Instant Arrangement, Almost

My creative sister Jan (actually, they're all creative) once called clivia an instant arrangement so when roving my small garden, clippers in hand, I'd hoped for immediate gratification. Alas, there were but two puny stems but oh, those ranunculus were fabulous, if not a little bit faded. Then I found this other thing I have growing in the back of the yard. I have no idea what it is, exactly, except it's hard to kill. The dusty blue-green leaves and tiny lavender blossoms are a perfect cool counterpoint to the hot blooded oranges of the clivia and ranunculus.

Less is More

Simplicity

Maybe it was the spring fever that I caught today, being such beautiful weather.  The garden looked so fresh and orderly that the thought of weeds and mildew seemed an impossibility.  There weren't many blooms to choose from, however, that needn't stop the intrepid arranger.

This Peruvian lily puts on a one-flower show in this tiny bud vase.  Don't think that you need to have an abundance of flowers to make an impact.  This flower is particularly interesting all by itself.

Calla lilies are a favorite of mine.  I don't have a huge field of them, actually, I'm lucky to get three blooming at the same time so I'm loathe to snag them all to bring inside. 

They last a good long time and have a nice presence.  This one looks particularly striking against the dark backdrop that is the corner of my dining room, but it started out here in front of this mirror.  Mirrors are useful in creating the illusion of more, when you have less.

Your callas not flowering right now?  Try just the lance-shaped leaves that are beautiful on their own.  A nice contemporary look for a decidedly old-fashioned flower.

Or try other interesting large-leafed foliage when there is a dearth of blooms in your yard or you pocketbook is feeling pinched.

Heavenly Stuff

A common name for nandina is "heavely bamboo," and heavenly stuff it is.  The berries are bright and multi-purpose and the greens are glorious and sometimes turn a bronzy color that make us East Coast transplants all nostalgic for the old country. 

This Christmas I took a bunch of it and stuck it in my Christmas tree instead of the gazillion ornaments I usually use.  The result was fantastic, and even better, the berries dried nicely and I was able to use them in this arrangement.  I just piled them up, one sprig on another to get this effect.  Easy and should last until the cobwebs start appearing between the berries.

Happy New Year

Good Intentions

My intention was to blog my way through the holidays but I just couldn't muster much enthusiasm after my dear old pal Bud, the best cat in the world, died shortly before Thanksgiving.  Kicked me right in the gut. 

But I did manage to drag the tree out of the basement (I'm not ashamed that I went artificial, but do prefer real) even if there were no kids coming home this year and no holiday party planned either.  I figured it would be just too sad without some decorations up.

Easy Tree

Last year I'd put every single ornament that shined or glittered on my tree and it was truly opulent, extravagant and a pain in the ass to take down.  Being quasi-depressed, I opted for easy street.  I had a box of enormous pine cones my mother had saved and some sprigs of rather sad looking artificial berry sprays so I stuck them in among the branches then purloined some beautiful nandina berries and stuck them in there too.  My grapevine doesn't produce grapes but does a great job on vines which I usually clip and form into wreaths.  I had 3 I really didn't need so I took them apart and wrapped the tree with the vines like garlands.  Some years ago I came across some fake snow...looking suspiciously like shredded plastic bag bits...at Pottery Barn that I'd been saving and tossed that on top of it all.  Voila!  Easy up and even better yet, easy down. 

I'm kicking myself that I didn't get a picture of it.  You'll just have to imagine.  Sorry

Mixing Reds

I'm a huge proponent of mixing variations of the same hue.  So much easier than trying to match a certain red.  For my mantle I made a simple arrangement of fake berry sprigs mixed with fresh nandina berries, added a few small magnolia clusters (these are a bit aged as I didn't get this shot while they were still fresh) plunked a couple of fat candles on their perches and it was done. 

Again, so easy.

Don't Forget Flowers

Sometimes we get so into the whole pine and holly mindset that we forget that you can get lovely holiday effects from regular old flowers.  While I'm not entirely happy with the way this arrangement worked out (I think the container was just too big for what I was trying to achieve), I will try something similar next year.

I used a mixture of coffee berries, roses, gerbera daisies and random pine and cedar bits left over from someone's Christmas tree.  I learned that Target just tosses all the branches they cut off the bottom of the trees when they prep them for folks and were happy for me to take some of them off their hands.  Love free stuff.

Round Pot in a Square Hole

Don't forget potted flower options.  Here I took a red cyclamen in a 4" pot and put it in a sandwich size Ziplock bag then squished it into this square glass vase.  I then filled the vase (outside of the plastic, I didn't want the plant to be saturated the whole time) with water and surrounded the pot with sprigs of blooming white azalea.  The plastic pretty much disappears with the water around it creating an interesting effect.  I think it was a nice and festive look for very little money...and the plant will go in my garden when its indoor time is up.

Merry Belated Christmas!

On Pomegranates

Ways to Display Pomegranates

I'm lucky to have a small pomegranate that produces just enough fruit for me to bring in and have around the house for the holidays. This year I piled some of them into a basket and others I displayed on a platter.

It seems like a no-brainer to load a bowl with fruit, but sometimes it isn't. First of all, the size of the fruit should actually vary in order to get a nice full bowl without gaping holes. Store bought fruit is too uniform (I suspect if they could grow a square tomato to make shipping easier, they would...maybe they already have). Home grown fruit is actually better because sizes and shapes vary.

I start by putting the most marginal (scarred or scabby or poor color) on the bottom and build up saving the most beautiful fruit for the top. I try to keep a few tiny fruit for that top layer as well.  And since pomegranates have those cute little tops, I pointed them all in the same direction.  They remind me of some very well-fed baby chicks squawking to be fed (more).

Pomegranates will keep for a long, long time. I have some from two years ago. They eventually dry out, but it takes a long time given that the fruit is so juicy to begin with. The skin darkens and loses that lovely rosy color so I cheat. I rub the dry skins with a little red acrylic paint on a paper towel. This year's crop was a bit pale for some reason so I suspect I'll be "enhancing" these sooner than later.

This year's crop had a mealy bug and ant infestation. After picking the fruit, I laid them out on a table outside until the ants abandoned their "farm." That left the mealy bugs. I washed each skin with rubbing alcohol and left them another week to be sure I hadn't left any bugs before bringing them indoors.

Experiment in the Never Ending Arrangements Update

Yes, those tenacious arrangements are still hanging in there so I guess you could say that my experiment succeeded.  I'm sick of seeing them though, so this will be their last resurrection.

This time I took out pretty much all live matter and replaced it with an inexpensive fall bouquet I picked up at Trader Joe's and filled in the holes with things from my garden.  The bouquet consisted of chrysanthemums, a thistley looking thing, some goldenrod, gerbera daisies and a tiger lily.  I nixed the dry fiber optic plant.  It was looking too messy.  Some of that migrated to the second arrangement (which still lives but I couldn't get a good shot of it).  Its cigar box container suited it better.

I really wanted to include something unusual in this one and found an overgrown succulent which was just itching to come indoors.  I'm hoping that it will like it here and take root.  I'll plant it in my garden when this fades

October Resurrection - Part II

The other experiment I wrote about had similar results.  The grasses stayed well as did the potato vine and nandina. The sunflowers were dumped and in came some pomegeranate, a succulent from the garden as well as that funky geranium (I promise to pay more attention to the plant names I purchase).  After short order the geranium wilted but the rest has stayed healthy. 

This simple arrangement has given me more than three weeks of pleasure with little upkeep.

October Resurrection

On October 11 I posted shots of two arrangements I'd composed with the hope of changing out some of the elements and repurposing whole deal over a number of weeks without having to start over again from scratch. Here's the verdict: it worked pretty well.

The Second Life

Two weeks later, out came the tall grasses and the sunflowers started getting stinky even before they wilted. Also the Brussels spouts started to yellow and the gourds that were in contact with moisture began to rot so out they went. Interestingly, some of the ferns began to turn yellow, which added a nice color contrast but, alas, they started shedding. They were dumped along with the freesia. Left was the sweet potato vine, seteria, dried fiber optic grass (scirpus), and baby pomegranate.

Added were more sweet potato vine, some large philodendon leaves, mini-chrysanthymums, a clipping of a funky old fashioned geranium, fresh asparagus fern and some white baby's cap hydrangia that had dried on the shrub into a speckled rose color.

Also, you'll see a purple leafed thing in the lower left corner. I have no idea what it is. I clipped a cutting from a storefront planting and it thrives in shade. Someone told me they saw it all over Crete. It's working here.

The little mums add nice bright spots among the darkness of the overall design. Makes me happy.