Each Little World

IVOM: Faded glory

My husband is a guy who appreciates patina. Rust or dust, it's all beautiful to him. As a result, he often keeps the bouquets that I put in his bathroom in place indefinitely. And this is what you get.

I discovered these almost petrified Toad lilies (Tricyrtis sp.) weeks after I put them in this vase. I had gathered quite a few stems just before a frost and most of the flowers never opened indoors. 

Everything turned silvery brown with leaves and flower buds remaining in place.

Before I relegated everything to the compost bin, I moved the vase to the fireplace mantle in front of my collage with an equally brown sheen for a few more days. 

As I was also dismantling my big bowl of foliage, Mark grabbed one of the Bergenia leaves that was fading in no uncertain terms. He gave it pride of place in our Japanese bamboo wall container right by our dinner table. 

We've been watching the black eat up more and more of the green center of the leaf. Any day now it too, will join the compost.

But with cold and snow here, I doubt I am going to find anything in my garden to showcase next Monday. Visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, our hostess for this long-running and much-loved meme to see what other gardeners have put in a vase today.

IVOM: In with the old

This feels like a rather restrained display to me, though perhaps not to you. It had a number of other items when I started, but Mark suggested editing both the table tops and the shelves below and so I did. We've owned almost all the objects for quite some time, except for the vase on the wooden tray which we got last spring. 

The "old" in the title refers to the orange Chinese lantern flowers (Physalis alkekengi) in the vase on the right side of the table. They've spent the last year in a different vase in the basement. I was curious about how long the color would last and they would manage to hang on to the stems. Longer than I expected in both cases. This is an invasive plant so I always try to find a few stems at the fall Farmers Market rather than growing it myself. And at this point, there's nothing left in my garden after a number of frosty nights. 

The gorgeous pot was made by our friend Tony Gebauer of TR Pottery in Fish Creek (Door County, WI) while the small Eskimo bone figure came from the estate of our friend, artist and musician Elsworth Snyder. 

We bought this vase, along with a few other pieces, by Shumpei Tamaki who had a booth set up at Mark Skudlarek's studio and shop during Mark's spring kiln opening event.

It's joined by a rock decorated with drawings by an unknown artist, another piece from Elsworth Snyder's collection

And two pairs of lovely Japanese clippers, unearthed while planting in the garden. They were accidentally buried different years and discovered years apart as well. I'm on my 3rd or 4th pair and none of them have worked as well or as smoothly as my original pair. I put hot pink ties on my hand tools so I would not lose them in the garden but it has not been entirely successful. 

This display — which has been in place since mid-October — will remain through November as it has a nice fall/Thanksgiving vibe. But these photos were taken a month ago when we were having more daylight hours. Now part of its charm is the strong shadow patterns as the light goes down early.

To see what others have put together from their gardens this week, visit Cathy from Rambling in the Garden  who hosts this long-running Monday meme.

(Not) In a Vase on Monday

Last Friday as I was leaving the gym, I ran into a friend-of-a-friend who said she'd been hoping she might bump into me there. The reason? She had an ikebana flower vase that had been in her family but it was time to send it out into the world to a new home. She wondered if I knew someone who might use it and appreciate it. Or perhaps, she suggested, it might interest me. She said she'd been driving around with it in the trunk of her car on the off chance of running into me.

The minute she opened the box and I saw the gleam of black lacquer, I was smitten. Moments later the box was being transferred to my car, making me the new proud owner of a beautiful vase and two narrow lacquer boards on which to display the vase. For Cathy's special charge this week (Not) In a Vase on Monday, I am using the two boards. The vase is staying in its box for another bouquet at another time. 

I decided that not only would I stay away from a vase this week, but I would not use fresh material either. These dried plants were part of other displays in my house. The pod is a Chinese lantern flower (Physalis alkekengi). The stem is from my new summer planting of Euphorbia palustris which can grow in up to two inches of water.

The cloth is a hand-stitched Indian Kantha that is draped over an upholstered chair in our living room. I took the photo with the lacquer boards resting on the seat of the chair. One more nod to (not) in a vase.

Cathy at Rambling in the Garden has been hosting this meme for five years. Stop by her blog to see what she's done to celebrate and to look at other vases from around the world who join in this meme every Monday. 

IVOM: Final fall color

I've been raking and chopping leaves, cutting down soggy Hostas and blackened lily stems and generally getting the garden ready for winter. But there are still a few spots of bright color to bring indoors. Thalictrum sp. 'Black Stockings' is the only variety of the four tall Thalictrums that I grow that still has foliage on it and foliage that looks good. The leaves at the top of the stems  are this lovely soft yellow while the lower leaves are varying shades of green. I thought them too attractive not to enjoy their last burst of beauty indoors.

To see what other gardeners have put in a vase today, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who hosts our favorite floral meme.

IOVM: Last leaves

I decided it was time to make an arrangement of all the foliage that still looks good in the garden as that moment is about to end. Some things like Heuchera and Geranium leaves didn't make the cut as their stems were too short to reach the water of this container. A number of plants that I did include I have not used in arrangements before so I am not sure how long they will look good. 

Many of these are easily recognized: Bergenia, Elderflower (Sambucus 'Black Lace'), Amsonia, Epimedium, and Hakonechloa grass to name a few. I wandered all over the garden clipping a bit of this and that without paying attention to which fern, which Epimedium I cut, so I can't ID most of this foliage other than by Genus.

The large maple-like leaf at the bottom is Glaucidium palmatum, something I've never cut before. 

Drying Sedum 'Matrona' flowerheads add a more colorful note to the display. As the days and weeks go by, I will pull the dying foliage and downsize the display to smaller containers. I often maintain an arrangement like this until Thanksgiving, especially if I can keep adding a few fresh things from the garden. 

This is my contribution to the weekly display of arrangements from our gardens hosted by Cathy of Rambling in the Garden. Stop by her site to see what she's created and what other gardeners around the globe have found in their gardens this week.

IVOM: Frost warnings

We had our first frost warning of the season Friday night. The temps got colder than I thought they would here in our urban garden. We went down to 34 degrees F. (1.11 C.), just two degrees above freezing. But I decided I was not going to take a chance that all my late bloomers would come through unscathed. I went out Friday afternoon to cut the first toad lilies (Tricyrtis) that had opened.

I divided and moved my clump of this toad lily — Tricyrtis hirta 'Lemon Twist' — in August. This variety only gets about 18 inches tall (45.72 cm.), has large yellow flowers and gray dots on the leaves. But as a result of moving it, I am not getting many flowers. I am, however, finding scorched leaves. Thus another move is probably on the list of early spring tasks. I added a few fronds of Adiantum venustum and a sprig of the last Thalictrum 'Splendide' flowers. 

The Thalictrum sprig started out in this arrangement of Tricyrtis and Cimicifuga. I have a number of clumps of Cimicifuga; all of them dark-leaved varieties as each newer and darker variety was introduced. But for this bouquet, I stripped off all the chocolate-colored leaves.   

Tricyrtis myazaki grows in quite a horizontal fashion. They are planted under a pine tree and growing out over our stream. Both conditions make them hard to get at for cutting but they always are the first group to come into flower. After I took these photos I decided I did not like that little spring of Thalictrum, so I pulled it out and added it to the yellow toad lily vase. 

As I was wandering the garden to see what was in bloom to cut for a Monday bouquet before this potential frost, I came across this stem of Epimedium 'Waterfall' foliage. 

The striking red veins on the yellow leaves seemed like the perfect partner for the drying flowers of Sedum 'Matrona.'

To see what other gardeners have gathered to put in a vase today, visit Cathy of Rambling in the Garden who hosts this Monday meme.

IVOM: Falling leaves

This lovely little branch of oak leaves landed at the end of our driveway along with loads of acorns. The acorns especially are a common occurrence at this time of year. We have to sweep them up they are so numerous. They make loud crunching noises as we drive over them on our way in and out. It's much more rare to find a small branch in such attractive condition, so it seemed only right that it have its moment starring in a vase today. 

Having a big old bur oak tree at the end of our drive always makes me think of Aldo Leopold's quote from his famous book, "A Sand County Almanac":

"He who owns a veteran bur oak owns more than a tree. He owns a historical library, and a reserved seat in the theater of evolution. To the discerning eye, his farm is labeled with the badge and symbol of the prairie war."

. . .

Visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who hosts this marvelous Monday meme to see what other gardeners have put in a vase today. 

IVOM: Home and away

I see so many floral arrangements in print and online where the designer notes that many of the flowers or pods or branches used in the bouquet were "foraged." Living in a state with a lot of agriculture, "forage" is most commonly used here as a noun meaning food for livestock. If someone is "foraging" then they are typically looking for food. But all these hip young bloggers and floristas mean they found the material for their creations in the wild. I am always curious about where they actually go looking since it is illegal to remove natural material from public parks or gardens and the same goes for private property.

On the other hand, I did a little urban foraging over the weekend when I was at a bookstore in a mini-mall that's lost its main tenant. As a result the parking lot is almost entirely empty and the plantings are a mass of weeds and wildlings. Things were suffering from reflected heat and lack of attention. Since it was a public parking lot but unattended and barely used, I decided it was ripe for the kind of foraging I keep reading about. So I cut a bunch of goldenrod and asters, brought them home and put them in my largest wood fired stoneware pitcher. 

From my garden I cut flowering stems of an assertive pond plant — Penthorum seloides aka star fruit — that currently needs some stern attention before it takes over. Though commonly known as "star fruit," I've seen its branches described as "upside down turkey's feet" which seems pretty accurate to me. 

The third member of this trio has foliage from Aralia cordata 'Sun King' which is begin to turn yellow with a stem of pods from the same plant, along with a stem of Goldenrod that is past its prime.

All three pitchers are by local potter Mark Skudlarek of Cambridge Woodfired Pottery. The two smaller ones were bought as a pair that we thought would complement the big pitcher. The next three images are closeups of the patterns on each pitcher. 

When I pulled out these three pitchers from our basement pottery stash, I decided to change the entire table top. The fabric is African mud cloth, if I remember correctly. And the lamp is Japanese. American art and craft paired with African and Asian items is pretty much the design motif everywhere in our house. 

To see what other gardeners have put in a vase this Monday, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden. She is the host of the long-running meme that has become the favorite way to start the week for many of us gardeners around the world. 

IVOM: Aging in place

The berries on the upper stem of this Actea pachypoda f. rubrocarpa are starting to fade to black while the other branch still has the bright color of early August.

When I created these mini bouquets on August 13th I had my choice of hot pink flowers.

The Hibiscus 'Mahogany Splendor' leaf looks the same as it did a few weeks earlier. But now the small stem of Actea has turned a matte purplish-brown, making it a perfect match. I continue to enjoy the aging process of this pair every day since the vase sits by the kitchen sink.

To see what other gardeners have put in a vase today, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who hosts this weekly meme. 

IVOM: Maket finds

My garden is not lacking in blooms at the moment but they are mostly flowers I don't really want to clip for the house. So I took advantage of the fact that the woman who brings buckets of Dahlias and Zinnias to the West Side Farmer's Market is now at her usual stall again.

I rarely go downtown to our famed Dane County Farmers Market anymore because today Madison has such a wealth of them. Indeed, few neighborhoods here lack a weekly market. I usually hit two of them on my way to our regular Saturday morning coffee group.

I love being able to pick my favorite Dahlias from her weekly offerings rather than having to limit myself to the one or two that I might be able to shoehorn into my crammed garden.

I picked the peachy-pink flowers to reflect the Lohan's peeling peach paint. Then I added the red one to spark the softer colors.

The cranberry glass vase is a long ago secondhand shop purchase. I added some painted fern fronds and a stem of Thalictrum 'Lavender Mist' to lighten the dense Dahlias.

To see what other gardeners have found to put into a vase today, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who hosts this Monday meme. 

The link at the top takes you to an article by the late R.W. Apple about our original Dane County Farmers Market that is well-worth reading. It is still dream market and a stop you won't want to miss if you are ever here on a Saturday. Our political climate has changed dramatically in the years since the article was written, but the Market continues to survive and thrive.