I recently discovered Linda's blog, Each Little World, which led me to this blog meme, "In a Vase On Monday," started by Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, a British blogger. It is pretty straight forward: compose a bouquet from things growing in your garden (or, at this time of year, things you've acquired, been given or found since some of us have little blooming at this time of year) and place them in an receptacle (a vase being the most obvious) that will set them off for display. It's interesting to see how bloggers pair flowers and containers -- sometimes there's a whole vignette -- and to see what's growing in other people's gardens.
I've only seen a few posts, but it seemed like a fun exercise, so I decided to give it a whirl. A quick one because it was already Monday evening when I started out.
And then it became Tuesday..... Computer misadventures is my excuse.
Part of the motivation for doing this at all was that, coincidentally, I just bought a vase as a gift (and I liked it well enough and it was cheap enough that I bought one for myself) at the National Building Museum Shop in Washington, DC, which has a cool selection of stuff. (A surprisingly good selection of gardening and landscape design books, by the way.)
It's called a ReFORMS Convertible Bud Vase made by Infusion Living and cost $17.00. I think they also carried a larger version.
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| Front of the package |
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| Back of the package |
The "6 in 1" claim on the back of the box is the convertible aspect -- it's made of malleable rubber-like material, so you can compress it, fold down the top like a collar and make it into a stubby vase or a taller, leaner shape. 6 different configurations in all. I thought it was pretty clever.
Here's what I came up with using Begonia leaves from one of my few house plants, dried Hakone grass leaves, a couple tassel fern fronds and a Christmas fern frond, the dried remains of Black-Eyed-Susans, and a piece of fir from free greens I got from a local nursery's Christmas tree trimmings. No blooms. But there was actually plenty to choose from in the garden without flowers.
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| The red veins of the Begonia are nice with the vase. |
You can see what I mean about the rubbery quality. You can easily give it a squeeze.
My cat, Tommy, likes to eat plants, or at least try them out until they make him sick. (No, I'm not trying to poison him.) Since he has been known to knock over an arrangement or two or three or more.... an unbreakable vase is very appealing. Funny thing is my husband found Tommy in the utility sink late last night when he came back from his regular Monday night jam. I had left the unused cuttings from the bouquet in the sink and Tommy decided to sample them.
Handsome Devil, don't you think?
He has never gotten in the sink before, but he will jump up on the kitchen counter and pull down pieces of lettuce, or, better yet, spinach. He likes dark greens especially. He doesn't eat a lot of them, but likes to get a taste now and then. He must have smelled the cuttings. The nose knows.
My little arrangement ended up on the powder room sink. I like finding a little bouquet in the bathroom. And, maybe Tommy will be less likely to find it there. We'll see.
Happy Holidays!
