In A (Little) Vase on Monday

For my vase arrangement today I decided to go small, and pick a little posy of Cyclamen coum and Galanthus. I don't think it's any particular Galanthus. I'm not much of a Galanthophile, I probably just chose something labeled Galanthus nivalis from a catalog and stuck them in when they arrived. They're perhaps a little bit battered after our cold and snowy weather, but I thought they would make a nice little white ruff around the rim of the little vase. The leaves are from my Arum italicum 'Jack Sprat,' which is mottled with spots of black.

It's sitting upstairs on my bookcase, but for a change, it's next to a framed picture I made a while ago of a favorite Gertrude Jekyll quote, and a Limoges lidded pin box that I inherited from my mother-in-law.

Cyclamen coum, Galanthus nivalis, Arum italicum 'Jack Sprat' and a couple of sprigs of sweet box

I moved it briefly into the bathroom for the better lighting.

Arum italicum 'Jack Sprat'

A little ruff of snowdrops

The Cyclamen has a delicate scent only noticeable when you get close. This little vase is the same one that I had the Alstroemeria and Monstera leaves in last week. The Alstroemeria was past it, dropping petals right and left, but those Monstera leaves are still beautiful. I didn't think they'd fit in here, though, so I decided to completely immortalize them by scanning them. I've done this before with autumn leaves. I cut the stems off and laid them over each other and then scanned them with the scanner that I normally use for scanning documents or old, pre-digital photos.

They kind of look like aliens staring back at me

Still, I'm going to hang onto those leaves as long as I can.

The downstairs vase, by the kitchen sink, needed a bit of a redo. Most of the bottom portion of the stems on the Hellebores had gotten mushy, so I cut them off short, threw out the ones that were completely rotten and put them in a different, shorter vase. I'm pretty sure I don't change the water on my arrangements anywhere near often enough.

They're still being lifted up by the cat's dish (don't worry, it's not the only dish we have for feeding him, and that chubster will never starve)

Now that I've done my third one of these IaVoM posts, I've realized that they are an interesting exercise in repurposing as well as addictive. What parts of last week's arrangement are still good and how can I reuse them? I have an aversion to throwing out things that are still useful. My son can tell you I was one of those annoying mothers who insisted that you could still get that last drop of ketchup out of the bottle.

Cathy at Rambling in the Garden hosts In A Vase On Monday. Check out her post today and see what she put in a vase, and check out the posts from other bloggers who are participating like me!