Tag Archives: early autumn garden

In A Vase On Monday – Autumn Dahlias

Each Monday Cathy at Rambling In The Garden invites us to share a vase of materials gathered from our gardens.

Several late-season dahlia surprises guided the direction of today’s vase. Last week I had written off ever seeing Dahlia ‘Fairway Spur,’ but it turned out to be a true “late bloomer.” Over the weekend a single flower, one large peachy specimen emerged on an elegantly long stem which I stubbornly refused to cut, making the vase a little top-heavy I realize in retrospect.

Dahlia ‘Fairway Spur’ (Dinnerplate)

Another dinnerplate, Dahlia ‘Cafe Au Lait’, had bloomed earlier but I thought it had died back completely in the drought of summer. Then yesterday I discovered one stem in its best iconic coffee-colored form.

Dahlia ‘Cafe Au Lait’

Semi-cactus type Dahlia ‘Tsuki Yori No Shisha’ seems to take all summer to get going. Its autumn blooms are usually larger, better formed (and with fewer pests) and this year is continuing that trend.

Dahlia ‘Tsuki Yori No Shisha’ (Semi-cactus)

There was a good variety of foliage to explore this week including gaura with a slight tinge of red and itea leaves with their unmistakeable redness.

In A Vase On Monday – Autumn Dahlias

Materials
Flowers
Button Chrysanthemum
Dahlia ‘Cafe Au Lait’ (Dinnerplate)
Dahlia ‘David Howard’ (Decorative)
Dahlia ‘Fairway Spur’ (Dinnerplate)
Dahlia ‘Noordwijks Glorie’ (Decorative)
Dahlia ‘Petra’s Wedding’ (Ball dahlia)
Dahlia ‘Tsuki Yori No Shisha’ (Semi-cactus)
Zinnia ‘Cactus Flowered Mix’
Zinnia ‘Cut & Come Again’
Zinnia ‘Senora’
Foliage
Artemisia ‘Powis Castle’ (Wormwood)
‘Pride of Gibraltar’ Hummingbird Cerinthe
Gardenia jasminoides
Gaura lindheimeri ‘Passionate Blush’ (Butterfly Gaura)
Itea virginica ‘Sprich’ LITTLE HENRY (Virginia sweetspire)
Spirea
Container
Black metal suiban. 4 x 9.5 x 6.5 inches. Japan.

Thank you for your continued good wishes for my husband’s health. It’s not a straight path but he is doing better. The garden has carried on since mid-August on its own, literally no rain since Hurricane Ian brought a small amount here at the end of September.

A college friend brought a wonderful gift on Friday—dark and light purple, white and apricot pansies which I actually got planted the same day and watered. The earth in the meditation circle was so dry I couldn’t plant them along the paths as I’d planned. Instead I placed them around the dahlias which will soon be dying back.

In A Vase On Monday – Autumn Dahlias

As always thanks to our host Cathy at Rambling In The Garden for providing this opportunity to to share our vases. Visit her to discover what garden surprises she and others are offering this week.

In A Vase On Monday – A Mixed Floral

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In A Vase On Monday – A Mixed Floral

Each Monday Cathy at Rambling In The Garden invites us to share a vase of materials gathered from our gardens.

Last week portions of the garden squeaked by without cold damage as temperatures danced around freezing for a few days. Late into October some dahlias are finally starting to produce reasonably-sized flowers and there are a good number of buds. How nice it would be to see them thrive a few more weeks.

After a poor season some zinnias too have rallied recently. Today’s vase began as all zinnias. Somehow it ended up a mixed floral.

In A Vase On Monday – A Mixed Floral

The colors might be viewed as autumnal, but commenting a couple weeks ago Chris at Country Gardening described several of these dahlias as almost tropical. Since then I see these hues as mango, papaya and other exotic fruits rather than as fall tones.

In A Vase On Monday – A Mixed Floral

Materials
Flowers
Dahlia sp. (unknown)
Dahlia ‘Great Silence’ (Decorative dahlia)
Dahlia ‘HS Date’ (Single)
Dahlia ‘Noordwijks Glorie’ (Decorative dahlia)
Dahlia ‘Petra’s Wedding’ (Ball dahlia)
Echinacea ‘Sombrero Flamenco Orange’
Tagetes ‘Durango Red’ (Durango Red French Marigold)
Zinnia ‘Cut & Come Again’
Zinnia ‘Senora’
Foliage
Artemisia ‘Powis Castle’ (Wormwood)
Gardenia jasminoides
Container
Red/black raku vase, Charles Chrisco, Chrisco’s Pottery—Seagrove Potters
[version 2: Ceramic Urn Stamped “Vintage 4”]

The flowers are arranged into a small plastic dish which gave me a chance to try out several vases but I didn’t find a perfect container today, but this was less heavy and fit the shape of the design well.

In A Vase On Monday – A Mixed Floral

As always thanks to our host Cathy at Rambling In The Garden for providing this opportunity to to share our vases. Visit her to discover what garden surprises she and others are offering this week.

In A Vase On Monday – Moment Of Calm

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In A Vase On Monday – Moment Of Calm

Each Monday Cathy at Rambling In The Garden invites us to share a vase of materials gathered from our gardens.

Time is precious. Dahlias continue to delight.

In A Vase On Monday – Moment Of Calm

Materials
Flowers
Dahlia ‘Great Silence’ (Decorative dahlia)
Dahlia ‘Petra’s Wedding’ (Ball dahlia)
Dahlia ‘Tsuki Yori No Shisha’ (Semi-cactus dahlia)
Zinnia ‘Cut & Come Again’
Foliage
Gladiolus
Container
Dark blue matte ceramic jar (by NC potter Julie A. Hunkins, c. 2000)

My husband is back home and bouncing back after another brief hospital stay. The garden carries on. Bracing weather is forecast this week but will hover just above freezing.

As always thanks to our host Cathy at Rambling In The Garden for providing this opportunity to to share our vases. Visit her to discover what garden surprises she and others are offering this week.

In A Vase On Monday – Vintage Floral

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In A Vase On Monday – Vintage Floral

Each Monday Cathy at Rambling In The Garden invites us to share a vase of materials gathered from our gardens.

Dahlias and zinnias sustain color in my October garden.

In A Vase On Monday – Vintage Floral

I planted a few new dahlias this year in search of varying shapes and colors. Knowing their season is ending it was all I could do to resist stuffing today’s vase with more flowers, but with discipline I nearly managed a golden and apricot palette.

In A Vase On Monday – Vintage Floral

Behind the dahlias colorful dogwoods leaves are visible in the upper left with bits of dark red Sedum ‘Thunderhead’ to the right.

Dahlia ‘Art Deco’, ‘Noordwijks Glorie’ and Dahlia ‘HS Date’

Dahlia ‘Noordwijks Glorie’

Dahlia ‘HS Date’

Echinacea ‘Sombrero Flamenco Orange’ got off to a slow start, nibbled by rabbits, and has had only a few blooms. If it makes it to next year I’m expecting a grander show.

Echinacea ‘Sombrero Flamenco Orange’

Materials
Flowers
Dahlia ‘Art Deco’
Dahlia ‘HS Date’
Dahlia ‘Noordwijks Glorie’
Dahlia ‘Tsuki Yori No Shisha’
Gardenia jasminoides
Sedum ‘Thunderhead’
Zinnia ‘Cactus Flowered Mix’
Foliage
Button Chrysanthemum
Cornus florida (flowering dogwood)
Gardenia jasminoides
Container
Ceramic Urn Stamped “Vintage 4”

In A Vase On Monday – Vintage Floral

The blooms are arranged into eco-friendly floral foam that has been inserted in a flat plastic Lomey dish. They sit atop a glazed pedestal vase enigmatically stamped “Vintage 4.” The traditional design style and the nostalgic flowers reflect a vintage quality.

In A Vase On Monday – Vintage Floral

Thanks to our host Cathy at Rambling In The Garden for providing this opportunity to to share our vases. Visit her to discover what garden delights she and others are offering this week.

In A Vase On Monday – Dahlia Blend

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In A Vase On Monday – Dahlia Blend

Each Monday Cathy at Rambling In The Garden invites us to share a vase of materials gathered from our gardens.

We had some wind gusts from Hurricane Ian, but mostly steady rain fell which the garden absorbed readily. Today’s vase is a blending of all the dahlias I cut ahead of the storm.

In A Vase On Monday – Dahlia Blend

Materials
Flowers
Dahlia sp. (No ID)
Dahlia ‘Art Deco’
Dahlia ‘Great Silence’
Dahlia ‘HS Date’
Dahlia ‘Noordwijks Glorie’
Dahlia ‘Tsuki Yori No Shisha’
Zinnia ‘Cut & Come Again’
Foliage
Gardenia jasminoides
Container
Black metal suiban. 4 x 9.5 x 6.5 inches. Japan.

In the first iteration the vase held all flowers because I just hadn’t collected any greenery. Stems of gardenia foliage completed the design by adding more dimensionality and contrast.

In A Vase On Monday – Dahlia Blend

As always thanks to our host Cathy at Rambling In The Garden for providing this opportunity to to share our vases. Visit her to discover what garden delights she and others are offering this week.

In A Vase On Monday – Great Silence

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In A Vase On Monday – Great Silence

Each Monday Cathy at Rambling In The Garden invites us to share a vase of materials gathered from our gardens.

I managed a quick assemblage for today from among the very few flowers not beaten down by the dry weather. The featured dahlia is my favorite this year, D. ‘Great Silence.’

In A Vase On Monday – Great Silence

The color of this zinnia makes me smile. It’s from a second sowing that proved to be a good idea. My neighbor Eileen gave me some ferns from her garden last week, so I’ve included some for textural accent along with glossy gardenia foliage and feathery, silvery artemisia.

In A Vase On Monday – Great Silence

Materials
Flowers
Dahlia ‘Great Silence’ (Decorative dahlia)
Zinnia ‘Cut & Come Again’
Foliage
Artemisia ‘Powis Castle’ (Wormwood)
Fern (noID)
Gardenia jasminoides
Container
Textured, incised ceramic pedestal vase, rice or bone color. 5×6-inches.

As my husband continues to recuperate at home, we’re grateful for caregivers coming in to work with him to get stronger. I appreciate your many kind wishes and look forward to catching up with your garden posts again eventually.

As always thanks to our host Cathy at Rambling In The Garden for providing this opportunity to to share our vases. Visit her to discover what garden surprises she and others are offering this week.

Garden Delights

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Viceroy (Limenitis archippus)

Another busy week is done that left little time for the garden. There were warm, humid days, stormy days, bright days with the bluest sky imaginable and on this sunny first of October morning the air has a refreshing chill (before warming to 78°F).

On the last few days of September, in brief segments measured merely in minutes, I wandered the garden to recharge, each time finding some small delight.

I have had a few monarchs visit each year but Tuesday marked the first time I have seen a viceroy. Viceroy (Limenitis archippus) is distinguished by the black line across the veins on its hind wings.

Viceroy (Limenitis archippus)

I spotted another yesterday (or perhaps the same one returned, but I think the black vein looks thinner).

Viceroy (Limenitis archippus)

My incarnations of Dahlia ‘Cafe Au Lait’ have not always been true to the catalogs but one plant in particular sometimes throws up a pretty one.

Dahlia ‘Cafe Au Lait’

There were several other butterflies of note, a Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia) and a Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes). These are commonly sighted where I live but fairly infrequent in my garden.

Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia)

Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes)

A few dianthus plants are blooming more easily now the weather is cooler. How is this for a colorful greeting?

Dianthus Ideal Select Mix

The small skippers were everywhere midsummer but numbers have declined significantly in the past 5-6 weeks. iNaturalist is my goto source to identify skippers (mostly fieries, ocolas). I found another clouded skipper this week.

Clouded Skipper (Lerema accius)

An interesting creature, if not the loveliest, this grasshopper tried to hide from the camera.

Differential Grasshopper (Melanoplus differentialis)

I will finish with a quick video of the black swallowtail, frenetically searching for sustenance among lantana flowers.

Wordless Wednesday – Late Marigold

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Marigold

Finding Nourishment

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Dahlia ‘Gallery Art Deco’

It is Friday, 62 degrees Fahrenheit at midday, with showers and a bit of fog after a morning of heavy rain. During one brief lull I stepped outdoors into drizzle and onto squishy earth for a few much-needed minutes of garden nourishment.

Shasta season has long been over but fresh blooms appear sporadically.

Leucanthemum x superbum (Shasta Daisy)

My mother’s cousin Virgie’s everlasting sweet pea, originally passed along to me decades ago, has had its best year ever in the 19 years growing in this garden.

Lathyrus latifolius (Perennial Sweet Pea)

This red salvia is not particularly showy but hummingbirds stop over on most days.

Salvia greggii ‘Furman’s Red’ (Autumn Sage)

Dahlias seem to be trying to make up for lost time.

Dahlias

Dahlia ‘Gallery Art Deco’

Dahlia

Zinnias, usually the mainstay of my summer garden, remind me I have to find a way to rabbit-proof the borders, a daunting task.

Zinnia

This week P. at Petals and Wings (blog and Instagram) generously shared lavender irises with me. I am so excited to see them flower and experience their fragrance next spring, but first the ground needs to dry so I can get them planted. Meanwhile a white reblooming iris is getting battered by rain today.

Iris germanica ‘Immortality’

Bees enjoy spiderwort but I have to work to keep it from taking over the garden.

Tradescantia (Spiderwort)

I planted this itea four years ago. Its presence has been decidedly understated until now.

Itea virginica ‘Sprich’ LITTLE HENRY (Virginia sweetspire)

A native purchased at the North Carolina Botanical Garden in 2012 this rudbeckia produces small, misshapen flowers, yet it shouts happy to be here.

Rudbeckia fulgida (Orange Coneflower)

This salvia is one of my favorites. It has largely run rampant in one section of the garden, but is easy to remove. That’s the best kind of plant to have I think.

Salvia guaranitica ‘Black and Blue’

Silvery foliage of Artemisia ‘Powis Castle’ has been attractive for months. Behind it Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Ruby Slippers’ adds a colorful layer.

Artemisia ‘Powis Castle’ (Wormwood), Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Ruby Slippers’ (Lil’ Ruby dwarf Oakleaf Hydrangea)

Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Ruby Slippers’ (Lil’ Ruby dwarf Oakleaf Hydrangea)

The jewel-like hue of Butterfly Bush is even more dramatic in the rain.

Buddleja davidii ‘Adokeep’ (Adonis blue Butterfly Bush)

Columbine makes a nice ground cover throughout portions of the garden.

Aquilegia canadensis (Eastern red columbine)

Exceptionally colorful this year the dogwood is forming a nice crop of berries.

Cornus florida (Flowering Dogwood)

For now the garden still offers plenty of color. Hope you are finding nourishment in your own way today.

September Portrait

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This week on Instagram I joined Amy @newgatenarcissi for another #gardenmonthlycollage for September 2020.

Row 1: Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus), Rudbeckia laciniata (Green-Headed Coneflower), Row 2: Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), Cornus florida (Flowering Dogwood), Dahlia (unknown), Lycoris radiata (Spider Lily) and Spiderwort Row 3: Monarda didyma (Scarlet Beebalm), Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor) (technically August 31), Dahlia ‘Cafe Au Lait’, Dahlia ‘Tsuku Yori No Shisha’ Row 4: Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Ruby Slippers’ (Lil’ Ruby dwarf Oakleaf Hydrangea), Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus), Iris and H. quercifolia ‘Ruby Slippers’, Lycoris radiata (Spider Lily)

It is fun to create these collages but because of space limitations they are not entirely representative of the month. With the changing leaf color on the hydrangea and the dogwood, this one illustrates the autumnal slide toward cooler weather.

In A Vase On Monday – Celebrating Six

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In A Vase On Monday – Celebrating Six

I am late, late joining the party this week, but wanted to acknowledge a milestone. For six years Cathy at Rambling In The Garden has been hosting In A Vase On Monday, encouraging us to share a vase highlighting what is growing in our gardens. Since she started this I have looked forward to Mondays as never before.

In celebration of the sixth anniversary this week, Cathy posed a challenge to create a miniature arrangement, no more than 6″ (15cms) in each dimension. I tucked Erysimum into a tiny white oval ceramic vase and Dianthus and Antirrhinum into a heavy glass purple dish for a simple presentation.

Happy Anniversary Cathy and thank you!

In A Vase On Monday – Celebrating Six

Materials
Flowers
Corona™ White Dianthus (Dianthus chinensis)
Erysimum ‘Sugar Rush Red’ (Wallflower)
Antirrhinum majus ‘Speedy Sonnet White’ (Snapdragon)
Foliage
Container
Purple glass dish
White ceramic oval vase

Special 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 explore all the small designs she and others created this week for In A Vase On Monday.

In A Vase On Monday – Café au lait

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In A Vase On Monday – Café au lait

Each Monday Cathy at Rambling In The Garden encourages us to share a vase highlighting what is growing in our gardens.

Finally a Dahlia ‘Café au lait’ bloomed true to its promise. We are very close to our first freeze in central North Carolina and so this may be the only one the garden produces this year.

In A Vase On Monday – Café au lait

Materials
Flowers
Dahlia ‘Café au lait’
Dahlia ‘David Howard’
Foliage
Container
Porcelain Ikebana vase, Georgetown Pottery, Maine. Triangle Blue Wave (6.5″W x 6.5″L x 2″H)

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.

In A Vase On Monday – Fall Fusion

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In A Vase On Monday – Fall Fusion

Each Monday Cathy at Rambling In The Garden encourages us to share a vase highlighting what is growing in our gardens.

Today’s vase began as a feature of pink chrysanthemums and camellias and purple cleome. Unfortunately the camellias proved fragile, with all but one losing their petals as soon as I began arranging. Camellia sasanqua ‘Hana-Jiman’ has been blooming for a couple weeks. Perhaps it will cooperate better another time.

In A Vase On Monday – Fall Fusion

There were not enough of my passalong Chrysanthemum ‘Sheffield Pink’ to complete the arrangement. Fortunately I had collected and conditioned an assortment of other flowers, enough to cobble together a finished look. It resembles nothing of the delicate design I had envisioned, but it does illustrate the fair variety of blooms still showing up in the garden the last week of October.

In A Vase On Monday – Fall Fusion

Materials
Flowers
Achillea filipendulina (Fern-leaf Yarrow)
Buddleja davidii ‘Adokeep’
Camellia sasanqua ‘Hana-Jiman’
Chrysanthemum ‘Sheffield Pink’ (Hardy Chrysanthemum)
Cleome hassleriana (Spider Flower)
Dahlia ‘David Howard’
Lathyrus latifolius (Perennial Sweet Pea)
Perovskia atriplicifolia (Russian Sage)
Zinnia
Foliage
Callicarpa americana (American beautyberry)
Gardenia jasminoides ‘August Beauty’
Salvia rosmarinus (rosemary)
Container
Ceramic vase

In A Vase On Monday – Fall Fusion

In A Vase On Monday – Garden Gifts

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In A Vase On Monday – Garden Gifts

Each Monday Cathy at Rambling In The Garden encourages us to share a vase highlighting what is growing in our gardens. Some of today’s flowers are from my garden, zinnias and a few small dahlias; the others grew a few hundred feet nearby.

This past week several sets of neighbors brought us flowers, lovely surprises. The friendliness and generosity of the gestures left us overwhelmed and grateful. Does anyone still write sentences like, “Such fun I had” and get away with it? Well, such fun I had arranging two gifts of dahlias and another of chrysanthemums. Since mums are coming into bloom around the garden I will save them for another day and focus on dahlias.

The large dahlias in today’s vase were grown by neighbor Eileen, an excellent gardener and first-time dahlia grower. (Somewhere she has their names recorded and I will try to update them later.) Eileen babied her plants all summer with spectacular results.

In A Vase On Monday – Garden Gifts

When my neighbor offered me these dahlias Sunday how could I resist? She even conditioned them for me and brought them to the back door. Choosing a container was difficult, eventually I settled on a black raku pot with a red accent in the front. At first I hid the red accent to feature the orange and black.

In A Vase On Monday – Garden Gifts

Then I rotated the container to return the red accent to front center. I had deliberately used red zinnias along with the orange-sherbet-looking dahlias and decided the red in the pot worked fine with the flowers.

In A Vase On Monday – Garden Gifts

Materials
Flowers
Dahlia ‘David Howard’ (apricot orange)
Dahlia ‘Gallery Art Deco’ (sunrise/sunset)
Dahlia (names unknown)
Zinnia
Foliage
Gardenia jasminoides ‘August Beauty’
Container
Red/black raku vase, Charles Chrisco, Chrisco’s Pottery

I mentioned we received several bouquets this week. The first gift, also of dahlias from Eileen’s garden, was Tuesday. I made several arrangements and photographed them together and apart, swooning all the while.

Eileen’s Dahlias

Later that evening I noticed some of my small dahlias from last week’s Monday vase had begun to fade, so I began replacing them with the larger dahlias. Before long I had refashioned the entire thing. This may be my favorite vase I’ve designed. My husband and I enjoyed this arrangement all week, marveling at the size, structure and color of the flowers.

Last Week’s Monday Vase Reinvented

Having such a generous quantity of materials for floral designs is fairly rare. As fall moves ahead this past week has felt like a celebration.

In A Vase On Monday – Garden Gifts

This is not the best photo but I include it to illustrate the size of today’s final arrangement, posed here beside a few other raku pots by the same artist.

In A Vase On Monday – Garden Gifts

In A Vase On Monday – Sublime

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In A Vase On Monday – Sublime

Each Monday Cathy at Rambling In The Garden encourages us to share a vase highlighting what is growing in our gardens.

With dahlias and zinnias vying prolifically to outdo each other, the materials for my Monday vases have become redundant this summer. Yet Dahlias and zinnias meet, I think, the Oxford definition of sublime: of such excellence, grandeur, or beauty as to inspire great admiration or awe; and so they greet you once again this Monday morning.

I remain amazed at their persistence throughout the drought this summer. (We had light showers since late yesterday morning, for the first time since Hurricane Dorian brought a few sprinkles our way a month ago. We need more but it feels such a relief to experience rain again.)

I wanted to challenge myself to do something different with the design this week. Dahlia ‘David Howard’ has such a soft orange hue I chose to feature it in a favorite Jugtown pot given me by a dear friend. My vision was the dahlias would be loosely arranged, but I struggled to keep the stems in place. Three other flowers never made it into the vase—they fell apart as I began arranging, scattering petals and leaving a void I decided to embrace.

In A Vase On Monday – Sublime

Next I experimented with a streamlined design using an Ikebana vase. It was temporary. Eventually I removed the flowers from it to use in a third vase, but did not take additional pictures. First to go was the large white dahlia. Interestingly I think without it the arrangement achieved greater balance. Soon I needed the little apricot zinnias too, leaving behind the simplicity of gardenia foliage in the blue vase.

In A Vase On Monday – Sublime

Finally an abundance of cuttings from Dahlia ‘Gallery Art Deco’ inspired me to assemble something more lush.

In A Vase On Monday – Sublime

There seemed to be plenty of stems until the project was well underway (thus the necessity to rob the previous vases). Probably I could have used twice as many flowers, but I made do.

To ensure that the placement of each stem remained secure I used floral foam attached to a small plastic dish. The added benefit is I could try several vases with the same arranged flowers. The plastic dish just sits on top of the vase. (It should be secured to the vase safety and definitely for transport, but I haven’t bothered here.)

A crystal pedestal candy dish seems a bit too small.

In A Vase On Monday – Sublime

A red and black raku pot is more proportional to the dimensions of the flowers, though the red is a bit brash. I used an aubergine silk table runner as a backdrop as an attempt to blend all the colors.

In A Vase On Monday – Sublime

The tiny size of the foraged zinnias add interest, their apricot color plays against that of the Art Deco petal highlights and centers. A couple of stems of pink everlasting sweet pea add unexpected spice to the color scheme.

In A Vase On Monday – Sublime

Materials
Flowers
Dahlia ‘David Howard’ (apricot orange)
Dahlia ‘Gallery Art Deco’ (sunrise/sunset)
Dahlia ‘Tsuku Yori No Shisha’ (white)
Lathyrus latifolius (Everlasting sweet pea)
Zinnia
Foliage
Gardenia jasminoides ‘August Beauty’
Gladiolus
Stachys byzantina (Lamb’s Ear)
Container
Porcelain Ikebana vase, Georgetown Pottery, Maine. Rectangle Blue Zen (6.75L x 3.75W x 2H inches)
Red/black raku vase, Charles Chrisco, Chrisco’s Pottery
Crystal candy dish
Olive green Jugtown vase

I’ve been reading up on how to dig dahlia tubers for storage over the winter. It looks rather daunting but I’ve enjoyed these dahlias so much I have to try. I will also save seeds and for inspiration will return to Chloris‘ advice to grow dahlias from seed.

In A Vase On Monday – Autumn Colors

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In A Vase On Monday – Autumn Mix

Each Monday Cathy at Rambling In The Garden encourages us to share a vase highlighting what is growing in our gardens.

These are the same flowers and colors I used throughout summer, same ones I addressed with summery titles. But today they feel autumnal.

In A Vase On Monday – Autumn Mix

We’ve had a retreat from the unforgiving heat. Last week this area set a record high temperature for the month of October, 100 degrees F.; Saturday saw highs in the 60s; today should reach 82. It is still very dry.

The white semi-cactus Dahlia ‘Tsuku Yori No Shisha’ is blooming better, I assume a result of the cooler nights.

In A Vase On Monday – Autumn Mix

Zinnias and dahlias responded to a small amount of hand watering this week. They are a lesson in resilience.

In A Vase On Monday – Autumn Mix

Gardenia ‘August Beauty’ is reblooming but tiny black insects make the flowers undesirable to bring indoors. The rich green foliage though is fresh and makes a perfect foil to the fading dusky colors.

In A Vase On Monday – Autumn Mix

Materials
Flowers
Buddleja davidii ‘Adokeep’
Dahlia ‘David Howard’
Dahlia ‘Gallery Art Deco’
Dahlia ‘Tsuku Yori No Shisha’
Zinnia
Foliage
Gardenia jasminoides ‘August Beauty’
Container
Hand thrown ceramic bowl, periwinkle blue glaze

In A Vase On Monday – Pattern And Shape

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In A Vase On Monday – Pattern And Shape

Each Monday Cathy at Rambling In The Garden encourages us to share a vase highlighting what is growing in our gardens.

With still not a drop of rain for weeks zinnias and dahlias are no longer producing enough blooms for generous, overflowing arrangements.

Switching gears today, I concentrated on using leaves of a tulip poplar that volunteered in the yard this summer. Quoting from Wikipedia, “The tulip tree is one of the largest of the native trees of the eastern United States, known to reach the height of 191.9 feet (58.49 meters)^[4] with a trunk 1–2 m (4–6 ft) in diameter.” In other words this tree had no business sprouting up under my deck.

In A Vase On Monday – Pattern And Shape

Actually I am very fond of tulip poplars, remembering long summer days under one at my childhood home. That was a beautiful tree that eventually succumbed to Hurricane Fran in 1996. Another tulip poplar imprinted in my memory grew in woods behind our Wave Road house where we raised our daughter. Unpacking our car one year after returning from vacation we saw the tree had been struck by lightning, scorched from top to toe.

The leaf form is simple and strong, as broad as tall, stretching 5-6 inches. I envisioned and tried a variety of ways to use the collected leaves but found all more challenging than there was time to come to clear resolution. I settled on one leaf, one dahlia.

The container is blown glass, asymmetrical with alternating bands of blue and green color. its top is loosely pinched together leaving just a small narrow opening.

In A Vase On Monday – Pattern And Shape

Today’s vase has me thinking of shape, pattern, positive and negative space and a touch of nostalgia.

In A Vase On Monday – Pattern And Shape

Materials
Flowers
Dahlia ‘Labyrinth’ (?) (sold as Dahlia ‘Cafe Au Lait’)
Foliage
Liriodendron tulipifera (Tulip Poplar)
Container
Glass vase

In A Vase On Monday – September Color and Form

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