January 19, 2012 -- mahonia

This is definitely cheating a little bit. I pulled this hunk of mahonia out of a "regular" arrangement to showcase it in the windowsill. On the windowsill it will, surprisingly enough, hold up pretty well even out of water. The yellow mahonia blossoms started blooming a couple of weeks ago, and now, if you bring them into the house, they release their lily-of-the-valley-like fragrance, which is absolutely intoxicating.

Here's a bad photo of the "arrangement"--actually just two stems of mahonia in a striking vase--that the windowsill mahonia came from.