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Although this could very well be a picture of me finding a new treasure at a favorite nursery, it's actually an illustration by David Catrow for a children's book called Plantzilla.

Monday, June 27, 2016

In A Vase On Monday - Giving Up


In A Vase On Monday is hosted by Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.  Click here to visit her blog and see her Monday Vase and links to those of other participating bloggers.

On Sunday, I got to spend the entire day in my garden.  One might think that because a group is coming to tour in three weeks that I would use the time to make the space a bit more presentable but instead,  decided to take on new projects like removing a thicket of holy, cutting down trees, and pulling and digging up inherited Vinca major which carpeted a steep slope.  By the end of the day, my hands and most of the rest of my body hurt and I felt every year my age and then some!  As twilight arrived I gathered a few flowers to throw into a vase but was really not in the mood.  

Berberis 'Orange Rocket,' Alstroemeria, Eryngium 'Big Blue,' Phygelius 'Flop All Over Everything And Make the Gardener Crazy' and some bamboo found their way onto the table.

Oh and there was this bunch of fragrant Tagetes lemmonii.

The back table is crowded with plants waiting to go into the ground or pots and other stuff.  This frog decided to help by choosing three vases

And we both got distracted by this cool  Corymbia citriodora/Eucalyptus citriodora found at Jungle Fever a few weeks ago.  Not hardy here, it'll have to live in a pot but the fragrance of the leaves is more than worth making space for it in the greenhouse in the winter.  The leaves have a pleasant texture to them and the tag says that they can be used in the bath as a natural citrus scrub brush and in potpourri.

Here we have the first attempt joined by a potted tuberous begonia that was sitting on the table.

Frog doesn't think this will work t all.

Maybe consolidating it into one vase and changing the context would help. It's okay but try again.

This natural shelf in the contorted filbert could make anything look good - except this poor thing.

Maybe it's time to throw in the towel (or flowers in this case) and just give up. After all, last week's vase is still doing just fine. 

 However,  the Eryngium got cut instead of being staked up with the rest of them and couldn't be wasted so this much simplaer group o flowers got thrown together to bring inside and enjoy.  
 What did you put in a vase today?

9 comments:

  1. Well since you asked, Eryngium! But none as pretty as your Sapphire Blue.

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  2. Oh Peter, I always enjoy reading your posts and today I was pleased you had a froggy friend to help you with your arangement. Great idea to place your vase in the twisted hazel - must remember that idea - and I loved the name of your Phygelius!!! ;)

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  3. I love seeing your thought process as you put a vase together...sometimes I just can't find the right combo, and then it sometimes just comes together....a perfect blue vase that even Frog would love!

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  4. That frog is too picky! I'm glad you didn't toss our that gorgeous Eryngium - that blue is almost unreal.

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  5. I came back from the local plant centre with three Eryngium 'Big Blue' a few weeks ago. I am just bowled over with the colour now they've bloomed. It is fabulous.

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  6. Have to say I do like the riot of colours on your arrangements!

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  7. Every year I want to grow Alstroemeria but don't try hard enough to locate it then I keep seeing and it is so pretty with those designs on the upper petals, it makes the Eryngium look so wonderful. I did finally get some big Eryngium flowers this year. They look great with the iridescent blue vase. I like the flowers with all the different arrnagements, the hazel bark is amazing. In San Diego I used to walk under lemon and pepperment eucalyptus trees and they would smell fantastic.

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  8. We are now beginning the holly hedge pruning. not fun. By noon it was too hot to keep working. Doing laundry and going grocery shopping this afternoon made me grumpy. Now it is too hot to pick flowers. My vase is empty. :-/

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  9. I've had those days: when all the material is beautiful but refuses to come together. End result is beautiful...now rest your weary bones.

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Thanks so much for taking the time to comment! I love to hear your thoughts.