In a Vase on Monday: Seasonal support

Now that I've cleared my cutting garden, there aren't many flowers to fill a vase.  My options are to focus on foliage, go small, or make use of succulents.  I'll probably use all three strategies off and on until my cool season plants jump into gear, which is likely to take at least two months and possibly longer, depending upon our weather.  However, I do have a few plants that commonly flower at this time of year.  I featured two of these, Senna bicapsularis and Tagetes lemonnii, in one of last week's arrangements.  This week I focused on the bush violet, Barleria obtusa, a drought tolerant South African native.

While the bush violets inspired the arrangement, bearded Iris 'Autumn Circus' grabbed the spotlight.  The Iris has been blooming for over 2 weeks but the recent Santa Ana winds desiccated some buds before they had a chance to open so I decided to take advantage of the the last 2 blooms.

Back view: I'd meant to cut the Vitex trifolia stems the night before putting this arrangement together but never got around to it, hence the drooping foliage in these photographs taken Sunday.  They should be standing upright by Monday morning.

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Barleria obtusa, Iris germanica 'Autumn Circus', self-seeded Osteospermum, Pentas lanceolata, and Vitex trifolia

I relied heavily on foliage to create a second arrangement this week.

This one was inspired by my favorite ivy geranium, Pelargonium peltatum 'Dark Burgundy'; however, the rainbow colors of Plectranthus scutellarioides 'Florida Sun Rose' (aka coleus) assumed center stage

Back view: The only true flowers in this arrangement are a few Pelargonium stems and the pink Pentas lanceolata

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Coprosma repens 'Plum Hussey', Leucadendron salignum 'Winter Red', Prostanthera ovatifolia 'Variegata, Pelargonium peltatum 'Dark Burgundy', P. sidoides, Pentas lanceolata, and Plectranthus scutellarioides 'Florida Sun Rose'

 

After nearly two weeks of excessively warm temperatures and dry winds, it looks as though our morning marine layer will bring back cooler, more fall-like temperatures this week.  Unfortunately, the atmospheric river that's enveloped the Pacific Northwest isn't likely to bring any rain this far south.  I've heard that the rainy season here may not get rolling until January.

 

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

All material © 2012-2023 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

In a Vase on Monday: Can you have too many dahlias?

The dahlias in my cutting garden have gone bonkers.  'Iceberg' is finally in the process of opening its first bloom so now all those I planted this year have made a showing.  Even though the combination of last week's heatwave and our dreaded Santa Ana winds took a toll on some of them, causing tall stems to fall over and break and other blooms to wither in place, there were still many more dahlias than I had time to cram into vases on Sunday.

I built my first arrangement around one of the recent arrivals, Dahlia 'Lady Darlene'.

'Lady Darlene's' yellow and red petals curve downward, giving the flower a ball-like shape

Back view:  As I only had 3 'Lady Darlene' flowers in good shape, I had to make do with yellow dahlias, grass plumes, and foliage to fill out the vase

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Dahlia 'Lady Darlene', D. 'Summer's End', noID yellow dahlia, Leucadendron salignum 'Safari Sunset', L. 'Wilson's Wonder', and Pennisetum advena 'Rubrum'

I hadn't planned to use Dahlia 'Fairway Spur' this week but all of a sudden it's producing gobs of flowers, most of which aren't mutants for a change.  I went bigger than usual in creating an arrangement around them.

I used burgundy foliage and a dark-toned vase to contrast with the orange and yellow dahlias

Back view

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Dahlia 'Fairway Spur', D. 'Summer's End', Hibiscus acetosella 'Haight Ashbury', Plectranthus scutellarioides 'Pineapple' (aka coleus), and Zinnia elegans 'Queen Lime Orange'

 

My last arrangement is a simplified version of the one I created last week using lavender-colored flowers and purple foliage.  I wanted to experiment further with the Vitex foliage and, like Dahlia 'Fairway Spur', 'Mikayla Miranda' had pumped out a lot of new blooms.  I skipped the process of dunking the Vitex stems in hot water this week  - the stems straightened up nicely overnight in water after I split the bottom inch of each stem. 

Top row: the arrangement from 3 angles
Middle: pink and white Cosmos bipinnatus and Vitex trifolia
Bottom: Dahlias 'Lavender Ruffles' and 'Mikayla Miranda'

Our temperatures started to come down yesterday.  Instead of the temperatures in the low-to-mid 90sF we had last week, we're expecting them to settle into the low-to-mid 70s (23-25C) this week.  I'm looking forward to getting back to work in the garden, although this week I have some help coming to trim about half my trees (fourteen this year), which means I'll be busy moving potted plants and other breakables out of the way and then restoring them to their spots afterwards so I'm not likely to get any big projects done.

 

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

All material © 2012-2023 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

In a Vase on Monday: An embarrassment of riches

It's October and I've got more dahlias than I know what to do with, even though I've been giving bouquets away here and there.  In 2017, the first year I grew dahlias, they were gone by September.  2021 was a banner year with thirteen dahlia varieties still in place but, on average, between 2017 and 2022, I've had just seven varieties left by the time October arrived.  This year I have fourteen varieties and what's more, I have duplicates of many of these.   It's overwhelming - in a good way.  I'm already saving glass and plastic bottles, imagining a large scale giveaway of cut flowers in November (absent a nasty heatwave beforehand).  Needless to say, dahlias fill all three of this week's vases.

The first vase contains some newbie dahlia blooms: 'Breakout', 'Calin', and Romantique'.  Another newbie, 'Lady Darlene', also made an appearance last week but I'm waiting for additional flowers before cutting them for a vase.

Dahlia 'Romantique' is a diminutive variety relative to most of the dahlia blooms surrounding it.  I mistook it for a bud of 'Breakout' when I first noticed it, as they're similar in color if not size.

Back view featuring Dahlia 'La Luna'

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Acer palmatum 'Sango Kaku' foliage, noID double-petaled Calibrachoa, Prunus ilicifolia foliage, Dahlia 'Breakout', D. 'Calin', D. 'La Luna', and D. Romantique

 

My second vase includes one of the dahlias with the largest blooms, as well as this year's most prolific bloomer: 'Fairway Spur' and 'Summer's End'.

While one Dahlia 'Fairway Spur' is still producing a lot of mutant-shaped blooms, the other has produced huge, fully-petaled flowers

Back view: I planted only one Dahlia 'Summer's End' but it still manages to out-produce even the varieties with 2 or 3 clumps in terms of the sheer number of flowers

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Abelia 'Kaleidoscope', Leucadendron salignum 'Chief', Dahlia 'Fairway Spur', D. 'Summer's End', Xylosma congestum (foliage), and Zinnia elegans 'Benary's Giant Salmon Rose'

 

The last arrangement was inspired by the foliage of Vitex trifolia but it contains three dahlias that make the most of the Vitex's purple leaves: 'Enchantress', 'Lavender Ruffles', and 'Mikayla Miranda'.  'Lavender Ruffles' is this year's floppiest dahlia and I unfortunately planted three of them, all holdovers from last year, only one of which was properly supported at the outset.  The plant is only supposed to get three feet tall and I generally don't cage dahlias that are that height or shorter; however, as it's blooms grow up to twelve inches wide, their sheer weight pulls the stems down.  Next year, I'll plant only one of those tubers and it'll be surrounded by a tomato cage.

Dahlia 'Mikayla Miranda' got center stage as it's become one of my favorites.  Unfortunately, Vitex trifolia stems don't appreciate being cut and droop almost immediately.  I cut the stems at an angle and sliced the bottom inch in half before immediately putting them in water but, when that didn't do the trick, I immersed the stem tips in hot water for 15 seconds before arranging them.  The stems are looking better since these photos were taken but I suspect I should treat them a day before including them in an arrangement. 

Back view featuring Dahlias 'Enchantress' and 'Lavender Ruffles'

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Cosmos bipinnatus, Dahlia 'Enchantress', D. 'Lavender Ruffles', D. 'Mikayla Miranda', tiny Vitex trifolia flowers, and the Vitex's dual-colored foliage (olive green on top and purple underneath)

 

Despite my skepticism, we received a little rain this past weekend after all.  The majority of that, 0.04/inch arrived Sunday morning, most of it as a single downpour.  As October 1st is the start of the 2024 "water year," I'm choosing to see that as auspicious.  We're expecting a warm-up on Wednesday but it doesn't look like it'll get much above 80F (27C) here.

 

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

 

All material © 2012-2023 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

In a Vase on Monday: Scraps from the garden

Floral pickings are relatively spare right now but I managed to cobble together some scraps from the garden for a small arrangement that doesn't include my year-round bloomers this week.  As Christmas decorations have begun to fill the house, there's less space for vases anyway.

The Osteospermum blooms front and center here are seedlings that came up in the middle of the dirt path that runs behind my backyard border.  They appear to be offspring of Osteospermum '4D Silver', which I haven't been able to find for some time and which I'd never thought would come up true to form from seed.

Back view featuring the globe daisies (Globularia x indubia) that recently reappeared

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Argyranthemum 'White Butterfly', noID Ceanothus, Globularia x indubia, Osteospermum '4D Silver', Vitex trifolia 'Purpurea', and Westringia fruticosa 'Morning Light'

As the arrangement I created two weeks ago is still sitting on the dining room table (minus only the Mangave bloom spikes), the new arrangement landed on the kitchen island.

I attempted another wreath this year but, running out of patience and struggling with a backache, it failed to live up to my expectations.  I erred in failing to hydrate the cut stems overnight after I assembled the materials in small bundles before wiring them to a metal frame the next morning.  My guess is that it won't hold up long even hung outside.

I interspersed bundles of Coleonema 'Sunset Gold', Chondropetalum elephantipes and Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder' (shown upper right) with berries of a noID Cotoneaster (middle right) and bundles of Leucadendron 'Chief' and Prunus caroliniana (lower right).  I found ribbon that looked like burlap (if it was wired and infused with a dusting of gold glitter) in my gift wrap stash.

I brought home a pre-made pine wreath when we picked up our Christmas tree on Friday.  I always embellish these with cuttings from the garden, although I used a lighter touch than usual this year.

In addition to the ribbon I've reused for years now, I added an angel, more Cotoneaster berries, and Leucadendron 'Blush'.  The last were leftovers from last week's vase.

A garden gnome, released from his confinement in the garage only for a brief interval each December, took his place near the front door to greet visitors.

The gnome came from a favorite nursery on a 50% off sale when it closed many years ago.  He was missing a fishing pole so I give him succulents, berries or other cuttings to hold each year but he never looks less grumpy.  The smaller climbing gnome hanging from his cap usually goes on the pine wreath or the Christmas tree but he earned a new role this year.

For more IAVOM posts, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

All material © 2012-2021 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

In a Vase On Monday: Warm & Cool

The title of this post could reflect our weather, which continues to flip-flop between warm and cool temperatures, but instead it refers to the colors of the two arrangements I have to offer this week. The warm arrangement befits the upcoming US Thanksgiving holiday.

The coral flowers of my ever-blooming Grevillea 'Superb' provided the jumping off point for this arrangement

Orange Cuphea 'Vermillionaire' and berries of a self-planted Cotoneaster fill out the back of the vase.  Unfamiliar with Cotoneaster and uncertain which species this one is, I'd no idea how big this plant would get and I've developed some apprehension about letting it take off.

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Agonis flexuosa 'Nana', noID Cotoneaster, Cuphea 'Vermillionaire, Gaillardia 'Spintop Copper Sun', Grevillea 'Superb', Tagetes lemonnii, and Xerochrysum bracteatum

The bush violets are still going strong so cool blues are making an appearance once again this week.  The arrangement could have used more white flowers but those are sparse at the moment and I couldn't bring myself to cut all I had.

The purple-leafed foliage is Vitex trifolia (aka Arabian lilac).  The upper surfaces of the leaves are olive green but the plant is prone drooping, especially after being cut, revealing its purple undersides.

Back view: The bush violets will drop flowers during the course of the week but buds continue to open, often resulting in a bushier arrangement than the one I started out with

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Angelonia 'Archangel White', Hebe 'Purple Shamrock', noID Ceanothus, Argyranthemum frutescens 'Pure White Butterfly', Barleria obtusa (bush violet), Penstemon heterophyllus 'Blue Springs', and Vitex trifolia 'Purpurea'

For more IAVOM creations, visit our host, Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.  Best wishes to all of you in the US celebrating Thanksgiving this week.  Enjoy the day!  

All material © 2012-2021 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party