July 5, 2013 -- wee pine

I pulled this tiny pine seedling up while weeding Tuesday. Its roots came up intact and the little seedling was so perfect, I dropped it into this juice glass, where I've enjoyed looking at it.

I actually like the simplicity of my little pine-tree-in-juice-glass better than some large arrangements I did yesterday for the Fourth of July. Here's a detail from one that was particularly over the top. The green droopy stuff is love-lies-bleeding.

July 3, 2013 -- veggie leftovers

This is the tip of a Swiss chard plant I snipped from a larger plant today. Love the red stem (wish I'd cut it longer) and pretty whorl of leaves. Bought the bottle recently at the Ivy Creek Nursery near Charlottesville, and I love it although the neck is so narrow it's going to be really hard to clean.

And here are a couple of other things sharing the windowsill with the Swiss chard: a vase of garlic scapes and grasses leftover from a few days ago (left) and the top of a lettuce plant ready to go to seed (right).

July 1, 2013 -- gall gal

This is an oak gall a friend found on the ground this weekend. I thought it was a particularly pretty one because it had some tiny oak leaves still attached.

I couldn't seem to find a way to display my gall that kept the focus on the gall, but it looks pretty interesting on top of this little brown jug. Reminds me of a girl with a spiky new haircut! 

June. 30, 2013 -- American witch-hazel

This is the most amazing July 1 I've ever seen in Virginia. Everything is lush green, no need for watering (in fact we could do with a little less rain) and all gardens are full of flowers (and weeds). I could almost reach in any direction to pick a flower, but the growing thing that most interests me right now came from the woods. I picked this little twig yesterday in Augusta County, because it was a stage of witch-hazel I'd never seen before: the stage between yellow flower and brown fruit. Gorgeous.

June 29, 2013 -- zinnia in borrowed windowsill

I picked this zinnia (and some hosta flowers and weed foliage) in the garden of friends. Then I borrowed one of their candle holders, and their windowsill, to display them. If I'd had a floral tube, I could have turned this candle holder into a real vase, but I didn't, so the flowers aren't in water. Very temporary.

June 28, 2013 -- garlic scapes and fancy shapes

I had so much fun playing with these two garlic scapes and several stems of a grass called 'Frosted Explosion.'  (Seed source for this beautiful annual grass was Johnnny's Selected Seeds, I think). I played with this combination in all sorts of orientations and in the process inadvertently pulled the sheath off one of the grass stems. What this revealed was hundreds of tiny stems within the main stem. What a delicate, delicate grass this is!

Not sure which of these arrangements I like better. The round, poorly lit, thing on the windowsill is an immature Osage orange.

June 27, 2013 -- so much from so little

This little arrangement was a gift from Catherine Ellyson. I love the way it makes you take a closeup look at tiny things you might have overlooked in the garden. Among them: one hydrangea floret with green buds, sky blue plumbago flowers, a sprig of variegated thyme (at least I think that's what it is), and the graceful tip of a small-leaved ivy. Around the back of the arrangement, where you cant' see it, is a beautiful little white rose. So, so sweet!