In a Vase on Monday – Blue Bottles

by theshrubqueen

 

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My mother and grandmother both collected blue bottles, a really interesting bottle that wasn’t blue was filled with water and food coloring. The smaller ones went in the  window or on the sill. I have ended up with a few of the bottles. This one belonged to my mother, she would have called it a junk store find. It resided in her kitchen window for a number of years. When used as a vase, it doesn’t hold many flowers. I had to stop cutting because I couldn’t stuff another stem into the bottle. Here is the whole bottle.

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The flowers in my blue bottle are: white spikes, Sweet Almond (Aloysia virgata) I am enjoying the marzipan fragrance from these again. Peachy Zinnias, these are grown in Florida and I buy them at Home Depot almost every year, no clue the variety, they survive most of the summer and the butterflies love them. The yellow flowers are Thyrallis (Galphimia gracilis) – this is one of those botanical names not so sure plants. A Florida native now sold as an annual, I think it would be great in containers further north. We have a miniature pineapple leaf in red and some grey foliage from the Licorice Plant that hasn’t succumbed to the heat yet. The coral flowers with the grey tips are from Soap Aloe (Aloe saponaria) my friend Eddie from Landscape school gave me a  cutting several years ago and now I have two masses that swirl across my front walkway, probably a weird use of the plant. Here is one side. These flower on a candelabras three or  four times a year and have sharp, attractive grey foliage year round.

 

Research tells me shampoo can be made with this plant –  the  big however is, most people are allergic to it. So, I haven’t tried.

Happy gardening, everyone. I am feeling a bad vibe from WordPress with the new editor thing, anyone else? Launching my IAVOM early as tags and categories have disappeared here.

13 comments on “In a Vase on Monday – Blue Bottles”

  1. Eliza Waters says:
    June 1, 2020 at 1:31 am

    Oh, great, WP is at it again? Always tinkering, it seems.
    I really like your arrangement this week– great colors and the leaf and flower shapes go well together. The reddish pineapple leaf picks up the aloe and zinnia hues perfectly!

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  2. Chris Mousseau says:
    June 1, 2020 at 1:39 am

    I was wondering if it was just me! I still have tags and categories but the font on the title suddenly changed when I’m writing. Bewildering…. I love the soap aloe – both the pant and the flowers, and, again, the Thyrallis. And, of course! The blue bottle! Gorgeous!!!

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  3. automatic gardener says:
    June 1, 2020 at 1:16 pm

    I really like the idea of using food coloring to the color of vase you want. I haven’t even looked at WP. There is so much going on right now, I don’t think I can do it. I hope it will let me use the posts I already created.

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  4. Cathy says:
    June 2, 2020 at 9:30 pm

    That zinnia is so pretty – love the peachy colour. Goes so nicely with the Aloe flowers and the blue vase. 😀 Does licorice plant smell of licorice?

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