Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday greetings last week, you are all my very special blogging friends and I value that friendship more than I would have imagined when I started this blog.
Today joining with Cathy at Rambling in the garden for our weekly vase meme I have two vases with many of the same flowers but slightly different colour tones.
I first placed this vase up on the mantel shelf of the kitchen fireplace; but it was too high – too high to be able to photograph without a ladder and too high to enjoy so I moved it to the mantle shelf in the sitting room which is much lower, but narrower and I was worried it would be unsafe, but positioned in the corner I like the way it looks.
Crimson Zinnias form the heart of this vase, here with the calendar showing the garden last September
Also included, Perovskia, some Bishops’s Dahlias and Asparagus fern
The same vase now in the sitting room
These zinnias were actually ready to pick a week ago but they still looked good enough to pick this morning but I suppose they won’t last very long in the vase.
The Second vase is the new jug given to me for my birthday by my gardening friends! It isn’t white glass but a synthetic material made to look like glass, I really like it and as it isn’t breakable in the same way as glass I can imagine using it for the tables outside either as a vase or a jug for and nice fresh lemon juice.
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Paler pink zinnias and white Dahlias plus Cosmos Pink Sensation and two different blue Asters in a white opaque vase
A lone carnation grown from a cutting from a bought cut flower
Do visit Cathy to see the many other vases that have been filled today.
Creating my own garden of the Hesperides 
I love the airy and light supporting plants with the more solid flower heads- great combination.
The Zinnias can be quite solid which is why I think I have liked my recent vases with more foliage and lighter additions like the Perovskia.
belated birthday wishes, Christina, and well done for the vase – you’ve such a good hand and the asparagus fern makes for a nice, uplifting contrast
Thanks for the compliment, flower arranging is a newish passion, but apart from the books I was given for Christmas and seeing other vases here, I’m completely self taught.
Hi Christina. That kitchen mantel is a precarious place to be maneuvering with a large arrangement but it does make a nice setting for your beautiful and expansive design. Nicely proportioned and beautiful colors! The calendar is a nice touch too. (I’ve been meaning to create one–perhaps this will be the year!) The second arrangement is a strong design also and your new vase is a standout. Hope you have a great week.
The kitchen mantle is wider but just too high, it really only looks good with very low or trailing designs (ah, now there’s an idea!) I wasn’t sure about the proportions in that vase, it seems better in the second. Have a good week too, Susie.
Wishing you a belated happy birthday! Your vases are stunning Christine, I agree it’s a very effective use of the ferny asparagus and your colours are beautiful as always.
I should have been using the asparagus before but better late than never; it has grown really well this year, I hope that means lots more delicious asparagus to eat next year!
I love both these vases Christina! The asparagus is a great filler, and gives the whole arrangement a lovely airy feel. Beautifully arranged and photographed too. 🙂
I’m happier with the arrangements than the images. I still need to understand how to take better photographs in low light and to find places with uncluttered backgrounds; sometimes just doing the vase is enough, the rest is just a chore.
Why didn’t I think of using asparagus fern. I too love the combination in your first vase of the blocks of three different but harmonising pink flowers with the frothy foliage. Another lesson learnt: even flowers in vases look better grouped than dotted. Your second vase is just lovely too and the jug such a good shape.
I have to admit the way the colours have come together is just chance, although in one of those books I mentioned to someone else there were arrangements with colour blocks so just maybe I was influenced.
Yes, the colours blend together so well and that is such a nice Bishop dahlia – from seed? I thought I might try B of Leicester next year which is meant to be a ‘lavender pink’. The pale pink zinnias are a pleasant change too from the darker more solid colours that we tend to see more of and your birthday present vase sounds most intriguing as it looks so much like glass. Thanks for sharing
No, the Bishop wasn’t from seed but wasn’t the colour I ordered so I don’t really know which one it is, I’d describe this one as lavender pink so maybe that’s what it is!. The Dahlia I’m going to look for next year is ‘Twyning’s After Eight’ which I saw on several different sites, it has dark leaves and small white flowers, The Anxious gardener showed it in his Tropical border today too.
Oh me too for the After Eight, Christina, for the same reason – but I see Peter Nyssen doesn’t stock it and I am reluctant to start buying tubers from elsewhere as it will put temptation my way and it would be wise not to risk this… 😉
I will order just a few tubers for next year so will have to choose the supplier that has the ones I want most.
Hmm, that’s probably a good idea, except I have just enticed a friend to join with me for PN bulb orders as he was so thrilled to see my dahlias, so I might have to stick with them for next year’s dahlia. I can stick it out and order elsewhere for 2017 perhaps!!
So you will still be buying bulbs and dahlias!?
My bulb order is already in for next year and dahlias will be ordered before Christmas – so that’s OK! I hadn’t intended to exclude ‘consumables’ so if I order bulbs next year it would only be those that need to be replaced annually – but perhaps I will be ultra strict with myself and not order any bulbs at all… There’s always 2017!
Wow! You do order your dahlias early, do you always buy them from Peter Nyssen?
I had them from Sarah Raven the year before but had no success with them at all and another blogger recommended PN – up to then I only ever had an autumn order from them. It may be coincidence that they were so successful this year but I shall still order more dahlias from them for next year, and I like to get the orders in promptly to make sure I get the varieties I want – they are not despatched till planting up time though.
I use Peter Nyssen because his prices are very competitive and he delivers to Italy (at a cost). I think his tulips are top rate but I’m not sure everything is a good. I did have one spring order but it had been a very bad winter in the UK so he was late sending out the orders and the stock was very small, add that to the fact I need to plant in very early spring and you can see it was a recipe for disaster.
Well yes, the prices are brilliant (and all those dahlia flowers from a £1.70 tuber!) but I see the issue of your planting season being different. I have never had a problem with quality, but one autumn order didn’t arrive and some items were out of stock when they resent it later. I wonder if there is still an actual ‘Peter Nyssen’ himself… 😉
Two beautiful vases with similar flowers….and a lovely new jug to display them. I love the first picture of the vase with the asparagus fern using the wall as a canvas and then as it blended perfectly in the corner of the shelf. Quite stunning Christina…..so happy you had a wonderful birthday!
I must share some images of the flowers I saw in the Sorrento area, very different to here; but I’m fighting time and not finding enough to post all I want.
So pretty and cheerful – I love the wild sprays of perovskia and asparagus – gives a nice movement to the arrangement. 🙂
Thank you Eliza, I’m definitely beginning to appreciate the role of foliage and small sprays of flowers within an arrangement.
Beautiful, cheerful vases, Christina! The calendar is the perfect complement to your vase in the first photo. Was the calendar your own compilation or someone else’s? Creating a calendar of shots from my garden is something I’ve considered since a blogger from Maine reported on her own annual calendar.
Yes it is the calendar I had made as Christmas gifts last year; you can create great ones from on-line companies but they wouldn’t deliver to Italy so I resorted to a local printer which was expensive but I’m pleased with the results, you can see all the images I chose here: https://myhesperidesgarden.wordpress.com/2015/01/01/happy-new-year-2015/
Now that’s what I call a Happy Vase. Just lovely.
Thanks John
I hope you had a lovely birthday Christina! We both decided to use asparagus fern this week – I decided I had better start making the most of it before it is time to cut it all down for the winter! I love both your vases this week and that new jug is beautiful, as well as very practical!
I used the fern last week and it looked so spectacular that, like you, I should make the most of it before it was time to cut it down.
Great combinations in both vases, Christina!
Thanks Anca, It is interesting that by changing just one flower colour the whole arrangement has quite a different feel.
Two beautifully elegant vases, I must have missed hundreds during my hiatus from the blogging world. Belated happy birthday Christina, I love your birthday gift vase, a lovely shape and so practical too.
The first has a wild exuberance – I must get me some Perovskia. And what a fresh delicate colour mix in the second – love both!
I can recommend Perovskia both for vases and the garden.
I love that new vase. The flowers in both are beautiful, The asparagus fern is delicate and lovely.
Zinnias are remarkably tough plants, generally unfazed by heat. Cosmos too, in spite of their delicate looks. Beautiful arrangement!
Thanks Jason, I’m very pleased to have ‘discovered’ zinnias, I can’t imagine why I haven’t grown them before.
Love your vase selection and the milk white color really adds to the beauty of your flower choices.
I think the colour of the jug will be useful with a range of colours, I’m very pleased with the gift.
Your basic flower arrangements of the zinnias and dahlias would look pretty, but the wispy asparagus ferns and Perovskia add a romantic elegant element, and are very transformational. I like the unbreakable pitcher, what a nice idea for a picnic outdoors. I have the same problem, where to photograph the arrangement indoors so the lighting is just right. I resort to lamps and they leave shadows on the wall, or the colors don’t come true. I don’t have really great backgrounds outdoors either. i like the colors in your sitting room photo, but it’s so narrow to leave it there. Happy Birthday!
Sorry to be late responding, you were put in spam by mistake by wordpress, it doesn’t happen very often. I need to take lessons for inside photography but imagine it would entail lights and draping clothes and using mirrors to refect the light and frankly I don’t have time to faff with all that!
Sorry to miss your birthday, I was away on a trip. Hope your special day was a good one. Both arrangments are eye-catching, but I particularily like the winsomeness of the asparagus fern. So pretty!
I feel I should have used the Asparagus a lot more, I love how it softens even the most solid flowers. I hope your trip went well, I look forward to reading about it.
Oh if that had been me attempting such a balancing act Christina the vase and contents would have come toppling down. It looks as if you found just the perfect niche. I don’t like asparagus but oh what a perfect filler – maybe there’s room on the allotment for some to grow just for ornamental purposes. Your gardening friends know you well – what an apt present.
My father used to grow a huge asparagus plant (I think from one original crown) just as an ornamental. I was an adult before I knew you could eat it!
Firstly I should like to add my belated happy birthday wishes. Secondly I would like to comment on your vases. I love the colours and like many before me I like the inclusion of the asparagus fronds. Zinnias are really great and I must give them a go next year, are you growing yours in a cutting bed or in the border?
In the cuttings beds, the borders don’t receive any water so annuals wouldn’t survive.
I like the way you created a central mass with floaty bits trailing out from it.