Each Monday Cathy at Rambling In The Garden invites us to share an arrangement using materials collected from our gardens. Today’s vase is filled with a selection of old-fashioned flowers, all rescued from the heat on Saturday.

The starting point was a fading border of shasta daisies. The shastas were nice for a few weeks but now most are wilting in the hot sun. I have lost interest in keeping them deadheaded and watered, so picking the freshest blooms to enjoy indoors seemed a good idea.

To accompany the daisies I cut some stems of Rudbeckia laciniata (Green-Headed Coneflower), whose yellow petals are just beginning to unfold this week.

I wish I had taken a picture at that stage. The Green-Headed Coneflower paired with the daisies made a winsome combination and I had planned to stop there. The arrangement ended up distinctly different though when I tested to see what would happen if I added some of the other flowers I had gathered, starting with Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Ruby Slippers.’

The panicles of this oakleaf hydrangea sported quite a bit of red color this summer, but without enough rain they recently began to turn brown.

Other flowers added were small clusters of Hydrangea macrophylla, Liatris spicata (purchased as ‘Alba’ yet not white after all), and some under-performing calla lilies.

The container for today’s arrangement is a cream-colored, crazed ceramic urn on which “Vintage 4” has been stamped. Why “4” is unclear but I like the vase’s shape.

Materials
Flowers
Calla Lily
Hydrangea macrophylla
Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Ruby Slippers’ (Lil’ Ruby dwarf Oakleaf Hydrangea)
Leucanthemum x superbum (Shasta Daisy)
Liatris spicata (Gayfeather)
Rudbeckia laciniata (Green-Headed Coneflower)
Verbena bonariensis (Tall Verbena)
Foliage
None
Vase
Ceramic Urn Stamped “Vintage 4”

Thanks to Cathy at Rambling In The Garden for hosting and giving us an opportunity to share flower designs across the world. Visit her to discover what she and others found to place In A Vase On Monday.