I usually start with one idea and end up with something completely different. After suffering a planting design lecture from myself, I ended up with this. The Orange (called Dwarf Red) Ixoras have started flowering in earnest, so I plucked a few of those and began to make a posy (thank you, Cathy , our meme hostess at ramblinginthegarden) for the new term I love. A posy would be called a bouquet in the US, I can’t speak for anywhere else. My posy just wasn’t working out even though the design principles were solid (more lecturing) fine textured orange contrasting with coarser yellow flowers (Beach Sunflowers) the big coarse purple Solar Sunrise Coleus leaves edged in chartreuse picking up the color of the finer textured Boston Ferns. I give myself a headache thinking about these things sometimes.
After the failure of my posy design to gel, caused primarily by structural issues due to poorly considered stem lengths, I sought a small vase for my finely considered composition. The vase was my mothers favorite pansy jar. A none too fine pressed glass jar from God knows where that was frequently filled with pansies in the winter during my childhood. Perfect for oddly too short stems. My mother, not being much of an arranger, would have loved this one. The below photo is my mother (in 1948) overlooking the pansy jar.
Pansies in South Florida are an ill considered indulgence. Lasting when temperatures are perfect, maybe two weeks, and requiring more vigilance than I possess I have forsaken them for more tropical flowers. So, no pansies for the pansy jar. But a few new plant friends have been made to grace this heirloom vase.
The Shrub Queen 
I would have loved to hear your design lecture to yourself. You must be a good teacher because this is charming. I love the Ixora, in fact I have tried to grow it but it always dies on me. A bouquet is much bigger than a posy. Another nice word for a posy is a ‘ tussie- mussie’. The word goes back to the 1400 s but is nout used much now, which is a pity. Vita Sackville West tried to reintroduce it. Anyway, I love your pretty posy.
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Thank you, so to clarify, we have a posy similar to a tussie mussie, a bouquet which is bigger and a buttonhole which is a boutenniere? If I spelled that right. Have I understood the English floral terms?
I think the key to growing Ixora is HollyTone, if you have it in the UK.
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And then there is a nosegay which is similar to a tussie- mussie.
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Nomenclature!
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Oh Chloris is such a tease – but she is quite right of course. Boquets also seem more formal as well as larger – I would definitely rather be given a posy than a bouquet, and even more so one of home grown flowers. I enjoyed reading through your lecture to yourself as you worked out what to do with your blooms – and you certainly came to the right decision. Would your Mum have approved, do you think?
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Thank you and yes, my Mum would have approved. She was pretty hopeless at flower arranging and usually made me do it. I like the term posy, I am going to say it means a small bouquet.
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I haven’t planted or grown any pansies this year….and I must get a few. But I love your posy in your mom’s jar…lovingly placed by her beautiful portrait!
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Pansies do quite well here, and I love them if I can find one with fragrance. I am feeling some guilt pangs for not getting any this year but I started so many flowers from seed. Your posy looks very cute and arranged, Amelia, I’m not sure how one fastens the flowers together. To me a bouquet can be a rather large affair, as in “Bridal Bouquet”.
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I think we have settled that posy, nosegay and tussie mussies are small bouquets! It took intercontinental cooperation.
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The color echo between the center of the sunflowers and the coleus leaves couldn’t be more perfect. All in all, it’s a wonderful composition. I told myself I shouldn’t plant pansies either but then justified it because we expected massive rain from El Nino – unfortunately for SoCal, all that rain went north (although that’s good for the NorCal snow-pack so I’m trying not to be too resentful).
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thanks, I am finding the El Nino business a bit underpredictable. We had massive rain in January and now it is dry as a bone. I always had pansies when I lived further north.
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[…] Apr18 by theshrubqueen […]
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Love this photo of your mom!
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Thanks, Cyndi, she was a nurse, sometimes you sound like her!
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This is charming! And it shows the bravery that someone who is a true designer posses, because the mix of those colours and shapes is unexpected, but works beautifully.
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Wow, thank you! I have to tell you it promptly wilted! I was manhandling it too much.
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Oh no! Try womanhandling it next time.
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