The blue bottle serving as a vase today reminds me of another time. The bottle belonged to my mother. My mother and grandmother had a peculiar habit of keeping bottles in the kitchen window. If the bottles were clear they were filled with water and food coloring. Colored bottles were left as is and used as vases for whatever somebody found in the yard; it was usually me finding things. My grandmother, a teetotaling Southern Baptist, especially enjoyed her slightly risque practice of displaying old liquor bottles filled with colored water.
A closer view:
This is a bouquet of summer in South Florida. Many of the annuals are starting to burn out and the true stalwarts of the garden are shining. In white, Tropical Gardenias (Tabernaemontana divaricata); peach spikes are Tropical Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea), in blue, an improved cultivar of Plumbago, I think this is ‘Imperial Blue’ and it has deeper color and flowers longer than the standard; the fern is the ‘weed’ Asparagus Fern that tends to appear for no reason.
An even closer view of the Tropical Gardenias, I do love these.
Thanks to Cathy at http://www.ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com for hosting. Follow the link to see more summer (or winter!) vases..
Happy Gardening!!!
The Shrub Queen 
The colours are great and I really love the bottle! It’s not too hot here this week but the humidity…not Florida humid, I know, (just ‘feeling’ like 93 today) but it still kinda wipes you out.
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Thanks, Chris. I just looked – almost 4 pm 89 feels like 101 64% humidity..there is a nice breeze off the ocean, It is okay in the shade, but I am in the house!
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Stunning vase and I love the little anecdote that goes with it. A few weeks ago I got a Plumbago. A friend of mine has a huge one growing in the garden, I just love the blue flowers. It’s doing well, obviously enjoying our tropical heat. Have a good week, Amy, I won’t be doing any gardening myself, way too hot.
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Thanks, Annette. It is too hot to garden here too. Are you going to keep the Plumbago as a house plant?
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It’s in a big pot in the garden but I want to plant it out at some stage as it seems to cope well with the conditions here in our friend’s garden. Do you water yours a lot?
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I never water the Plumbago except to establish it. Do you have the perennial or a shrub?
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good to know, it’s the shrub
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My Grandma also collected little colored jars, I inherited her cobalt blue collection! ♥
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Love it, I have some of my gmas cobalt glass too. She had cranberry glass as well.
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I love the story of putting food coloring in the bottles. It is almost like stained glass windows. I saw a piece on TV where Jim Croce’s son is finally singing his Dad’s songs.
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Maybe that was the idea, depression era faux stained glass? I hope his son sounds like him. I heard that song the other day, what a wonderful voice Jim Croce had..
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That’s a great idea for the bottles – well done to your grandmother! Love your title too – although I did half expect some thyme in it too! It was really interesting to read that ‘this is a bouquet of summer in South Florida’, as it is so different from your usual vases. Thanks for sharing it
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Thanks, Cathy, thyme barely makes it through the summer here. I love to cook with it and had a huge pot – it expired suddenly in May, arrgh. The usual zinnias are resting or fading away in the heat.
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Experience those couple of days of extreme heat brought home to me what a difference it must make to the survival of ceratin plants. My zinnias have been lapping up the high 20s heat we have been having in recent days and are beginning to open – hurrah!
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yes, the sedums here are finally burning up from the heat. I knew it was inevitable but I enjoyed them for a while. Yay for zinnias.
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Next year I will stick to single colours though as mixed ones don’t always produce useable blooms at the same time! 😁
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Window glass seems to have faded from popularity, but I remember seeing many displays among the older ladies. Sandwich (MA) Glass still has its fans.
Love the peach and blue theme, soft and lovely in the old blue bottle.
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Thanks, Eliza. I will have to look up Sandwich Glass. I am glad you remember the glass, too.
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You do have a wonderful collection of bottles and other found objects for use as vases. I don’t see colored bottles often anymore but then maybe all the folks with bottle trees in their gardens have snatched up the supply. Your arrangement makes me wish I had some plumbago in my garden. If only it wasn’t so prone to spreading…
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I love it, the bottle tree people got them! I find non vases easier to use for flower arranging if you have odd sized flowers that are not long stemmed. I am planning on adding some Plumbago hoping it spreads!
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I love this arrangement, bottle and story. The Plumbago is spectacular.
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Thank you.
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I knew that plumbago was good for something. I got to disliking it while working for a so-called landscape company that overwatered ‘everything’, and for some reason, the unfortunately plumbago trying to live next to a swampy lawn is what I remember about that.
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Plumbago has grown on me over the years, I added one this year and will add a couple more next year. It never dies!
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It was just the opposite for me. I used to like its perfect blue, but learned to dislike it because so-called ‘gardeners’ do not know how to maintain it, or care to.
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Very refreshing. 😃 Plumbago is one of those true blue flowers and the bottle makes it stand out even more. 👍
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Beautiful flowers and an interesting vase!
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Thank you!
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