In A Vase On Monday – Year Eight
Each Monday for the past eight years Cathy at Rambling In The Garden has invited us to share a vase of materials gathered from our gardens. She posed a challenge for IAVOM’s eighth anniversary: to share a vase without fresh blooms.
In A Vase On Monday – Year Eight
Temperatures have been lower but we have yet to get a frost yet. There are fresh flowers in the garden—even irises which have rebloomed—but in the spirit of meeting Cathy’s challenge I walked around the borders in hopes of finding enough dried materials to fill a small vase. Soon I had much more than expected: cleome, lantana, zinnia, echinacea, juniper with seeds and pods, dogwood leaves and berries, salvia.
In A Vase On Monday – Year Eight. Cleome seed pods, salvia, juniper.
In A Vase On Monday – Year Eight. Zinnia.
I moved out front to gather several camellia seed heads I had noticed a few weeks ago, but they were too fragile. Fortuitously my sweet neighbor Eileen was walking her dogs and when I explained what I was doing she invited me to come to her garden to search for more items. She has a lovely, well-tended garden and offered beautiful, still colorful hydrangeas and more, including magnolia, salvias, grasses, heuchera leaves, and nandina berries and leaves.
In A Vase On Monday – Year Eight. Magnolia and nandina.
In A Vase On Monday – Year Eight. Nandina berries.
In A Vase On Monday – Year Eight
In A Vase On Monday – Year Eight. Echinacea and hydrangea.
Materials
Variety of Dried Flowers and Foliage
in a Handwoven basket from Williamsburg, Va.
Congratulations to Cathy on this eighth anniversary of In A Vase On Monday. I appreciate her dedication and generosity in hosting us each week. I have really enjoyed participating through the years. Many thanks Cathy!
Check out her anniversary dried arrangement this week and those of others at Rambling In The Garden.
pbmGarden 
This arrangement is beautiful. If only it could last until Thanksgiving, it would certainly add to your decorations.
Thanks Judy! I’m hoping it will survive until Thanksgiving. My sisters are coming that day and my daughter and SIL, recently moved back from L.A., will be with us for the first time in 10 years.
Yes, it should last more than a few weeks eh? It’s really a perfect autumn basket – I can picture it on a hall table, greeting your guests as they walk in the front door.
My guest will have to enter from the back screened porch. I’m expecting an avalanche of shedding vase materials in a few days. My friend suggested spraying with hair spray to hold everything but I elected to just keep it outdoors.
What a kind neighbour. And what a fabulous selection of plant material. I forgot all about hydrangeas, they fade to such lovely antiquey shades.
Yes, she’s a good friend and neighbor. I can’t seem to get hydrangeas to grow very well but hers are great each year. I must try again because I do love them.
Aah, how lovely. Something like this might be offered at a good florist’s but would cost a fortune. 😉And you have created such a fabulous arrangement with no expense, but with time and thought. 😃 Like all your vases, Susie, this is simply gorgeous. 🤗
Thanks Cathy. I was expecting to do a miniature or maybe an ikebana because I didn’t think I’d find anything to use, but as you mentioned, there was more to collect than what was needed.
This is absolutely glorious, Susie – you have done yourself and this anniversary challenge proud, but I knew you would…given the same material there is no way I could have created anything even a fraction as attractive as this. There is so much to explore in your basket and some intriguing items like the zinnia – who would have thought they would stand up to being kept once they were past their best? Did they wither on the plant, or have they been in a vase? I wonder how long they will retain any colour? What a lovely gesture from your neighbour too.
Thanks Cathy and Yes you could and do so every week! At first I wasn’t completely taken with the challenge to be honest, but as often happens restrictions and limitations can often open up our minds. I inserted 4 various sizes of containers into the basket and did fill them with water–then started stuffing!
I noticed several red seed heads on one particular color of zinnia so collected them specifically. They had been left drying on the plants. Don’t know how they will hold up–a first for me. Thanks again Cathy.
I agree that a challenge, even an uncomfortable one, can focus the mind – and it certainly worked for your basket of goodies.We had a frost on Friday which has seen off my dahlias and zinnias… 🙄
Well done, Susie! I’m always impressed by dried hydrangea blooms – it’d be worth growing the plants for those alone (if indeed I could keep the plants alive in my garden, which is unlikely). I don’t know why I didn’t think of the Magnolia cones when I presented my dried arrangements, especially as I’m picking fallen cones up every morning at this time of year.
Thank you Kris. I know how you feel. I love hydrangeas but can’t seem to get them to grow. The magnolia cones are from a tree in yet another neighbor’s yard that my friend has taken stewardship of! Best way to have magnolias without the work of cleaning up after them.
Oh that’s a beautiful arrangement Susie which just glows with soft colour and what a generous neighbour you have. I wish that I lived nearer and could watch how you put something like that together.
Thanks Anna. How fun that would be!
Wow, what a gorgeous basket arrangement, Susie. It’s perfect!
Thanks Eliza! I hope it will hold its color for a few weeks. Fun to try something new.
Lovely, lovely, lovely! The pink cleome seed pods are a wonderful feature, as are the magnolia seeds.
Thank you. I wanted the cleome seed pods to stand out more but couldn’t figure out how!
Is the juniper Eastern redcedar or a garden variety? It looks like a cypress of some sort. I met eastern redcedar while in Oklahoma at the end of 2012, and, even though it is nothing special to those who are familiar with it, I really like it because it is from Oklahoma (and other regions).
Actually it’s probably ‘Carolina Sapphire’ (Arizona Cypress). We’ve had a few over the years but the have been short-lived. Eastern Red Cedar is native but I read it’s become rather invasive if left to its own devices and not managed. We used to have them at our former house and they’re very attractive.
Oh, I should have guessed that it is Arizona cypress. ‘Carolina Sapphire’ seems like a silly name for an ‘Arizona’ cypress, like the ‘Carpathian’ cultivars of ‘English’ walnut from ‘Persia’. When I brought back my Eastern redcedar from Oklahoma, I was told that they are invasive because their ecosystems no longer burn like they used to. That would not concern me in an urban situation. I will be careful with them anyway, just because they are not native here.
I don’t know when I’ve seen an arrangement that was so beautiful. Made me want to get out into my garden to see what I might find.
Thanks so much Linda. I’m sure your garden will yield many interesting fall items.