In a Vase on Monday: Going big

I've got two larger arrangements this week.  That's unusual for me as I've a limited number of long-stemmed flowers and therefore generally stick to medium sized vases.  However, my husband bought me a tall vase as a birthday present and a good friend brought me a bundle of peonies on Saturday.  The two were made for one another so I had to go big there!  The challenge was to find materials in my garden to support the peonies.

The tallest flower stems I could find to back up the pink peonies were 2 white Agapanthus, neither of which had fully unfurled.  The taller pink Alstroemerias I usually pair with these peonies were gone but I scrounged up a few mid-sized stems that don't contribute much.

Back view: Only one of the peonies has opened thus far and, in the absence of other suitable flowers, I relied on foliage to fill out the vase, including 2 varieties of very feathery Leucadendrons

Overhead view

Clockwise from the upper left: Acacia cognata 'Cousin Itt', noID Agapanthus, noID Alstroemeria, Leucadendron 'Jubilee Crown', L. laxum, and the noID peonies sourced by my friend from a chain store that generally offers them at this time of year

Coincidentally, I discovered two tall gladiola stems in the cutting garden bed holding my sweet peas last week.  I'd plopped several purple gladiola bulbs there years ago and tried to remove them at the end of that season but a few have stubbornly returned year-after-year ever since.  What's odd is that this year a white gladiola popped up with a purple one.  To my recollection, I've never planted a white gladiola anywhere.  In any case, cutting those two stems led me to seek out others of a similar height.

The unseasonably warm temperatures we've experienced on and off over a few weeks are quickly taking out my Renga lilies (Arthropodium cirratum) and my love-in-the-mist flowers (Nigella papillosa) so they were logical choices.  The sweet peas have rapidly picked up production and I cut some of those trailing stems to give them greater weight in the arrangement.

I filled out the back of the vase with the sprawling stems of Centaurea 'Silver Feather' 

A rather awkward overhead view

Top row: Arthropodium cirratum, Centaurea 'Silver Feather', and Digitalis purpurea
Middle: Gladilolus 'Vuvuzela', noID white gladiola, and Nigella papillosa 'African Queen'
Bottom: Lathyrus odoratus 'April in Paris', 'Lord Nelson', and noID lavender variety

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

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

In a Vase on Monday: Jam packed

I still have more flowers than I know what to do with.  On Saturday, I received more in the form of an early birthday gift.  My friend scored tickets for The Huntington Gardens and treated me to a visit.  (More on that later this week.)  She also gave me a bouquet of pink peonies.  Anyone who reads my posts regularly knows I'm very fond of peonies, although I've had very little luck in growing them.  I do have a Majorcan peony, which blooms every now and then but there's no indication that it'll do so this year.  The Itoh peony I planted years ago never bloomed and this year even its foliage is a no-show.  However, a local grocery chain routinely carries the flowers in May each year and my friend periodically picks up some to mark my birthday.

This year, as before, I've combined the gift peonies with flowers and foliage from my garden.

The peonies are all pink except for one, which is white on one side

Back view: The tall peonies called for tall companions so I added stems of Salvia, Alstroemeria, and Centranthus

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left are: noID Alstroemeria, Centranthus ruber 'Albus', Grevillea sericea, Leptospermum 'Copper Glow', noID gift peony, and Salvia canariensis var candidissima

My second arrangement also includes a gift flower, albeit one that I received as a bulb from Hoover Boo of Piece of Eden in late November last year.  I planted it in my front garden and it emerged last week.  As there's a second bloom stalk, I cut the first one.

The Hippeastrum turned out to be 'Dancing Queen'

Back view: I added Alstroemeria 'Inca Sundance' to dress up the back view

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Acacia cognata 'Cousine Itt', Alstroemeria 'Inca Sundance', Cuphea 'Honeybells', Hippeastrum 'Dancing Queen', and noID Pyracantha

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

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

In a Vase on Monday: Going all in on pink

A close friend stopped by on Saturday bearing gifts.  These included peonies!  She knows I love them and that I've had next to no luck growing them so, if they're available locally as cut flowers near my birthday, she brings me a bundle.  This year's bundle may be the best yet.

 

There were 5 peonies in the bundle, all of which were still in bud when my friend purchased them earlier that morning.  One was already opening when she arrived at my house but, even tucked into my cool, dark laundry room, all were fully open when I arranged them on Sunday.

I wanted to embellish the peonies without in any way competing with them.  I also needed plants with tall stems so I focused on 2 clusters of particularly vigorous Alstroemeria.

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left:  noID pink Alstroemeria, Cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple', Orlaya grandiflora, and pink and white peonies

The materials in the second arrangement came entirely from my garden.  The inspiration was the "purple" snapdragons in my cutting garden, which badly needed cutting back to promote another flush of bloom.   The snapdragons certainly don't look purple but they look redder than they are in these photos.  I'd call them a dark cherry pink.

I'd originally designated this as the back view of the arrangement but I decided I preferred  its uncluttered appearance to the other, fussier side

Newly designated back side, dressed up with Hebe 'Wiri Blush' and Nigella papillosa

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left:  more noID pink Alstroemeria, Antirrhinum majus 'Chantilly Purple', Cuphea hybrid 'Starfire Pink', Hebe 'Wiri Blush', and Nigella papillosa

While I can't say my sweet peas are blooming with abandon, they're definitely more prolific than they were two weeks ago.  I've given three jars of sweet peas mixed with larkspur (Consolida ajacis), love-in-a mist (Nigella papillosa), and white lace flower (Orlaya grandiflora) to neighbors and friends.  I've also cut more for myself this week.

This small vase on my kitchen island contains only sweet peas and larkspur.  The sweet peas visible in this shot are Lathyrus odoratus 'Oban Bay', 'Blue Shift', and 'Erewhon'.

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: Itsy Bitsy tangles with the queen of flowers

A friend of mine stopped by on Saturday with gifts, including peonies!  The same market that offers peonies in late spring/early summer now has "winter peonies" so of course I had to use them in a vase this Monday.  She brought two sleeves of peonies in different colors but, as one group opened far more quickly than the other, I ended up displaying them in separate vases.

I partnered the peony blooms with Gomphrena 'Itsy Bitsy' and foliage from my garden.  According to legend, peonies are the queen of flowers (or king or empress, depending upon the source). 

Back view: I cut so many of the spindly 'Itsy Bitsy' stems, they repeatedly got tangled with the peonies and themselves, hence the title of this post

Top view

From left to right: Gomphrena decumbens 'Itsy Bitsy', noID peonies, and Prunus caroliniana

The peonies in the second vase were still stubbornly curled in tight balls on Sunday afternoon but I'm expecting they'll open overnight.

These peonies were also paired with 'Itsy Bitsy' and the same foliage

Contrary to expectations, my garden produced yet another Lisianthus (Eustoma grandiflorum) bloom so, to celebrate its persistence, I constructed another arrangement around it.

I collected a range of blue and purple blooms to accent the dark blue Lisianthus

Back view

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: noID Ceanothus, Eustoma grandiflorum, Lavandula multifida, Osteospermum 'Violet Ice', Prostanthera ovalifolia 'Variegata', and Trichostemma 'Midnight Magic'

I showed a single photo of a wreath I constructed from scratch (my first ever!) in my Friday post but, thinking that members of the IAVOM community were perhaps most likely to appreciate the process, I saved the details for this post.

From left to right, the main ingredients were cuttings of Leucadendron salignum 'Chief', berries of Nandina domestica paired with stems of Coleonema pulchellum 'Sunset Gold', and Leucadendron 'Winter Red'.  I tied the cuttings tightly together using fishing line.  In retrospect, I should have made more and smaller bundles of each material to create a denser wreath.

I used a wire frame I'd saved from a store-bought wreath purchased last year.  When I started, I hadn't planned to add the red berries or chartreuse Coleonema.  I placed two Leucadendron 'Chief' bundles for each 'Winter Sun' bundle, wrapping the wire around each bundle hree times before overlapping it with the next one.  I didn't cut the wire until I'd covered the entire frame.

I was fairly pleased with it when I reached this phase but I decided I needed some bright spots of red, which is when I assembled the berry bundles.  I wired these in separately but it would have been better to have wired in everything at the same time, as well as using smaller bundles of materials to create a denser wreath.

Luckily, I had some chartreuse ribbon on hand.  I watched an online video about making a bow with multiple loops.  Stiffer ribbon would have worked better in this instance.

This is the finished wreath.  Knowing what I do now, next time I'll: create smaller bundles of materials (about 4 inches long), alternate bundles facing in and out, and wire all materials as part of one continuous process.  As this wreath has dried out rapidly indoors, I think I'll also place it outdoors if possible.

 

All Christmas decorating is now complete for this year.  With Covid-19 filling our ICUs and stretching local hospitals to the brink, my husband and I will be spending our holiday alone this year.  However you're celebrating I hope you find a safe and pleasant way to enjoy the comforts of the season.  Best wishes!

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

In a Vase on Monday: Gifts from the garden - and others

The last couple of months have been surreal.  The US reached the grim milestone of 100,000 COVID-19 deaths last week even as restrictions on the population's movements and activities are being loosened.  Los Angeles County will allow restaurants, hair salons and barbershops to open this week provided they meet specific criteria, despite the fact that the County recorded its largest one-day total of COVID-19  cases on Saturday.  On top of evidence that many people are still not taking the recommendations to manage the threat seriously, as evidenced by people swamping beaches and hiking trails without maintaining distance from others or wearing masks to protect those around them, the country experienced one of the most egregious cases of brutality in the guise of police enforcement we've ever seen last week, deepening the depression of the population.  People are understandably fed up with broken promises to correct the racial inequities in our justice system, as well as those in our public health system made more evident during this pandemic, and now they've taken to the streets en masse to protest.   Most protesters are peacefully expressing their outrage but opportunists are using the protests as covers for looting and destruction.  The large congregations of people may also exacerbate the spread of the virus.

Some mornings it's difficult to get up and face the day.  Yesterday was one of those days.  Still, my garden offers comfort, as does the support and generosity of friends and family.   I pulled myself together and created an arrangement combining warm and cool-season blooms.

This vase got started with two stems of an unusual Salvia native to the Canary Islands

Back view: I also used the last of the "gray" larkspur, the rest of which I intend to pull out today

Top view: I used some of the last of the white-flowered Nigella too

Clockwise from the upper left: Salvia canariensis var candidissima, Ammi majus 'Dara', Centaurea 'Silver Feather', white Consolida ajacis, Consolida ajacis 'Earl Grey', Nigella papillosa 'African Bride', and Vitex trifolia

In a departure from my usual practice, that's the only vase I created yesterday.  However, a close friend visited on Friday to celebrate my birthday and, in addition to the gift of her companionship (observed with masks and proper social distancing), she brought a bouquet of peonies, which I used to create a vase on Saturday.

For a short period each year, a couple of area markets offer peonies.  I hadn't gotten out to pick up any as I usually do so I was thrilled when my friend brought me some.

Back view: I added embellishments picked from my own garden and used the vase another friend sent me earlier in the month, also as a birthday gift

Top view: the peony blooms were mostly open when I photographed them yesterday

Left to right: Hebe 'Wiri Blush', noID peonies, and Orlaya grandiflora

I miss seeing my friends in person and I long to go someplace other than the grocery store but I expect to take things slowly in adding to what has become my usual routine during our lockdown.  My first hurdle is to visit my local pharmacist to get a booster shot that's already more than a month overdue.  The dentist and my hairdresser may be next, as long as their precautions are reassuring and the second wave of coronavirus cases feared by many doesn't show signs of materializing.

I hope you're adapting to your new normal as it unfolds.  For a look at this week's IAVOM creations, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

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