Each Little World

IVOM: Cape Fynbos Flowers

Given our recent killer cold weather, I obviously don't have anything from my garden to put in a vase this week. It's even been too cold to try to get flowers from the grocery store to the car to home without damaging them. But I've had this "vase" ready to pull out when I needed it and that time has come. 

One of our good friends accepted a job transfer from Madison to Cape Town, South Africa. He and his husband were home a few months ago for a friend's wedding and brought us this gift when we got together. We are all gin drinkers (mostly Martinis) and like to try different types. Fynbos, meaning fine-leaved plants, is a small belt of natural shrubland vegetation in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. The area is described as mainly winter rainfall coastal and mountainous areas with a Mediterranean climate. 

According to the blog, Notes from a Cape Town Botanist (and Wikipedia), Fynbos is known for its enormous diversity of species from several families: Restionaceae (restiads and restios), Proteaceae (Protea, Banksia, Grevillea, and a few others), Ericaceae (heaths and heathers), Rutaceae (rue or citrus) and Iridaceae (freesias, gladioli and crocuses to name a few). Table Mountain alone — which overlooks Cape Town — has more plant species than the entire British Isles. The Fynbos Biome has more than 9,000 species of plants within an area the size of Portugal. Two thirds of them occur nowhere else on earth!

Cape Fynbos Gin has "elements from more than 30 indigenous botanicals, sustainably hand-harvested for their bark, roots, berries, flowers, stems, peels or leaves." It prides itself on being hand-crafted, small batch and copper distilled" as well.  

It's a lovely reminder of our absent friends, an excellent gin and it's in the most beautiful packaging I've ever seen for a bottle of booze. All those images of plants on the label, nicely named in Botanical Latin, are a magnet for a gardener. 

To see what other gardeners have found to put in a vase today, jump on over to Rambling in the Garden where Cathy hosts this weekly floriferous meme.

Fiber Friday

The two galleries in Nancy Nicholas Hall on the UW-Madison campus were filled with visitors last Sunday afternoon. Despite the cold temperatures, everyone came out to enjoy the beautiful textiles on display before the next storm hit. I snapped these two images because I was charmed by the ideas they encapsulated and thought they might inspire other party givers.

Given that the event was a ribbon cutting ceremony for the opening of the new Lynn Mecklenburg Textile Gallery, the table with hors d'oeuvres and desserts was decorated with spools of fiber appropriate to celebrate the weaver whose memory we were honoring. 

And many of the foods were fiber-licious: Candy cotton, French Silk (chocolate pie), Red Velvet Cake and Brownie Buttons (chocolate cookies that looked like big buttons with four holes in the center where one would stitch a real button). As clever as they were delicious. 

IVOM: Online inspiration

I don't know about you, but I am a Pinterest junkie. I love following a few favorite folks and I like to post images of my own on my boards as well. I know that Instagram is more popular, but I like the variety of subjects that I stumble across on Pinterest. I saw this lovely little container planting and thought it would be fun and fairly easy to replicate. 

My garden is always awash in big fallen cones from White, Austrian and Scots Pines as well the tiny ones from Dawn Redwoods. In fact, I usually have a plastic pot full of them in the garage year round. I only had to step onto the deck to find some small branches with lichens and a walk through the garden supplied the evergreens. 

I bought three small succulents from the big box store. I put some rocks in the bowl and used regular potting soil. I knew that probably wasn't the best setup but I was really just trying to create a container for a brunch on Dec. 16th. 

We hosted a group of Mark's fellow photographers from a "salon" class that met monthly for a year. It was a way for them all to develop a long term project and body of work. As a result, they formed closer relationships than one usually does in a short term class. 

I hadn't a clue as to how long this display might hold up. I watered it when I created it and have not watered it since then!

I've had it in three different locations, each time moving it where it was more visible so I could enjoy it while it lasted. 

One succulent did die. It just kind of melted away which was not really that big of a surprise given my haphazard planting medium. As it happened, one of the guests at the Dec. 16th brunch brought us the spiky green plant in the front of the display (below). I used it to replace the one that died on me. The big surprise is the fact that this display is still looking great almost a month later!

Enjoy the vases and displays other gardeners have created by visiting Cathy of Rambling in the Garden who hosts this weekly meme each Monday.

IVOM: Christmas roses

Most of the Hellebores in my garden are what are commonly called Lenten Roses  (H. orientalis) because they bloom in the spring near that religious occasion. Most of mine typically start to flower in late March or early April.

But I have two clumps of what are known as the Christmas Rose (H. niger) in places like Britain where it blooms at this time of year in their warmer climate. In Wisconsin where I live, it is usually too cold for anything to be actually flowering.

My H. niger were purchased as Zone 5 plants from the late Seneca Hill Perennials in New York State. They referred to them as "Thanksgiving Hellebores" because that is when they bloomed for them. Mine are usually up and budded at turkey time, but it is usually already too cold for them to open.

This year's on again/off again winter had me outdoors on the afternoon of the Winter Solstice with my garden clippers. I created the arrangement in these photos then and it is still looking good almost two weeks later.  Until I had these H. niger flowers in front of me every day, I never realized the buds are washed in pale pink. 

I put this vase in my bathroom hoping the higher humidity would help it survive. The flowers have continued to open but it is a much more restrained display than these plants offer in the garden. The bouquet includes leaves from two different Hellebores, Heuchera foliage and one of the beautifully patterned leaves from Arum italicum 'Ghost'. 

To add a holiday glow to my bathroom, I suspended a pair of large glass ornaments from the wall scones. 

Since these are made of clear glass they get lost when hung on a Christmas tree. This let them shine center stage for a brief time. 

I put out my grandmother's silver dresser set as well to really up the shine factor.

To see what other gardeners have found in their gardens to use in a vase today, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, who hosts this lively and long-running meme. 

IVOM: The dark cloud

Everyone we've talked with over the holidays has expressed the hope that 2019 will be a better year than the one that is about to end. Weather, natural disasters, politics. You name it and it seems like dark clouds have been overhead for much of the last twelve months. Our Bergenia leaf lost its green center and was one more bit of darkness on the scene. 

Given the fact that we have a piece of sculptural glass that is a dark cloud, the Bergenia has not been alone as it transitioned from green to black. 

The Asian-influenced vase that held the Begenia leaf was done by Richard Jones of Studio Paran in Madison who also did this glass sculpture. 

The dark cloud will remain with his cohorts in the library, but the Begenia leaf was replaced by a few greens picked on the afternoon of the Winter Solstice.

Best wishes to all of you for 2019. To see what others have put in a vase today, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who hosts this marvelous Monday meme. 

A bowlful of Christmas

Over the years I've picked up a lot of inspiration and tips for holiday decorating from my sisters-in-law. I love to watch what they do with items that come out every year as well as seeing how they incorporate new treasures. My sister-in-law Sara and I both set out a bowl or platter of ornaments and objects on a prominent table in our living spaces. I think we both started with natural items like pine cones and pomegranates, slowly adding a bit of glitz and glitter over the years. I can look at her grouping and mine and remember certain items we bought on joint shopping excursions.

Sara put a string of battery-operated lights on hers which makes a quiet statement while letting you see the lovely ingredients more easily. I used my short string of lights for another project but seeing her display has convinced me I need to get a strand to add to mine. 

I always use the same Win Byers black and red platter for my display. I bought it for Mark as a wedding present after he'd admired it at one of our favorite local galleries, though it is so full of objects the color is barely visible.

Mine still has quite a few natural items like clove-studded pomander balls, large pine cones and dried pomegranates. Though this is the first year that I've had such a wealth of dried pomegranates that I did not use them all.  

 That's because glittery pomegranate ornaments are taking over, along with glass, varnished and metal pinecones. 

My tip for this type of holiday display: Store all the items in one container, along with the lights, so you don't have to go searching when you want to put this together. And don't forget to label the outside of the box!

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.