Tag Archives: in a vase on monday.

In a Vase on Monday – Jubilation

One way or another October always makes me happy. Bar hurricanes from that statement. The weather cools and this month marks my return to gardening. I spent Sunday morning in the garden dodging rain showers and toweling Fiona the Greyhound off every time we had to run back into the house.

There are seemingly millions of sticks scattered throughout the garden from the glancing blow of Hurricane Milton. It doesn’t seem like I have enough trees to have produced all of these sticks. They can’t really be raked up, so I have been picking them up one by one. Sisyphus would have loved it.

Some of my favorite native plants flower in the fall. The Juba Bush is one that causes jubilation as does Muhly Grass, both lending their fluffy pastel brilliance to this vase. I cut a handful of blooms and plonked them into my Ute tribe vase, swirled them around and viola!

Closer views:

The Juba Bush (Iresine diffusa) is the creamy white flower. It has a wonderful fragrance and is a good cut flower. The plant, being native, has a mind of its own and will only grow where it decides to. I leave it in the middle of pathways, etc. as I enjoy the flower. Here’s the full story from George Rogers at Treasure Coast Natives if you want to read up on Juba Bush. The peach flower is Tropical Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea) wearing fall colors; a bit of Pink Muhly Grass (Muhlenbergia capillaries)

It’s hard to see these blue flowers in the vase – ‘Sapphire Showers’ Duranta (Duranta repens); they rarely flower – so I plucked a few to enjoy in the house. The white daisies are another native, Bidens alba, I pull and cut these at will – they never go away and will happily grow with no attention whatsoever.

That’s all from my garden this Monday. I hope to be back in the garden with Sisyphus, clearing up the sticks. Follow this link to visit Cathy and see more vases in the comments – RamblingintheGarden

In a Vase on Monday – Fall Vibes

Fall is slowly finding its way to South Florida. October is a month of contrasts – one of the most active months for tropical weather, witnessed last week by the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Milton, it also ushers in welcome cooler temperatures. Sometime around October 15 usually brings the first cold front of the season and it was right on time. Temperatures in the 70s (F) have been experienced for the first time in months. Ahh.

Hurricane Milton passed about 100 miles north of my garden. The havoc wreaked here was by a series of tornadoes spawned by the outer bands of the storm the day before landfall. My area was peppered with these storms packing winds in the 150 mph range. A great deal of destruction ensued and lives and many properties were lost. The hurricane was a snooze compared to the tornadoes. We are unscathed and grateful.

I plucked some cooler colors, fall tones and pseudo fall leaf color for my vase this Monday:

The off white flowers are ‘Miss Alice’ Bougainvillea’, she is leaning a bit towards green having fallen off her trellis in the storm. Blue flowers are Blue Plumbago (Plumbago auriculata) the tropical rains seem to have inspired a new flush of flowers for October. The gold glass container is an olive oil cruet.

Faux fall color is provided by peachy Choconiana Heliconia (H. psittacorum) and the leaf of a Piecrust Croton (Codieum varigatum).

I guess I can pretend I am raking up fall leaves instead of hurricane debris since its October!

Visit our hostess, Cathy, at RamblingintheGarden and follow the links in the comments section to see more vases.

In a Vase on Monday – Propavasing

Here’s a new word for you. Propavasing. This occurs when taking cuttings to root in water, followed by finding a few clean vases around the kitchen sink, plonking and fluffing the cuttings – voila!

The cuttings:

I left some chartreuse coleus in a few pots to dress up later for winter container plantings. Not a good idea – especially when combined with leftover moldy zinnias I let go to seed, hoping for some more hot pink/orange flowers next year. The seeds aren’t quite made yet, but the chartreuse coleus is definitely done. Hence the cuttings.

The vining plants are Turkeytangle Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora). I have been propagating these and creating a lawn of curated weeds in the front garden. I am very happy with my ‘lawn’ and the butterflies are loving it. TTFF hosts three different types of local butterflies.

The flowers:

Orange tubular flowers are Firebush (Hamelia patens); red and yellow flowers are ‘Lady Di’ Heliconias (Heliconia psittacorum); white flowers are Tropical Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea).

It’s still summer here. The fall colors are not making me feel cooler.

Visit Cathy at RamblingintheGarden for a whirlwind garden tour via vases.

In a Vase on Monday – Sage Thoughts

If wisdom is being sought from my vase, it is time to look elsewhere. The sage here is Salvia, I noticed its wonderful sage herbal scent as I was cutting this bunch to fill a crystal pitcher. The crystal pitcher is a wedding gift. I would hazard a guess Tiffany’s would recommend its use to serve orange juice for Mimosas at a fancy brunch — not serving as a receptacle for a native bunch. The native wildflowers in my garden are flourishing from abundant rain in the past weeks. I picked all native wildflowers today.

Closer views:

Red and pink spikes are Tropical Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea) these reseed prolifically and are everywhere. Cutting the flowers saves me some seedling removal chores. The same goes for the white daisies, Bidens alba, incredibly prolific – the pollinators love them so much I almost hate to cut them.

The airy plant in the foreground is native Witchgrass (Dichantthelium spp). These are small grasses that pop up in the garden. They are reminiscent of Panicum. They are not too aggressive so I leave them be.

I’m dreaming of a cold front, realistically, we are a month out from that first delightfully cool day. One can dream. Pop over to Cathy’s blog to view some more vaseage…

In a Vase on Monday – Light My Fire

I must have been inspired by Cathy’s “Hunk of Burning Love” vase a couple of weeks ago when the title popped into my brain. I admit to loving The Doors and their iconic song “Light My Fire” from (gasp) 1967. This song has been haunting my consciousness for decades. I guess it’s the organ solo. My garden seems to be reflecting the mood, producing fiery flowers as summer winds down.

Some close ups, sans Jim Morrison.

I have been enjoying cutting Heliconias (Heliconia psittacorum) this summer in all their flaming glory; two varieties here – ‘Lady Di’ in red and yellow and ‘Choconiana’ in orange. The big leaf in the background is a Split Leaf Philodendron (Philodendron selloum).

Orange tubular flowers are, appropriately, Firebush (Hamelia patens var patens); red flowers with blue tips are Aechmea miniata bromeliads. The blue vase was a gift I have enjoyed tremendously over the years.

That’s all this Monday morning from scorching South Florida. Follow this link RamblingintheGarden to visit Cathy and peruse vases via comment links.

In a Vase on Monday – Zen, Zin & Min

I am enjoying my new crop of zinnias – ‘Zin Master’, planted in big terracotta pots. I have been cutting most of the flowers in hopes of getting actual long stemmed zinnias – something that has always eluded me, my zinnias are always very short in stature. These are the longest stems I have ever grown and have a wiry appearance that I like. I visualized this vase as a Zen Ikebanaesque arrangement with winding stems of zinnias intertwined with the Min – Miniata Bromeliads. It was not to be, the glass frog serving as a base was not up to the challenge of the weight of the flowers. I had to add rocks on top of the frog to keep everything upright. I ended up not having a very Zen flower experience at all. It is what it is. A soup bowl filled with flowers.

The Zin – ‘Zin Master’ Zinnias grown from seed started around the first of May. I am enjoying the color mix, but thought I would get some different types of zinnias. I guess these are semi-double something. I bought some Cactus Mix seeds this week to spice things up. I am not quite sure what will happen in mid July with seed starting. Always an adventure.

The Min. These are Miniata Bromeliads (Aechmea miniata). A reliable summer flowering shade perennial, if one can think of bromeliads as perennials. The tropical plants always twist my mind a bit in sorting out what they are – house plants, perennials, epiphytes, plain weird? The big green leaves in the back are from a coleus and the vase is actually a soup bowl.

That is all from South Florida this Monday. I’ll be seeking further garden Zen from Zinnias this week. Follow the link to visit Cathy at RamblingintheGarden and see what’s appearing in other vases this week. Or soup bowls.

In a Vase on Monday – Shrimp with Zin

The title would make one think I had been eating seafood while imbibing in red wine. Oh, how crass! I have not. I am not a big fan of red wine and drink white regardless. I have probably now surpassed crass.

The shrimp in the vase are Red Shrimp Plant and the Zin, Zin Master Zinnias. The zinnias are supposed to be a mixture of cactus and other types of zinnias, so far they all look like these, disappointingly regular zinnias. For some reason, these are the best looking Zinnia plants I have ever grown – so, maybe the other flowers will be more spectacular. I think I have twelve or so in big terracotta pots under planted with Blue Scaveola and chartreuse coleus. Hopefully another garden miracle in the making. Seed mixes are like a box of chocolates – you never know what you are going to get. Paraphrasing Forrest Gump.

Red Shrimp Plants (Justicia brandegeana) are a sort of pass along perennial in Florida. A neighbor gave me one about ten years ago. I regularly forget about it and it just keeps on going and flowering without a care in the world. It occurred to me I should root some for other areas of the garden I tend to forget about. It also makes a great cut flower.

A closer view:

The ‘Zin Master Zinnias with a little Red Shrimp below and some Licorice plant (Helichryseum) tendrils above.

Firebush (Hamelia patens var patens) are the tubular orange flowers in the arrangement. The vase is a bromeliad leaf wrapped pickle jar from a couple of weeks ago. I left it as I was wondering if it would dry into something attractive. It is looking a bit like wood now, not quite dried out.

This Monday the garden is in similar shape to the vase, not quite dried out. We have been getting regular downpours and the plants are very happy. Of course, all the weeds are ecstatic. Summer fun.

To see more vases from Cathy’s international entourage of gardeners; visit Rambling in the Garden and follow the links in the comments.

In a Vase on Monday – In a Pickle

I had my heart set on a linear arrangement to display my first Lobsterclaw Heliconia of the season. The problem – my linear vase broke in the dishwasher. I was in a Pickle, until my dilemma was solved by, of all things, a Pickle jar. My husband is a compulsive jar saver so the perfect vase was soon in hand and fortunately covered in label glue. This made it very easy to roll a bromeliad leaf around it and tie it up with raffia.

The Lobsterclaw Heliconia is definitely a harbinger of summer. We have had some very hot alternating with very pleasant days and no rain. I finished mulching the gardens this morning as it seemed like possibly the last cool morning for a while. My cool and everyone else’s are probably entirely different things!

The Lobsterclaw Heliconia (Heliconia rostrata) is hanging around with two red Nodding Hibiscus (Malvaviscus arboreus) and a few leaves from Mammey Croton (Codieum varigatum)

The linear aspect of this arrangement is enhanced with foliage from Blanchetiana Bromeliad (Aechmea blanchetiana) – this is wrapped around the pickle jar and leaf leftovers I decided to pop in to hold the Heliconia upright. The ferns are Boston Fern (Nephrolepis exaltata)

Hoping for rain in my garden this week! To see more vases, visit Cathy at ramblinginthegarden.

Happy Gardening!!

In a Vase on Monday – L’ Estate

Decades ago (no need to discuss how many) I spent the summer in Cortona, Italy with an Arts Studies Abroad Program. This time of year usually causes me to reminisce about riding around on a bus listening to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and eating pasta. For the life of me I could not remember the Italian word for summer – L’ Estate.

Summer has dropped its full load on South Florida this week. The skies are black with thunderstorms this afternoon and we have had ‘feels like’ temperatures over 100 F this week. No need to discuss humidity, my husband refers to this as ‘Africa hot’.

The vase was done in all hot colors in honor of the arrival of L’ Estate.

The close up:

In orange, Firebush (Hamelia patens) sets the tone for the vase. A few bits of Licorice Plants are the grey, fuzzy foliage. Chartreuse foliage is from an unnamed coleus, the gift that keeps on giving.

White flowers to cool things down are from the White Geiger tree (Cordia boisseri); varigated foliage is from Piecrust Croton (Codieum varigatum) and a few Lady Di Heliconias (Heliconia psittacorum) are in red and yellow. The vase is a florist orphan.

Sitting in an air conditioned space listening to Vivaldi seems like a really good idea right about now. Maybe for several months.

Visit Cathy at ramblinginthegarden to see what other gardeners are popping into their vases.

Happy Gardening!

In a Vase on Monday – Dillicious

Dill is a cool season herb in South Florida. I usually have several plants in pots, this year I have really enjoyed the dill and there is no foliage left to eat! Long Island Mammoth Dill is my favorite variety, the current plant is producing seed heads and I have been enjoying them in flower arrangements and will save some seed for next year. I usually don’t like the seed for eating but have recently learned to make sandwich bread, so I am going to give a dill seed loaf a try. Everything else I made from this plant has been Dillicious. Including this herbal sweet scented concoction in my mother’s crystal rose bowl.

My dillicious vase this week includes:

Fireworks in this vase are from dill seed heads and flowers in chartreuse and orange tubular flowers from the Firebush (Hamelia patens)

Another delicious flower appealing to a different sense is the white Tropical Gardenia (Tabernaemontana divaricata). These flowers lend a heavenly scent to the garden at night. They are sometimes called the Pinwheel Gardenia, there is a flatter flowering variety that looks more like a pinwheel.

That’s all from SoFla this week. To traverse distant gardens and visit via vase follow this link to Cathy’s blog.

Happy Gardening.