In A Vase On Monday – Orange Deconstruction
Each Monday Cathy at Rambling In The Garden invites us to share a vase of cuttings from our gardens.
I chose a surprise late-blooming gladiolus as the focal point for today’s flowers. I find the reddish-orange waxy petals deliciously compelling.
In A Vase On Monday – Orange Deconstruction
With the gladiolus always in the forefront, or a time the design drifted from my original plan for a spare Ikebana look. Here is the initial work—the first stage. I liked this but it left exposed a lot of floral oasis.
In A Vase On Monday – Orange Impression
To conceal the mechanics I began adding other flowers. Eventually the design looked totally different and off-balance in composition and weight of materials. I also thought the gaura stems began to look cluttered, detracting from the flowers.
In A Vase On Monday – Orange Impression
Surrounded by dahlias, clematis, buddleia, salvia and lantana, the gladiolus maintained its presence but looked out of place. The shape of the gladiolus was awkward and heavy in relation to everything else, yet it was beautiful in and of itself.
In A Vase On Monday – Orange Impression
In A Vase On Monday – Orange Impression
In A Vase On Monday – Orange Impression
Cutting the sword into smaller and smaller pieces I finally worked my way back to a design that speaks to the essence of the starring flower. Switching vases made a big difference. In my hand portions of the gladiolus seemed perfect but were still heavy. Almost satisfied with this stage the jutting piece to the right created too much tension.
In A Vase On Monday – Orange Impression
At the expense of the design’s height, when I trimmed the wayward section and repositioned the stems, the overall result was more harmonious.
In A Vase On Monday – Orange Deconstruction
Against the black glaze the gladiolus essence is on full display.
In A Vase On Monday – Orange Deconstruction
Materials
Flowers
Gladiolus
Foliage
Gaura lindheimeri ‘Passionate Blush’ (Butterfly Gaura)
Vase
Porcelain Ikebana vase, Georgetown Pottery, Maine. Triangle Black Wave (6.5 W x 6.5 L x 2H)
In A Vase On Monday – Orange Deconstruction
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.
pbmGarden 
So powerful!
Thanks Malc.
Simple and perfect – great colour contrast eh?
Thanks Chris. Yes, I like working with that orange color!
Beautiful arrangements. Your skills are on display. 🙂
Thanks Judy. Or maybe stubbornness!
The colours are gorgeous and you always make your flowers look fabulous however you arrange them!
Thanks Cathy. The gladiolus was particularly inspiring.
I’d have been very pleased with the arrangement in any of these incarnations, Susie. The end product is very elegant, however. I’m enjoying my first large-flowered gladiolas now, but I don’t think I have the courage (or the talent) to cut and compose the stems as you’ve done.
Thank you Kris. It does seem strange at first to disassemble a gladiola but kinda fun once you get started. Of course the lower blooms don’t last as long so this arrangement isn’t going to hold up all week without some reworking. Take care.
This was a fascinating insight into the thought process, Susie, and interesting that each stage could have held its own (although the first one reminded me of a wedding corsage/buttonhole!). You stripped away everything but the bare essentials, and the end result pays off. Thank!
Thanks Cathy! I liked the way it turned out in the end, although it also feels a little tame. You’d have to have a very tall, broad-shouldered person to wear that glad in a buttonhole (but I see it too now)!
Perhaps it was because I had gladioli in my bouquet when I was married the first time round that made me think of it…don’t think the buttonholes did though, but I can’t remember!
What an interesting process, I found myself agreeing with you on each step but would have been just fine before you pointed out the changes you wanted. I agree with you that gladiolus usually want to be on their own!
Thanks for following along with me on the vase iterations Frank. My other glads all bloomed weeks ago so this one flower deserved some attention for showing its persistence.
I love the big mix for its scale and texture contrasts and the sword (?) punctuation..also like the spare version, Zen…
It’s surprising to have the scale shift so dramatically but I just followed along with what the flowers were telling me. I think it was you who mentioned we have to listen to them. about the sword: “Gladiolus (from Latin, the diminutive of gladius, a sword) “.
Nice! I love sword foliage with flowers. A favorite of mine from my garden further north was the Red Old Fashioned Alstroemeria, White Yarrow and Glad or Japanese Iris foliage.
I like following your process as you strove to create something that pleased you, Susie, and equally like both iterations!
Thank you Eliza. I need to plant better filler materials. Not sure what would have worked better than the gaura but I should research that.
Loved the way you have written about the stages you went through to arrive at your final display. I can imagine the meditative calm you went through. Less is very often more….but I can’t help but admire the quality of the other blooms.
Thank you Noelle. Yes, it is meditative and especially so when I have enough time to follow through, as I did this week.
Orange is my colour for summer 2020. so uplifting when Covid is spoiling our fun. Love your arrangement this week
Thanks. I agree orange is a good pick-me-up for the times.
Nice orange! (Hey, I just looked at one with nice blues!) I grew both orange and yellow gladiolas at a former home in town, not because I prefer them to white, but because the tenants said that orange and yellow would suit the building better. They looked great of course. I am not proficient with color.
Good combination. I have white ones that bloomed earlier.
White is still my favorite, and gladiolus happens to excel at white. However, as you know, white is not the right color for every landscape. At that home, I kept my white flowers in my own enclosed garden.