Last week our fearless hostess, Cathy from ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com  posted about Blue, an album by Joni Mitchell, relating the album to her vase. My In A Vase on Monday post had some crystals from my father, the geology professor. This made me remember the song, Crystal Blue Persuasion, by Tommy James and The Shondells. The song never made any sense to me, but it is pretty catchy and I had some blue crystals and some flowers I have been trying to persuade to flower.

The flowers  I have been trying to persuade are in a blue glass inherited from my in laws. This is my second attempt at Cactus Zinnias, they seem to top out about 7 inches, cute but I would like them to be taller. The Mexican Sage (Salvia leucathemum) is listless in the garden, reluctantly sending up a puny purple flower. The purple Verbena is a native beach plant, supposedly rare. I bought this at a native plant sale last year – I passed by it a couple of weeks ago, indiscriminately chopped it back and was rewarded with two flowers. I think all need more heat or longer day length

The crystals are from my father. I think they are soapstone, blue tourmaline and pyrite.

Feeling the need for more flowers, I assembled another vase. I would entitle this one: Junk That Came Up in My Garden, because, truth be told – that is exactly what it is, and, dang, -it is pretty. And in a crystal blue, uh, container.

What we have here- the flowers:in yellow, Beach Sunflowers (Helianthus debilis); in white Bidens alba, in purple, the uber weed, Florida Tasselflower-my opinion (exclusively) as botanists are contemplating something about this plant. the peach pink flowers – something that came up from the native Tropical Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea): and the mystical Wireweed, another volunteer.

Here are both vases:

And the song: