Tag Archives: Amelia Grant

In A Vase on Monday-Trading Vases & Places

20180916_113220-1-1

The flowers in my vase this week are Cattleya Orchids, from a plant gifted to me several years ago by my neighbor. I have been watching this plant for years, moved it around in the garden – nothing. Finally – three buds appeared, weeks ago. I watched, waited and watched some more, not a sign of opening. Just big, juicy buds displaying a tasty reticence.  I occasionally had to chase some leering grasshopper away. Sigh, more waiting.

After a rough couple of weeks,  my husband and I decided we needed a change of scene and took a few days to walk on the beach and rest. We packed up Alan the Greyhound and some coolers and headed to a lovely semi deserted beach miles from home.

20180915_071829

Of course, I checked the Orchids just prior to leaving and one bud was opening! Sigh, again. Hoping I wouldn’t miss the show, off we went. The picture is sunrise on North Hutchison Island, Florida.

20180916_114347-1-1

Deciding to cut the flowers was easy, I have two more buds and these were browning on the edges a bit. I’ll enjoy them in the house as long as they last. The vases (three again) were another story. Seeking a simple container for these complex flowers; I decided they needed a backdrop of a big tropical leaf (Seagrapes – Coccoloba uvifera). For vases, I started with a rose teapot, then went to the black vase, then the glass vases.

No leering grasshoppers in my house, but I did bring in a little bee.

20180916_112101-1

 

 

 

Advertisements

In A Vase on Monday- Corsage Ready

20180909_153340-1Gardenias always remind me of corsages. My mother, for some inexplicable reason, wanted a Gardenia wrist corsage when I married-unfortunately, it was April and no Gardenias could be found. She settled for Orchids. Non wrist at that.

20180909_153641

These are Tropical Gardenias (Tabernaemontana divericata). The fragrance is not as strong as Gardenia jasminoides, but similar. This particular one is about 10 feet tall and I have been slowly reclaiming it from the blob of plant material that separates me from my favorite neighbor. The blob is a professional term I learned while in design school at The University of Georgia. One of my professors is probably feeling a really bad vibe right about now.

20180909_153516

My favorite neighbor also shared her big white Cattleya Orchid with me. Never one to struggle with convention, I installed it on a tomato cage hoping for an Orchid tower in the garden outside my Living Room window. I have been rewarded with three huge buds and am hoping for another corsage ready vase next week. Wrist band optional.

In A Vase on Monday – Whispers of Fall

20180902_114102-1

Sunday in my neck of the woods began stormy and transitioned into a cool, overcast day (high of 80 degrees F) My husband and I sat on our screened porch for the first time in months. Fall is elusive in South Florida and sometimes the flowers speak for the season. Chapman’s Goldenrod is flowering in my garden, an indestructible and polite native wildflower that reminds me of much more Autumnal months spent further north. Our weather is not reliably cooler until mid October, so this first whisper of Fall was a welcome respite from the usual steamy late summer temperatures.

20180902_113834-1

The Chapman’s Goldenrod (Solidago odora ‘Chapmanii’.) is the yellow flower in the middle of the arrangement. Here is a link to More about Chapman’s Goldenrod . 

Clockwise from the Goldenrod, in red spikes, Tropical Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea); a sprig of Blueberry Flax Lily (Dianella); The orange tubes are Firebush (Hamelia patens var patens);white buds from a Tropical Gardenia (Tabernaemontana divericata); Daisy mixture is Beach Sunflowers (Helianthus debilis) and Gallardia pulchella. The far left side of the arrangement has a Red Shrimp Plant (Justicia brandegeana); the background plants are Wireweed (in white); and a bit of Dwarf Pineapple foliage (the spear).

For an arrangement in a vintage Dansk candleholder-  there is a lot stuffed in there. Initially, I decided to try a hand tied bouquet (which I do not know how to do) gave up on that,  kept adding flowers, changed vases three times and ended up here.

Listening for more whispers of Fall.

20180902_114235

In A Vase on Monday – Beauty of Berries

20180826_123621-1

Many gardens sport a Beautyberry (Calliocarpa americana). Native to a large portion of the Eastern United States, the promise of lurid purple berries is hard to resist. Add to that the buzzing of native pollinators around the flowers in the form of rare Atala butterflies in my garden and the natural mosquito repellants in the leaves of the Beautyberry, these shrubs are a must have in my garden. I was surprised to see the Atala butterflies sipping the flower nectar.

20180714_074527-1 20180826_110314-1-1

Continuing with the purple theme, I added foliage and flowers from Purpleheart (Setcresea); accenting with a few white flowers and dark green foliage from the Tropical Gardenia (Tabernaemontana divericata) and a few stems of the chartruese little black dress of the garden – Alabama Sunset Coleus.20180826_123642

Voila, the beauty of Beautyberries and a welcome sign of summer winding down in my garden.

In A Vase on Monday-The Green Swan

20180805_124441-2

I was going to call this post swanning around, but there are way too many interpretations of that term to have it in a title. Mind boggling how many ways a saying can be taken from sexual to merely showing off.

20180805_124700

The late summer daisies are showing off – in yellow, Beach Sunflowers (Helianthus debilis) the red ones are Gallardias (Gallardia pulcherra). The white flowers are Bridal Bouquet Plumeria (in full glory) and Sweet Almond Bush (Aloysia virgata) backed up by a few Asian Sword Ferns.

The Green Swan is actually a candy dish I inherited from my mother. She was a collector of swans and loved to say ‘Why, I’ll Swanee’ – the polite Southern lady version of I swear.

Happy Monday.

 

In A Vase on Monday – Tropical Blues

20180722_130720-1

July in South Florida can give any gardener the blues. The temperatures have been in the mid 90s with a similar amount of humidity and it has basically refused to rain here despite the calendar’s insistence this is our rainy season. The tropical plants with big leaves are scorching, actually the weeds anywhere not served by our irrigation system are scorching, withering weeds incite a gleeful response from me and offset the gardening blues to a certain extent.

The summer blooming tropicals I have sited properly (always a good trick) are coping well and flowering, the others are, well, scorching. My blue vases are from the happy tropicals! The tropicals not getting quite enough water are really blue. And scorched.

20180722_130939-1

The big red, green and yellow bud is from Heliconia rostrata, Lobsterclaw Heliconia. I decided to cut this just to see how long it will last. Waiting for the flower to open seems to shorten it’s vase life. It will be interesting to see if it opens as it usually takes a week or so to get this:

20180701_153009-1

The small footed vase holds some Firebush flowers and Parrottflowers (Heliconia psittacorum) The Parrottflowers are having a tough year and seem a bit shrunken. Drought does not defeat Firebush here and they are feeding my butterfly brigade. Here is Zebra Longwing enjoying the nectar.20170608_152406-1

The blue violin holds a Miniata Bromeliad, the huge tree that shades this ground got a haircut from Hurricane Irma and yes, they are a bit scorched, but have graced me with a flower accompanied by a bit of Asian Sword Fern.

20180722_131251_Burst01

The blue vases are all heirlooms, the violin belonged to my grandmother, the bottle is from my mother and the footed vase belonged to my in laws. No one was scorched.

That I am aware of.

In A Vase on Monday – Summer Surprises

20180715_143509-1

Every gardener gets a few surprises. Some are better than others. I have been doing a lot of design work lately, hence the funky picture.

My summer surprises have been the good kind and primarily pink this week.

20180715_143211-1

The Shell Ginger (Alpinia zerumbet) is in the pink champagne bottle a friend left after a holiday celebration, these are reported to flower three times a year – this is the first year for a second flowering, surprising me.

20180715_140413-1

In the grey round vase, it seems the Garden Gods have rewarded me with a Pink Cactus Dahlia, not.  My Dahlia quest continues.

This is one of my ubiquitous $5 garage sale finds. No one knows what the Bromeliad is or where to plant it, but one can be had for $5. For five bucks I got a wonderful surprise and there are pups. I think it is a Aechmea ‘fasciata’  variety- please let me know if you recognize it.

The leaves are from a nearby Sweet Begonia ( Begonia odorata)

20180715_140749-1

The third vase has the survivalist pink and chartruese Alabama Sunset Coleus I had lost hope for and pink and white (yes) Tropical Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea). Another surprise.

My biggest surprise this week was the hatching of the rare Atala Butterfly in my Coontie (small shrubby palms)

20180714_074527-1