Today’s vase is a simple trio: single stems of Rhododendron ‘Cheers’, an unlabelled sedum (hylotelephium) and slightly bedraggled Miscanthus ‘Red Chief’. The rhododendron grows on the fringe of the woodland, in my direct line of sight on rambles around the garden, so I could hardly fail to notice when the first blooms appeared; now, more and more buds are opening and they are such pretty blooms that I thought I would try them out in a vase. The sedum (which probably does have a label tucked at its base somewhere), is planted in a border nearby and has relatively dark blooms that seem to pick out the centres of the rhododendron, as does the miscanthus, the latter proving immensely useful in late-season vases.
The knobbly stem of the rhododendron made it rather unmanageable until I tightly tied all three stems together and placed them in a pleasingly pink Caithness Glass vase. The string, however, did not remain tight as the stems were meant to be more upright than the photo suggests. The prop could have been a trio of any number of things, but in the end was a trio of Chinese sampans made out of shells, chosen for the ever-so-slightly oriental look of the vase.
It is getting harder for many of us to find blooms or other material to put in our Monday vases and, although a challenge, it encourages us to look harder and can often make for a more interesting result. What will you find for your vase or jam jar today? Please share the result with us by leaving the usual links to and from this post.
Read more on ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com