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

First an update from last week: Dahlia ‘Cafe Au Lait’ was indeed mislabelled. The vendor suggested Dahlia ‘Labyrinth’ mistakenly was shipped instead. In spring I will receive a replacement for the order. Thanks for your helpful comments and suggestions about it.

This week’s vase is a mixed bouquet of late summer flowers presented in a basket.  Reflecting the shape of the basket, I fashioned a (mostly) round table design.

Zinnias predominate.

Most of my vases are designed to be viewed in front. That takes less time and requires fewer flowers. But there were lots of dahlias and zinnias available this week, so it was a good chance to experiment with creating a view all around.

I should have considered stem length of the materials on hand in relation to the size of the basket and cut longer stems, especially dahlia stems. In trying too hard to preserve future blooms, I had skimped. The result is most of the dahlias I gathered were too short to be included, so they are scattered in little vases outside of today’s feature. They are still enjoyable but my thrift left me shy of flowers needed to assemble the design easily.

I had to compensate by using all the zinnias in bloom with less choice about color. Some of the zinnias were also too short, but I think in the end the basket of flowers turned out fine—an explosion of seasonal color.

The irregular heights lend a more casual, informal quality to this week’s vase, in keeping with the basket theme. That’s my story anyway, though I see no reason to resort to using a Sharpie to prove it.

I purchased baby’s breath for use as a light and airy filler. Included along with it from my garden are sky blue salvia and rosy gaura. Underpinnings of silvery artemisia and lavender serve as concealer foliage.

 

Materials
Flowers
Dahlia ‘David Howard’
Dahlia ‘Gallery Art Deco’
Dahlia ‘Tsuku Yori No Shisha’
Gaura lindheimeri ‘Passionate Blush’ (Butterfly Gaura)
Gypsophila (Baby’s breath)
Leucanthemum x superbum (Shasta Daisy)
Salvia uliginosa ‘Blue Sky’ (Bog sage)
Zinnia
Foliage
Artemisia ‘Powis Castle’ (Wormwood)
Lavandula angustifolia ‘Ellagance’
Container
Round woven basket with handle

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.