In A Vase On Monday – Mother’s Day
Each Monday Cathy at Rambling In The Garden invites us to share a vase highlighting what is growing in our gardens.
Yesterday was Mother’s Day in the United States. I am fortunate to be mother to a strong, talented and beautiful-inside-and-out daughter who makes life joyful. My own lovely mother died while I was in college. I spent some bittersweet moments this weekend perusing old photographs of her and missing her sweet smile, as well as remembering many other women–aunts, sisters, friends and neighbors–who played such important roles in my life and continued sharing their kindnesses and wisdom with my daughter. One such person was Mama’s older cousin Virgie who shared her plants and passed along her love of flowers. The everlasting sweet pea, the old-fashioned rose and the Phlox divaricata (Woodland phlox) all came from Virgie’s garden many years ago (and probably the lamb’s ear).
In A Vase On Monday – Mother’s Day
Phlox divaricata (Woodland phlox)
Verbena bonariensis and Lamb’s Ear
Paeonia ‘Pink Parfait’ was my first peony. It hasn’t bloomed well the past several years and now has only four or five buds. This one flower opened confidently and spread outwards of eight inches.
Paeonia ‘Pink Parfait’ (Peony)
Paeonia ‘Pink Parfait’ (Peony)
Snapdragons purchased last fall have added a brilliant pop of color to the south-facing border. In today’s vase this ‘Speedy Sonnet Bronze’ helps break up the pinky pinkiness of the arrangement.
Dianthus and Snapdragon
Materials
Flowers
Antirrhinum majus ‘Rocket Mix’ (Snapdragon)
Antirrhinum majus ‘Speedy Sonnet Bronze’ (Snapdragon)
Dianthus Ideal Select Mix
Echinacea purpurea (Purple Coneflower)
Lathyrus latifolius (Everlasting sweet pea)
Paeonia ‘Pink Parfait’ (Peony)
Penstemon digitalis ‘Husker Red’ (Beardtongue)
Rosa (Old-fashioned passalong)
Verbena bonariensis (Tall Verbena)
Foliage
Stachys byzantina (Lamb’s Ear)
Vase
Black Matte Dish With Red Interior
By the way, Clematis ‘Jackmanii’ lasted only a couple days in last week’s arrangement. The big surprise was how short-lived the baptisia would be as a cut flower. The entire array of baptisia stems were bare also after a couple days. The remaining flowers continued to thrive throughout the week.
Thanks to Cathy at Rambling In The Garden for hosting and giving us an opportunity to share flower-filled vases across the world. Visit her to discover what she and others found to place in a vase this week. Good health and peace to you.
pbmGarden 
What a delicious vase, and a wonderful tribute to your mother. Like you, I lost my mum when I was young. On my 26th birthday actually. I was living in the Bahamas and she was home in the UK so it was all horrid. Unbelievably, this year I am 70 and it’s been so many years since I spent magical mother and daughter time with her. Whatever age we are, we still need our mums don’t we!! I love the peony, it is just so lovely and all the flowers sit so happily together! I always love pink and orange together too! You’ve done your mum proud today! Hooray! Amanda https://therunningwave.blogspot.com/2020/05/climbing-walls-in-vase-on-monday.html
Oh, Amanda, that must have been so hard to lose your mother so abruptly and at such distance. We’ll never stop missing them. I appreciate your thoughts.
What a beautiful vase of flowers – so symmetrical and even though the peony is much larger than the others it’s not overwhelming, but rather, offset perfectly by the yellow and oranges around it. I love the woodland phlox – I planted a lot of it in a client’s garden many years ago but have yet to grow it myself. Although I have the dappled shade it likes, I think it gets too dry here in the summer for it to be happy.
I’m going to try to relocate some of the phlox. It’s getting crowded out and I don’t want to lose it. Mine gets a fair bit of sun. I have other named varieties that live in dappled shade and this has been a good year for them.
Gorgeous!!
Thanks so much Bev! Hope you’re taking good care.
That’s a real oil-painting of a vase, Susie, and how lovely to be able to reminisce about mothers and mother-figures as you created it. Despite the varied contents, everything sits perfectly with its neighbours, as they always do, Thanks for sharing
Thanks for your kind words Cathy. I had worried about what would be available to use in this week’s vase. Some things are going over but I was glad to find a little bit of this and that. I kinda like putting together unexpected combinations.
You have such a large and lovely array of flowers in this bouquet. I marvel at how much you have blooming and am somewhat envious. They are so cheerful all together and bring me much joy!
Thanks Cindy. Hope your flowers kick in soon. Spring has been the longest and most luxurious in at least 5 years. Usually by now the plants are wilting from what I still refer to as “unseasonable” heat. Lovely 64F right now so the flowers are very happy for the moment.
What a lovely, joyful assembly of flowers, Susie! Of course, I fixated on the peony, the holy grail of flowers in my view, but I appreciate the snapdragons too. No matter what I do, the snaps attract rust almost immediately and I end up pulling them up, usually within a month of planting.
Thanks Kris. That peony is pretty lush. You have so many other pretty flowers that I wish I could grow, so I understand how frustrating it is not to be able to have them all! I tried growing snapdragons from seed this year but let’s just say, I’m glad I bought some last fall. [I am having a terrible time trying to comment on blogger sites. I’m signed in to a google account but it doesn’t recognize it, and other options aren’t working for me either right now. So sorry I’ve tried leaving comments but most times they don’t go through. Here’s what I tried to leave today:
“What a nice neighbor you are Kris! I love all the vases and am glad you went ahead with them this week. The second one is a real charmer. Isn’t it nice to find a surprise plant your’d forgotten about sitting there waiting for you?”
Gorgeous rich colours and the peony is a real show stopper. Lovely to have plants with memories attached.
Thanks so much. Yes I wish you could see the vase in person today. The photos are inadequate for capturing the colors.
This is truly a lovely spring arrangement done with great attention to detail. It doesn’t hurt to have wonderful memories attached to some of the plants either. 🙂
Thanks so much Judy! I do enjoy having some passalong plants. I hold them dear.
A lovely arrangement again Susie. I really love the yellow snapdragon you added. It is so nice that you have lots of plants handed down from friends and family. 😃 The orange snapdragon is also lovely. I am growing snapdragons from seed for the first time this year as I can only buy mixed plug plants here and don‘t know what colour they will turn out to be!
Thanks Cathy. Hope your snapdragons do well from seed. I tried my hand at growing them from seed this year, and they came up, but I didn’t get them planted in time. It stayed cold and they languished.
Thanks Susie. I hope to plant out my seedlings next week.
You have a lovely arranging style, Susie. This week is no exception.
I love doing jigsaw puzzles and many of your bouquets would make very pleasing subjects!
A ‘Dutch Master Painter’ would lust after than vase.
Peony! They are so enviable. They need more chill than they get here.
Lovely, as always. Virgie reminding you of her presence via flowers. I have just found out I can grow Sweetpeas here all winter! No Peonies, though, yours are gorgeous. Admiring from afar.
A lovely, luscious arrangement!