Each Little World

IVOM: Chinese lanterns

As I recently said, who can resist when the vendors at the local Farmers Market are selling the plants you wish you were growing. So here is my arrangement of Chinese lanterns that I purchased at the market.

I removed that lone pod sitting on the table in order to get the stems into the vase the way I wanted. This is a delicate plant and the dried stems were not easy to arrange. Then again, not many plants offer so much drama in color and form. The vase is by our friend Delores Fortuna and offers its own drama.

I had been on the verge of dismantling this summery display for something more autumnal than hand-held fans. But all those orange objects wanted to be together. 

The arrival of a Blue Hydrangea sent the lanterns to the opposite end of the room where they nicely catch morning light.

To see how other gardeners put together a vase this morning, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who hosts this most satisfying meme.

In a vase on Monday: Pinks and Pottery

Not long ago I discovered the blog, Edinburgh Garden Diary. Great vases, great garden, great photos. Joanna's post — Spring has sprung — inspired my vases this week. If you click the link you'll what I mean. I don't have a collection of antique stoneware ink pots like she has, but I do have a collection of stoneware vases of all sizes.

I gathered my five smallest containers and took them out into the garden to photograph in natural light. But lining them up in a row where they weren't overwhelmed by the background proved a difficult task. 

So I brought them indoors and lined them up on my fireplace mantle just like Joanna's vases. Alas, she has a better mantle and a nice plain wall to use as a backdrop. 

My other aim in this week's arrangement was to display all the September pinks I discovered growing around the garden. I had no idea my garden took such a pastel turn at this time of the year. From the left: Tricyrtis hirta, Anemone japonica 'September Charm,'  Origanum laevigatum 'Herrenhausen,' Begonia grandiflora and Sedum 'Autumn Joy.'

The vases have a lot of competition from a wall of landscape drawings, woodcuts, photos and paintings. We've been going to change this display for ages but haven't quite gotten around to it. Though we did move our sandstone Buddha from the dining room to this location. We liked the way this tight space framed him.

Our standing sandstone Buddha is in Vajrapradama Mudra (Mudra of Unshakable Self Confidence). Mudra is" a symbolic hand gesture used in Hindu and Buddhist ceremonies and statuary, and in Indian dance." He is Burmese from the Shan Period (about 1750) and stands about 30 inches high (76.2 cm.). 

This can't miss meme — In a Vase on Monday — is hosted by Cathy at Rambling in the Garden where you will find many beautiful bouquets.

Wednesday vignette

On our way up to Stout's Island Lodge in July, we stopped in Eau Claire at Caradori Pottery. We first discovered David Caradori at the old Cambridge Pottery Festival. We bought our first pieces of his work at the festival and later made stops at his shop in Eau Claire and also visited his home to see his personal pottery collection. 

Caradori's a fan of Japanese tea bowls and has worked with the esteemed Japanese potter, M. Kusakabe, so he and Mark immediately hit it off. These are sake containers made by Caradori which we brought home from our stop at his shop. Their lids turn into little cups for drinking. Perfect for an autumn afternoon in our Tea House.

We usually sit on cushions on the floor when we're in the Tea House. The Yanagi butterfly stool is as much a sculpture as seat and we rarely actually use it. Mostly just enjoy its crisp lines contrasted with the rough stucco walls.

In a vase on Monday: Teahouse flowers

We've been reminding ourselves to take advantage of the cooler fall weather to sit in the Tea House with our afternoon coffee. We hadn't been inside for a while so Mark vacuumed the interior and replaced the wilted bouquet.  

He opted for a sprig of Kirengeshoma palmata flowers with very wabi-sabi leaves. I think being in charge of the bouquet was his way of using his new hanging vase by potter David Caradori of Eau Claire who we visited on our mini-vacation in July.

To see what kinds of bouquets other gardeners have put together this morning, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who hosts this great meme.

Sick of flowers?

 "Flower Girl" by Cynthia Consentino, 2004. Coil and slab-built earthenware, oil paint and cold wax. Chazen Museum of Art, Madison.

Plants in pots

Though my garden has plants in containers, I would not characterize them as container plantings. I always liked the late Christopher Lloyd's collection of one plant per pot massed outside the entrance to his house. Thus I always put a few pots by my front door, too. But Mark is not crazy about this look so I can't be as dramatic as Lloyd always was at Great Dixter (below).

This year I dug up a Canadian Hemlock that needs a new home as the centerpiece of the front display. But it is losing needles on a couple of small branches so I am not sure if it can stay in a pot too much longer.

I always seem to have a Hosta or a Heuchera that can live in a pot for the summer. This spot is fairly shady which works well with all these plants. I am also letting a seedling of the Carex 'Bunny Blue' that I recently pulled out grow on in a pot. I figured I can control one of these in a pot as long as I don't let it escape into the garden. The Heuchera flowers go so well with the pink Astilbe 'Nicky' that it looks like I planned it. In fact, I can't quite figure out what I was thinking when I bought that Astilbe and it doesn't have a permanent home as a result. 

The plants that I put in the rock wall make a nice transition from the front door to the steps up into the garden proper. It's all rather restrained, though you can no doubt see how perfect this space would be for a Christopher Lloyd-type display!

Another container sits on the curved limestone wall that Mark built many years ago. This one features Hosta 'Frances Williams' and a self-seeded fern. They greet you at the top of the steps.  

At the far end of this same wall is a matching Mark Skudlarek pot containing a Korean maple (Acer pseudosiebolidiana), the last of many I've bought at the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Sale. Though it's 40 inches tall (100 cm), it is hard to photograph but easy to see as you walk through this space. 

This tree is a few years old and has been growing in a pot in the shade each summer. Thus it is very narrow which is a look I love. One of these days — or years — I will have to find a permanent home for it. But I'm not in a rush to move it as I enjoy it waving in the breeze above my head as I pass by.

There are a few plants in pots on the deck but that's another story — or two.

An unexpected effect

The longer I garden the more some days feel like I'm going in circles. You plant little tiny trees and watch them grow up into a lovely garden feature and then one day decide they have to go. An hour later they're gone and you're not quite sure what just happened. But then slowly you see the larger implications of the change you've just wrought.

Our front garden has five of the original trees planted when the house was built in 1954. We added a grove of 5 River Birches and assorted shrubs and evergreens. You can see how shady and enclosed the area is.

I've always loved the feel of walking around the west side of the house with this old Arborvitae towering above me. 

Such a tree marks a very definite line between two gardens.

But removing the European spindle trees completely changed the experience of going from the front garden to the back. Now you go from shade to light and from closed to open. If feels very Frank Lloyd Wright in the way he always designed low, enclosed entrances that transitioned into great open rooms.  

We have big ceramic platters by our front and back doors and across the back of the house. Since I knew there were a few more sitting in the basement, I suggested to Mark that we add them to the newly exposed space where we'd taken out the trees. Like most of the ceramics in our garden these are by local potter Mark Skudlarek except for the far left one which is by Michael Schael.

Our garden has few areas that are symmetrical or have matching pairs of plants or features. 

This area was no exception with Epimediums along the fence and different plants along the house side of the area. 

This space has always been intended to be the formal entrance into the back garden. Mark still plans to build some kind of Japanese-influenced "gate" at the end of the path just this side of the downspout extensions. I decided that this space should now have Epimediums on both sides of the path to become the one formal, mostly symmetrical area in the garden. It seems a fitting concept to lead into the main garden. 

And given the fact that the Epimediums need dividing it is practical solution as well!

Wordless Wednesday

In a vase on Monday: In my dreams

I adore blue and white, whether I find it on ceramics, textiles or any kind of artwork. I was stopped in my tracks when I recently came upon this amazing contemporary "tulipiere" on the top floor of the LVM building at the Chazen Museum here in Madison. 

I've purchased blue and white flower bricks and other vases in those colors but can only dream about owning such a big dramatic container as this one. It was at least 3' tall. If you are not familiar with them, "tulipieres" or tulip-holders are fancy containers typically made of hand-crafted pottery, classically Delftware. They are designed to hold a single flower per spout with water held in the large central area.

I can picture it dripping with tulips. Maybe Willemsoord or Prinses Irene or Rococo or my favorite, Schoonoord, all stunning options available from Old House Gardens. 

Mark and I were at the museum for a noontime retirement party and afterwards he said I should see this new exhibition. This piece is "Tulip Vase" by Ann Agee, an American artist born in 1959. The porcelain vase was made in 1994 and was lent to the museum by Stephen and Pamela Hootkin. This piece along with a number of other stunning works on display are on loan from the same collectors. I hope it is a sign that they will eventually donate them to the museum. 

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

In a vase on Monday

This table setting and vase are from the dinner party we had the weekend before the election. It was a great evening with old and new friends. We were all nervous but hopeful about the election.

I snapped a few photos in the afternoon after I set the table. I always think we will take more pictures when the candles are lit just before we sit down but I always forget to do so!

A few years ago I was searching for an antique blue and white flower brick with no luck. In the midst of that search my sister-in-law found this rustic version and gave it to me as a gift.

I filled it mainly with foliage from the Korean maples, annual purple Hibiscus, Epimediums and assorted Heuchera and Heucherella plants. There are a few delicate stems of Tricyrtis, semi-dried Sedum flower heads and one of the last Dahlias of the season. 

I usually put this long, low container on the window sill above the kitchen sink. Turns out it is a perfect container to add to a table setting. It takes up very little room, holds a lot of material and makes a statement without blocking anyone's view.

The rest of the setting includes dark brown placemats, neutral colored napkins printed with assorted graphic designs, beaded orange votive holders and one of my favorite pairs of candlesticks. These ceramic couplings of the hare and the tortoise came from the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis. 

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