Tag Archives: miniata bromeliads

In a Vase on Monday – Caveman Style

On Sunday morning I got in touch with my inner cave woman and went to the garden to bag my vase. I didn’t use the prop in the photo, instead a pair of clippers was used to hunt and gather some summery flowers from the garden.

The prop. It’s a Native American stone ax head. This is an heirloom from my father, the geologist, who frequently found these near rivers on his field trips in the Southeastern US. I suppose they were using it for bashing fish (or bashing something?!)

The vase is a jar tucked inside a paper bag. It occurred to me the colors would look nice together so, I gave it a try. Lesson learned from this. Put the jar in the bag first. Then add flowers and water.

The flowers: in white, ‘Miss Alice’ Bougainvillea; yellow sunflowers are ‘Brown Eyed Girl’, still flowering at about seven months in the garden; yellow spikes are Thyrallis (Galphimia glauca); bigger red flower is Miniata bromeliad (Aechmea miniata); red bell shaped flowers are Firecracker Plant (Russellia equisetfolium); white daisies are Bidens alba.

The other side:

Even cave women like a little fragrance, the white flowers are ‘Bridal Bouquet’ Frangipani (Plumeria pudica); a few varigated leaves of ‘White Java’ Copperleaf (Acalphya wilkesiana ‘Java White’); and a ‘Lady Di’ Heliconia (Heliconia psittacorum) is in the mix in red and yellow.

My vase is in the bag this Monday. There will be no fish bashing in the garden. Thanks to Cathy at http://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com for hosting – follow the link to see more vases.

In A Vase on Monday – Semi Tropical

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I read something interesting in the local newspaper recently – the garden expert said “there really aren’t any good cutting flowers that grow in our area”. It made me question what I am doing every Sunday morning – deadheading flowers for fun? The very same paper ran an article about growing Red Valerian, in South Florida, unfortunately a laughable situation.

So, if you stand back and squint a bit, this vase looks like white roses, pink lilies and (use your imagination) apricot lilacs and we are in a cutting garden hundreds of miles north.

 

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The reality is while the vase appears semi tropical it is actually very tropical. None of these plants will grow much further north of my garden. The pink lilies are Rain Lilies (Zephyranthes), white flowers Tropical Gardenias (Tabernaemontana divaricata) and the apricot flowers are from Miniata Bromeliads (Aechmea miniata) I would swear the Miniatas were red last year. Asian Sword Ferns create a backdrop.

I cut some Rain Lilies as an experiment thinking they would close immediately, but they last a couple of days and are so pretty they make it worthwhile. No idea why they are blooming – it hasn’t rained here in weeks. The garden is parched. The good news is the weeds are also parched and have slowed down significantly.

Fun things in the garden this week. I enjoyed my first homegrown Mango, a Nam Doc Mai, Thai dessert mango. Divine.

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My neighbor’s Cattleya Orchids (she grows them in a tree trunk) started flowering. I have some as well, but mine are still thinking.

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