It’s still very much summer weather here, whatever the calendar may say.
Despite which, I had intended to give an autumn flavour to today’s vase by making it mostly about the brilliant orange fruits of desert hackberry (Celtis ehrenbergiana). Then as I prepared to go out and cut some, I remembered abruptly that last time I tried that, they hadn’t survived very long in the vase. Furthermore, I found that I couldn’t reach many of them over the fence. Nor was I about to go round and climb through mounds of prickly pear to get at them from the other side!
I picked what I reasonably could, which was two stems with as many fruits.
And I began gathering this and that.
First there was Salvia farinacea, the other plant in my original plan. It supplied quite a few stems despite being a bit wilted by the heat. Its credentials for brilliant blue are impeccable. This is the variety “Victorian Blue”.
I collected some wild grass stems. These flower heads are bristly and act like Velcro on each other, which made for a curious task arranging them.
But it was always going to come down to more thimbleheads (Hymenothrix wislizeni), the brilliant yellow wildflower I used last week. It is by far the most prolific flower in bloom right now.
I gathered all these stems from a single plant by our little pond (which needs some expert care, more on that some other time). I also scattered a handful of seeds around, as I hope to encourage more of these in the garden.
So here is the completed vase, photographed on the shaded part of the back patio.
I look forward to the time when I will have plenty of flowers from the garden for In a Vase on Monday, but meantime there is plenty of pleasure in foraging for it! Joining Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for today’s post…
Happy new week!
In a Vase: Wisps and Waifs
Clambering through prickly pear definitely sounds like a bad idea! You came up with a lovely mix of flowers though. The salvia is so pretty - true blue is so hard to find. I love the wispy effect you have created in your gorgeous vase. 😃
What a great end result from your wisps and waifs and I am glad you decided against a climbing expedition! It will be exciting discovering what will grow in your new garden - and I think you said you had some roses waiting in pots?