Aug. 20, 2011

This is just two pretty pieces of plant material I couldn't throw away. Both broke off as I was weeding today. (Weeding is not fun right now, by the way. It's too hot and there are too many weeds!) Anyway, the greenery is actually a honeysuckle (Lonicera nitida)  called Baggesen's Gold. It looks nothing like the "normal," familiar honeysuckle and, instead, is sort of a shrubby thing with reclining stems and yellow-green foliage. Great for arranging but I seldom cut it because mine is hidden under another shrub and I tend to forget about it. The flower (which youi can hardly see in photo)  is a late-blooming daylily that I love. It has very tall stems topped with small, graceful yellow flowers. Can't remember its name, but something makes me think it may include the word"autumnal."   This bloom will last only a day, but it was just too pretty to throw immediately in compost heap.  It's amazing how many things get crushed and broken off as I weed because I am not gentle when in weeding mode!

And here's a little bouquet I did for a friend in a nursing home (Rudbeckia triloba flowers with scented geranium foliage). I was delighted to discover  Bill's room has a nice, wide windowsill!

August 19. 2011---fiesta colors!

I just love these colors together! This conglomeration began with one sprig of ironweed---from the top of 8 foot stem I dug up by accident yesterday.  Then I picked some nasturtiums, celosia, and a few sweet peas to add.  It's all just so vibrant together.  And BTW, I've learned each hibiscus blossom (like the one I picked day before yesterday and put in vase) lasts only a day, whether it's been cut or not. I guess that means each Rose-of-Sharon bloom lasts only a day, too?

August 18, 2011

I tossed some red peppers onto the windowsill to jazz up yesterday's arrangements.

The hibiscus flower (from yesterday) has withered (see below), but now I'm thinking hibiscus blossoms may last only a day even in the garden?  Like passion flowers and morning glories, maybe? I've marked a bloom with a string today, and I'll check it tomorrow to see if it's still open.

There's also a sad thing in the windowsill today. I was weeding behind some aucuba shrubs and saw this tall, tall plant I assumed was a Jerusalem artichoke or some other weedy thing I pull out all the time.  I decided to be a really good girl and not just break it off but dig it out with the shovel. No sooner was it out of the ground then I realized it was ironweed---and blooming ironweed at that. The blooms were 3 feet above my head. I groaned out loud: OH, NO!!  The stem was broken in a couple of places and I tried to replant the part with partial root, but I doubt it will live. Ouch, ouch.  Anyway, I brought part of the stem in and put it in the windowsill.  The flowers would be pretty with eggplant, but I fear they're not going to hold up very well unless I shorten this stem.

August 17, 2011--vases in waiting

I knew those two jars of leaves (from yesterday) wouldn't remain flower-less for long! These little black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia triloba) broke off or got pulled up as I weeded garden this afternoon. And how nice that the jars of basil and scented geranium leaves were waiting for them! I love this small-flowered black-eyed Susan. Each flower is no bigger than a quarter but stems full of them grow 3 to 31/2 feet tall. Unfortunately, they are thin-stemmed and fall over pretty often, but that just makes them easier to cut--because you aren't ruining a perfect plant when you cut them; you're harvesting a damaged one.  The green orbs are un-ripe passion flower fruits, also gleaned from my weeding today.

Prettiest thing blooming in the garden is this hibiscus, which I cut one flower from just to see how it would hold up in a vase. Badly, I predict, but I'll let you know tomorrow.

August 16, 2011

Took down yesterday's pepper towers, then started looking for a different way to use some of the veggies. Put them in a footed glass container, and also in the container, I put a jar of basil and scented geranium leaves (you can't see that jar because its hidden behind the veggies).  Decided my favorite part of that "arrangement" was the jar of basil and scented geranium leaves, so I created another one (second photo). Then decided the whole thing looked just too complicated to suit me and decided to put the veggies in the frig and leave just the jars of leaves on the windowsill (third photo).  Can't explain exactly why I like just the leaves best this afternoon.

 

August 15, 2011--pepper towers

First thing I did in windowsill today was stack some wonderful veggies in a long, low container.  Peppers, eggplant, basil, etc.:  these beautiful veggies should be cooking in a pot somewhere, but they're not. I'm worn out from cooking other stuff--including Louise Witherspoon's fabulous roasted tomatoes. Promise I'll do something that relates to nutrition with these veggies tomorrow. Today, instead, I went in an even more frivolous direction and threaded hot peppers onto skewers to make the pepper towers in second photo.  I so love them visually and so don't know what to do with them epicurally (is that a word?)!  If I were to touch my fingers to my eyes right now, after handling them, I'd have a new version of hell, but I won't!

August 14, 2011---new windowsill

Two things drove today's arrangement. #1: John has been replacing windowsills on the north side of the house at Flower Camp. Not an easy job by any means. It's hard because it requires carpentry skills, it's hard because it must be done on a ladder, and it's hard because the windowsills that need replacing are in second story windows of an unusually tall building. Those new windowsills seemed to deserve an arrangement!!! Second thing driving this arrangement was leftovers from weeding/deadheading. After being gone on vacation for a week, LOTS of things needed cutting back including Blue Horizon ageratum and rusty-colored rudbeckia. Everything in vase below would have gone in compost heap if it hadn't gone in this vase with the exception of some black cohosh pods I added (the very tall green stems) and some blackberrry lily pods I cut because I was tired of staking them to keep them off the ground. All this wound up creating a more complicated, and flower-rich, arrangemment than than my windowsill arrangements usually are, but I was determined to go with what I had--overly abundant though it might be!  The conglomeration ended up looking like just that--a conglomeration--when I saw something in the bathroom mirrow that I liked.  In the mirror, what I liked about the arrangement showed up better than it did in photo of arrangement on windowsill alone. Second photo shows mirror reflection better than first one, but, alas, what the camera sees is still not what I see.