The day is nearly done but I wanted to join Cathy again for In A Vase On Monday. I was happy with today’s practice of a parallel design, adapted from techniques learned in a class last spring, but photographing it proved to be beyond me today. Perhaps I will try again tomorrow with daylight for support.
The arrangement is created using three florist pins. A large Arum leaf stands to the left. Posed slightly in back of the arum, a tall branch of Wintergreen boxwood adds height on the right-hand side. A smaller arum connects the two features.
Toward the front, three red and one white cyclamen flowers tie the three sections together at mid-level, while Hellebores and Winter daphne form the base. The cyclamen are from plants I have grown indoors for many years though I have never used them in an arrangement before. They have been blooming profusely this winter, living happily on indirect light from a west-facing window and water every three or four days.
This is the materials list:
Daphne odora (Winter daphne)
Helleborus x hybridus (Lenten rose)
Cyclamen persicum (Persian cyclamen) – Florists’s cyclamen
Arum italicum
Buxus microphylla var koreana ‘Wintergreen’ (Wintergreen boxwood)
Thanks very much to Cathy at Rambling In The Garden for hosting In A Vase On Monday. Visit her site to see her arrangement this week and those of other participants.
pbmGarden 
Very pretty – like the red cyclamen and especially the last photo looking downwards slightly. 😀
Thanks Cathy! Cyclamen have so much personality, truly. They’re fun to watch.
With Daphne in your arrangement, not only does it look beautiful but it must smell wonderful too.
Sadly the Daphne is not fragrant yet. It’s been much colder this year and so it hasn’t opened outside. Last week I’d hoped it would open once indoors but it didn’t. Thanks for commenting Pauline.
I like your very modern arrangement, I’ve never used ‘pins’, I’ll have to ask my MIL, as I know she’s used them in the past.
Do check with her Christina. The pin holder make it easy to hold a stem upright. Less fussy than Oasis (floral foam).
Little work of art 🙂
Annette, I had fun working on this one.
Those daphne buds are so pretty!
Marian, I’ve never used Daphne in bud before this year. Usually the flowers are opening by now, but actually I too like the way the buds look.
Practising? Parallel design? Techniques? This is getting serious, Susie! I shall have to find out exactly what a florist’s pin is, but they have certainly done a good job of fitting the arrangement together. It just shows how you can bring disparate elements together like this and create something really artistic – I like the addition of pebbles in the base too. I look forward to having enough daphne blooms of my own to include on a Monday sometime – but not this year, sadly! Thanks for sharing this – I feel it is becoming quite an inspirational meme as I know I am already thinking about the weekly creations in a way I never would have done before.
Not getting “too” serious Cathy. I took a 4-session design class last year but didn’t have time to work it in this year, so your weekly meme is inspiring me to think back to some ideas from that class. And it serves to remind me to check around for what is going on in my own garden. I was surprised to find the various items, such as the arum, today that could be worked into the arrangement. The pin holder is just a heavy base with pins closely arranged on top. Makes it easy to insert the flower stem into the holder. Thanks again for hosting.
This is so impressive – you have quite a few components but the end result is so clean and modern! I have just started using cyclamen as cut flowers this winter and am really impressed with their staying power. Also I love the idea of putting daphne in the arrangement, although my tiny plant only has 2 blooms this year so it will need to grow a bit first. How do you find the hellebores last in an arrangement like this?
Thanks very much Julie! Actually I took a cue from you to use cyclamen as a cut flower and I really like the result. Had not tried it before. The hellebores from last week’s arrangement are still looking fine, so give them a try. I have also seen other bloggers display hellebores floating in a shallow dish where they show off the inner markings and look very pretty.
Nice! I like how the bold Arum leaf contrasts with the dainty flowers.
Arum has a great leaf shape. It was a nice surprise when I came across it yesterday and decide I could work it in to the arrangement.
There is much to learn in adapting our imaginations and creativity to unfamiliar formalized rules. This leaves us with a renewed sense of perspective. In itself, we communicate our feelings of discovery in the works we create. Doesn’t this add another layer of statement to our expression. And the movement in everything reflected by practice and development of our metier (work, technique) over time. Very courageous inspiration. Thanks. — The Healing Garden gardener
Yes indeed. Problem solving using the formal rules seems like it would be limiting, but it can actually bring exciting results.
We think so, too. Sometimes good learning grows like roots beneath the field of awareness. As I am more okay with ‘living and learning’ this quality of myself vests itself into the artifact I am arranging. And becomes a dimension of my expression. I tell myself this is a good healing goal, too. — THGg
This arrangement wins a blue ribbon. I just love it and is one of the best posts you’ve done….so grown up with a plant list and explanation. I hope you let the garden club ladies know about this because they would learn about this particular design. Wonderful.
I’m happy you like this one Stepheny. This type is fun to put together.