In a Vase: Winter Fare

I decided to try snipping some dried grass for today’s vase. I could have gone with violas yet again, but I wanted to see what I could do with these dried, wintry trimmings.

I’m not sure what kind of grass this is. With all the rain we had during the monsoon season, several different types of grass sprouted vigorously around the yard. The clumping varieties, such as this one, are relatively manageable—at least compared to the Bermuda grass galloping across the dirt and rooting as it goes! I begin to suspect that at one time there was an attempt at a Bermuda grass lawn here.

Having cut the grass stems, I decided to add a little extra texture from a leafy stem of desert hackberry (Celtis ehrenbergiana).

The hackberry grows as a large shrub at various places on our property. Its late-summer, bright orange berries disappeared quickly as migrating birds began to arrive. Now the hackberry bushes are half-clothed in matte green leaves; apparently our few nights of frost weren’t enough to make them drop the rest.

I used a small vase that was a glaze experiment once, and an unsuccessful one, as far as I was concerned. My sister convinced me to keep it around, and I do find it useful sometimes. So here it is with its curious collection of wild foliage.

Well, even here in our mild-winter region the flowers are a bit slow in January. Thank you to Cathy for encouraging us to keep finding new things to put in our vases all year!

A note on the pictures: It was late when I made my small arrangement—too late to photograph by sunlight as the days are still short. I recently purchased an inexpensive lightbox for easier product photography for my Etsy shop. I slipped the vase inside it and did my best, though the tallest grass stems touched the top of the box. Anyhow, that is why the photos have an odd colour cast to them! At least I was able to get the pictures…