Tag Archives: Tradescantia pallida (purple heart)

In A Vase On Monday—Moody Blush

In A Vase On Monday – Moody Blush

Each Monday brings the chance to join Cathy’s In A Vase On Monday to share an arrangement using materials gathered from the garden.

Two of my sisters visited recently bringing a gift of several beautiful hydrangea stems from their yard. The hydrangeas have been rooted in water and are ready for me to plant.

Taking care not to damage the roots I loosely combined them with Tradescantia pallida ‘Purpurea’ (Purple Heart) for a quick and easy arrangement.

In A Vase On Monday – Moody Blush

The purple heart is pass-along from my friend and work colleague Kathryn. Planted among monarda and aquilegia, it has little chance to shine until those taller plants die back. I photographed a purple heart flower in the Saturday’s early morning foggy light. The green background is the underplanting of fresh new columbine leaves.

In bright sunlight, the dusky wine leaves pick up the purple and red of the hydrangeas.

In A Vase On Monday – Moody Blush

Materials
Hydrangea
Tradescantia pallida ‘Purpurea’ (Purple Heart)

In A Vase On Monday – Moody Blush

I would have enjoyed keeping this vase intact, but afraid the sap of the purple heart might affect the hydrangeas I separated them into different containers after photographs were complete. Hope your vases last longer this week.

Thanks to Cathy for hosting this weekly chance to express our flower arranging passion. Visit her at Rambling In The Garden to discover what she and others are placing In A Vase On Monday. Feel free to join in.

In A Vase On Monday—Zinnias

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In A Vase On Monday

Monday brings the chance to practice flower arranging by joining in Cathy’s weekly challenge In A Vase On Monday, where the goal is simply to fill a vase using materials gathered in one’s own garden.

I made lots of simple arrangements last week for a family get-together but did not have time to photograph them most of them. One of my favorites was this earth tone ceramic pot filled with purple and green leaves of Canna, Purple Heart and Pink Muhly Grass interspersed with a few stems of Verbena bonariensis. This became the starting point for my today’s vase.

This vase was the foundation for this week’s arrangement.

After removing everything and discarding the Verbena bonariensis, I rinsed the leaves and the container and inserted a florist’s frog in the bottom.

Next I headed outdoors to gather Zinnias, currently the main source of color in my late summer garden. They are almost all orange or pink.

Zinnia sp.

I found a couple of small Dahlia flowers as well.

Dahlia and Zinnia

To get started I placed the Canna leaves toward the back, then added a few of the tallest Zinnias, followed by the groups of Pink Muhly Grass.

Canna and Zinnia

A stem of Autumn Joy sedum from last week or maybe the week before, nicely filled a blank space and added a contrasting texture and some extra height.

After placing the rest of the flowers and Purple Heart, the arrangement seemed crowded. I trimmed away some of the foliage, rolled some leaves down and furled some vertically.

Sedum, Canna and Zinnia

In A Vase On Monday

Materials
Canna sp.
Dahlia sp.
Hylotelephium ‘Herbstfreude’ Autumn Joy (Stonecrop)
Muhlenbergia capillaris (Pink Muhly Grass)
Tradescantia pallida ‘Purpurea’ (Purple Heart)
Zinnia

I placed the cheery Zinnia arrangement on a cherry table in the hallway, designed and crafted by our daughter, where the play of sunlight brightened and enriched the colors of the flowers.

In A Vase On Monday

Thanks to Cathy at Rambling In The Garden for hosting. It is always fun to discover what she and others are placing In A Vase On Monday.

In A Vase On Monday—Vivid Summer Color

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Design From Above

In A Vase On Monday

Zinnias are usually reliable but this year very few of the seeds germinated. The plants that grew are very strong though and the colors, vibrant. Several of my favorite deep orange ones opened yesterday so they form the basis of this week’s arrangement. I added a couple of pink zinnias and a salmon one as well, all that were blooming today.

Zinnia and Angelonia

There is plenty of Angelonia blooming, making it an easy choice for filler flowers.

Zinnia and Angelonia

I chose the dark pink Angelonia and I really like the way it pairs with the orange zinnia, but in retrospect white would have provided better contrast in the overall arrangement.

The similarity of color tone in today’s flowers made it hard to achieve a good range of light and dark in the design. It is easier for me to see this when I squint at photographs than while arranging the flowers–something to keep in mind next time.

In A Vase On Monday

Dahlias are blooming sporadically. I was able to find a couple of dark burgundy ones as well as a sprig of Purple heart foliage. Their contribution to the design is best observed when viewing the vase from overhead.

Zinnia, Angelonia, Dahlia, Purple heart and Sweet pea

I also included a couple of stems of Gomphrena or globe amaranth from a patio planter. The Gomphrena seems to love the heat. A passalong Perennial Sweet Pea, which has bloomed well all summer, and a salmon-hued Pelargonium, which has not, round out the choice of flowers.

Sweet pea, Gomphrena, Zinnia, Pelargonium, Angelonia

Materials
Angelonia ‘Rose’
Angelonia ‘Serenita Raspberry’
Dahlia sp.
Gomphrena globosa (Globe amaranth)
Lathyrus latifolius (Perennial Sweet Pea)
Pelargonium × hortorum ‘Rocky Mountain Salmon’ (Zonal geranium)
Tradescantia pallida ‘Purpurea’ (Purple Heart)
Zinnia

From above: Zinnia, Angelonia, Dahlia and Purple heart

Thanks to Cathy at Rambling In The Garden for hosting. Discover what she and others are placing In A Vase On Monday.

In A Vase On Monday—Arum and Poinsettia

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In A Vase On Monday – Arum and Poinsettia

Monday brings an opportunity to practice flower design by joining in Cathy’s weekly challenge In A Vase On Monday to create an arrangement from materials gathered in one’s own garden.

Actually, as it was raining cats and dogs this morning, I did not venture into the garden for materials. Instead I repurposed several long-lasting items from previous arrangements.

Arum italicum foliage used in a vase early in December still looks very green and healthy. I chose one of the strongly patterned leaves to practice leaf manipulation. I started by making parallel cuts within one side of the leaf, removing every other strip. My mat knife blade proved too dull for this task, cutting but also bruising the leaf. I changed course and cut out selective sections of the pattern, using scissors and even a thumb nail.

Precision is important in this type of work, but I was impatient with it. The end result suffered because I quickly bored of the process and did not take time I should have to get nice clean cuts. Also, perhaps the Arum leaf is not particularly appropriate for this technique. (Aspidistra leaves are among the frequently recommended choices.)

Abandoning plans for manipulating more leaves, I inserted the Arum leaf into a small pin holder.

Manipulated Arum Leaf

To hide the mechanics I wrapped a length of Tradescantia pallida (purple heart) leaf around the base of the pin holder. This purple heart was used in a Monday vase in September and had been living in a little glass of water ever since.

Leaf of Tradescantia pallida (purple heart) wrapped around the pin holder

Though I did not grow it, a poinsettia holiday gift gave me easy access to a bright red bloom and a few dark leaves to complete today’s design.

Arum and Poinsettia

This was a good experiment. I like the arrangement despite the crudeness of my work manipulating the leaf. There are many other techniques such as folding and weaving that I plan to experiment with sometime.

In A Vase On Monday – Arum and Poinsettia

Materials List

Euphorbia pulcherrima (Poinsettia)
Arum italicum
Tradescantia pallida (purple heart), formerly Setcreasea pallida

Thanks to Cathy at Rambling In The Garden for hosting. Please visit her to see what she and others are placing In A Vase On Monday.

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Tag Archives: Tradescantia pallida (purple heart)

In A Vase On Monday—Moody Blush

In A Vase On Monday—Zinnias

In A Vase On Monday—Vivid Summer Color

In A Vase On Monday—Arum and Poinsettia