brought it home last year when my husband and I cleared her home for sale, planning to use it to hold flowers.  This is the first time I've done so and, even though it isn't a family heirloom, it reminds me of her.

What better place for a teapot masquerading as a vase than the kitchen.  It brightens the mostly white space, doesn't it?

The lemons from the tree at the bottom of our slope even make a nice accent

If you have a vase of flowers collected from your garden sitting on a countertop this morning, post a picture and link up to Cathy's "In a Vase on Monday" meme at Rambling in the Garden.

Summer Slowdown

When summer arrives in our area of SoCal, it generally ushers in a period of high temperatures, low humidity, and recurring episodes of dry Santa Ana winds.   These conditions usually persist well into October.  It's a poor time to plant here and, every year, I tell myself that I'm not going to put in any new plants after the official start of summer on June 21st.  I've reminded myself (again) that planting during this period is a poor investment of time and money.  However, in advance of my summer gardening slowdown, I embarked on a frenzy of new planting activity.

Here's a look of some of what I've put in during the last few weeks:

Okay, this Acacia cognata 'Cousin Itt' isn't in the ground yet but it was purchased before the official start of summer!

3 Angelonia 'Angelmist Dark Pink' were added to the dry garden to complement Hemerocallis 'Russian Rhapsody", a reblooming daylily, and Cuphea ignea 'Starfire Pink'

Agastache 'Acapulco Rose' was added to fill a hole created when a raccoon shredded an earlier plant purchase (and it looks good with the daylily too)

Echinacea 'PowWow White' was added to the back border

As was Gomphrena globosa 'Las Vegas Mix', which filled an area formerly occupied by pansies

A group of Angelonia 'Serena White' went into the front border to replace other fading pansies

3 Euphorbia 'Breathless White" were needed to fill the spot formerly accupied by annual Nigella 'African Bride' in the side yard

Some Milium 'Flashlight' was added to give the back border another pop of chartreuse

And I had to pick up Solenostemon scutellariodes 'Fishnet Stockings Coleus' when I finally found it in a local nursery

I decided to give Strobilanthus dyernus (Persian Shield) another try in a pot in a partially shaded area after failing to keep it alive in a sunnier spot last year

While looking for Teucrium chamaedrys, I found this relative, Teucrium cossonii majoricum, a low growing groundcover said to bloom almost continuously  - it's a bee magnet

I picked up this Viola, described only as a perennial variety with double blue flowers, to replace some annual pansies in a partially shaded area

After endless debating as to whether to buy another hybrid tea rose to fill in an empty space in my rose bed created when an inherited 'Sterling Silver" rose suddently died last year, I capitulated to 'California Dreamin'

I'd like to say that this was all the planting I did this month but that wouldn't be truthful.  However, most of the rest of what I planted isn't ready for a spot in front of the camera yet.

Despite all this planting activity and my resolution to hold off on further planting during the summer months, I'm afraid I'm already bending my own rule.  I have plans to join a friend on a nursery shopping trip later this week.  I'm telling myself that the June 21st cut-off date is a bit arbitrary, especially as we've been experiencing cooler than normal conditions near the coast this year.  And I'm planning to buy just a very few things to fill in some empty spots before I really put a final halt on new plantings for the season.  Although, when the last of the pansies go, I may need more annuals to fill the empty spaces...