In A Vase On Monday – Winter Bauble
Each Monday Cathy at Rambling In The Garden encourages us to share a vase highlighting what is growing in our gardens.
As 2019 comes to a close I chose small bits and baubles foraged from the garden beds for the year’s final Monday vase. Motivated to create a small design so I could feature two fresh, tiny blooms of Erysimum ‘Sugar Rush Red,’ I selected two petite but heavy, bowl-shaped glass candleholders as containers. I attached floral pin frogs to the candlesticks using florist sticky clay to make it easier to hold the materials in place.
Erysimum ‘Sugar Rush Red’
Spiraea this December has buds and a few white flowers. The fern-like greenery is Tansy. Several of its leaves came with a bonus streak of purple along the vein to pick up the color of one of the vases.
Spiraea Flowers and Leaves
An unusual find is a dried carcass from a daylily fruit, the loculicidal capsule. The daylily seed pod’s walls dry out and once the seeds are ripe the walls split apart. The fruit dehisces longitudinally through the locules. This three-valved chamber continued to dry, forming a conversation starter and interesting accent for today’s vase. (I welcome your corrections to my description of this process.)
Daylily Capsule
Daylily Capsule
In late October I had discovered one still holding its seeds; I am not sure if this is the same one that found its way into today’s vase.
Daylily Seed Pod October 24, 2019
The last ingredient looks like pine needle, but actually is grass, an unidentified oddity, the second clump I’ve found growing in the garden. The leaves are quite stiff and long, over 18 inches. It’s rich green color appealed to me and I decided to use it in an abstract way, formed into bundles and cut to even heights to form vertical pillars. Unfortunately the sharp prongs of the floral pin frogs were not closely enough spaced to hold all the grass securely. Next time I might bind the bundle with twine to keep the needles from spilling away.
In A Vase On Monday – Winter Bauble
The candleholders are 2 ½ inches in diameter. The contents in the clear one measure 6 inches tall; the purple, 7½ inches.
Materials
Flowers
Daylily seed capsule
Erysimum ‘Sugar Rush Red’ (Wallflower)
Spiraea prunifolia (bridal wreath spiraea)
Foliage
Stiff grass (unknown)
Tanacetum vulgare (Tansy)
Container
Small glass candleholders (2) fitted with florist pins
In A Vase On Monday – Winter Bauble
My 2019 Monday vases are collected into one place to see the year at a glance or to step though a slide show. I was able to participate 43 times this year.
Deep 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 On Monday.
Happy, Happy New Year! Peace, calm and joy and may you grow!
Erysimum ‘Sugar Rush Red’
pbmGarden 