But on Sunday it snowed.
More than just a dusting too. Enough to foil my plans to make the rounds at a leisurely pace picking and choosing. So I decided to fall back on Plan B -- use what I could from the greenhouse.
I cut all the flowers from the two pots of red tulips that I got for free at the Northwest Flower and Garden Festival. They are nearly past it, with the top edges starting to turn a bit blue, but they'll have to do. I also cut all the funky little Begonia flowers that I could reach, as well as three fancy leaf Begonia leaves and three long strappy leaves from a multi-colored Cordyline that Peter The Outlaw Gardener gave me this fall. I was considering coiling them up like I've seen in professional arrangements, but I don't really know what I'm doing, and I didn't want to try to get too fancy. The dried branches are from my 'Forest Pansy' redbud. Every time it drops branches and twigs (and it drops a lot) I save them. The vase is a McCoy vase that I found at a vintage shop recently for only $15.00. I thought that was a pretty good price. I've been checking out vintage shops and thrift stores for vases, and it's been an interesting exercise, discovering what my taste in vases is.
The arrangement is sitting on a high shelf upstairs on a bookcase (high to deter my cat Ronin from interfering with it). It's next to a picture of my son Iain and his girlfriend Diana, a selfie that he took of the two of them on their first visit together to our house, while they were lying on our grass in the back garden. He posted it on Instagram after processing it through some funky filter, and I appropriated it, framed it and put it on our bookcase. It's a nice coincidence that the arrangement suits the colors in the photo.
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| The backs of the Begonia leaves are red like the tulips, and the Cordyline has a red stripe in it as well |
I cut one Begonia with colors that just didn't fit the other flowers, so it got its own little arrangement, if you can call it that. The flowers had just a little too much orange. I cut some small Monstera leaves to go in the little brown vase with it. A word of warning -- Monstera leaves emit a bit of slime once dipped in water. That was an icky surprise. Anyway, this one is living behind the kitchen sink.
Of course I'm new at this and rethinking everything. I should have cut more Cordyline leaves. I should have cut those Monstera leaves shorter.
Shoulda, shoulda, shoulda.
This is it, my first In A Vase on Monday post.
Cathy at Rambling In The Garden hosts In A Vase on Monday. Check out her post here to see the vase arrangement she's sharing today, and to see the other bloggers' posts who participate.