Tag Archives: nature

In a Vase on Monday – Sculptural Elements

This week my garden is sporting many different types of flowers, from classic cottage style to over the top tropical weirdness. I decided to simplify and cut a few Heliconias accented with the buds of a succulent. It is a bit calm in the face of the exuberance of spring.

March is proving to be its usual windy, showery self, so a quick garden tour and a few snips was a good thing this Sunday morning. I used one of my mother’s heirloom vases to set off the simple flower selection.

Heliconias are one of my favorite tropical flowers, last a week in a vase and are very easy to grow. These are Heliconia psittacorum “Lady Di” in red, and “Choconiana” in orange. They have a mind of their own and tend to grow and flower under shrubs, which is annoying if you want to see them or cut them.

This is a bit of Senecio barbertonicus, in bud. The flowers look like the promise of an aster that never quite makes it into a yellow daisy, followed by a pseudo dandelion. Pretty weird, but I do love the foliage and the fact these can be left laying around the garden for weeks and are unfazed as long as they are replanted.

That’s all from my garden this Monday, to see more vases visit Cathy’s blog and follow the links in the comments.

Happy Gardening!!

In a Vase on Monday – Sprung

Spring has definitely sprung in South Florida. I bought my self required Pink Dianthus last week and here it is springing out of this vase. This is a big green Dianthus I had never seen until last year. I was happy to find another one as they are short lived annuals at best and it will be gone by summer. These make great cut flowers and are currently residing in a pot with rosemary and thyme. I also have a pot of Bath’s Pink Dianthus that I bought mail order last year because I love the grey foliage. It has not flowered and I am wondering if that is why no one around here has ever heard of them. I do love a little Dianthus in spring.

A closer view:

The Dianthus! I am not sure what kind of Dianthus this is – the label on the pot says Dianthus. That is it. Looking around the internet it looks like Rockin Pink Magic Dianthus (Dianthus barbatus interspecific). I concur with the name, it is Rockin Pink Magic.

White Flame and Mystic Blue Salvias are still going strong and needed deadheading. I actually had to throw some flowers away. The never ending supply of invasive Asian Sword Ferns supplied some greenery to emphasize the sproing. The vase is a thrift store find I have enjoyed for years.

That’s all from South Florida. I will be on the lookout for more Dianthus flowers. Visit our intrepid hostess, Cathy’s blog by following this link to see more weekly flowers in a vase from around the world.

In a Vase on Monday – Tropical Spring Roll

My spring roll is filled with different ingredients than one found in a Thai restaurant. A bromeliad leaf is wrapped around delicious contents from the garden. The names of some of the contents could be considered food – asparagus (fern), sage (salvia) – but I think we would be hard pressed to chew through the roll. It could possibly be considered high fiber/low carb for oh, say rodents or a passing iguana. My plan is to admire the flowers.

The ingredients:

My salvias are having a great year. Here they are again, Mystic Blue and White Flame. The pink flower is known as the tulip of the Treasure Coast. They don’t really remind me of tulips, but I get it. They are actually bromeliads, Billbergia pyramidalis. Green foliage is Asparagus fern and the wrapping leaf is from Blanchetiana Bromeliad (Aechmea blanchetiana). I love the green/mahogany coloration of the Blanchetiana leaves in winter, they are chartreuse in summer.

The weather here has finally turned in favor of gardening. My tomatoes are ripening and spring is in the air. On the down side, the moles ate all the bulbs and tubers, making me realize I should stop wasting money on these lovelies. I also accidentally grew some rabbit tobacco I thought was Chinese Forget Me Nots, oh well. Rabbit tobacco is a weed and a rite of passage in my youth. Boys would smoke it pretending like it was cigarettes! I am told it was harsh, but I never tried it.

Thanks to Cathy for hosting this weekly meme. Follow this link to see more vases.