Today's vase began with clipping a couple of zinnias.
I have grown them from seed; and these are the first flowers from the young plants, which have not even been set out yet. They were labelled as 'purple cactus' types, but so far they are not quite so spectacular as that might imply.
As they are, in fact, rather pinkish in color, I went around searching out other slightly purple blooms. I found I had quite a few! I put them together in a low bowl because the hollyhock bloom had been picked with a very short stem. Results are as follows...
Many thanks, as always, go to Cathy for hosting this wonderful activity each week, rain or shine, home or abroad, Monday or holiday!
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Cathy (Tuesday, 07 November 2017 06:10)
Gosh, so you are just planting out zinnias now - I can't quite get my head round the seasonal geography of this, Amy. What would you class this season as? It's interesting to see the blooms in this shallow bowl (one you have made yourself, I trust?) - are they secured in it in any way?
Loree / danger garden (Tuesday, 07 November 2017 10:59)
Wow, that's quite lovely. The low bowl shape really allows the blooms to shine.
Kris P (Tuesday, 07 November 2017 12:03)
I already miss my Zinnias so I enjoy seeing yours and the hollyhock bloom made me sigh as it seems to be impossible to grow hollyhocks here without the plants immediately being encrusted with rust. The low bowl shows the arrangement off beautifully.
Cathy (Tuesday, 07 November 2017 15:18)
How pretty Amy! I love the way you have presented your flowers this week. The hollyhock flower is a beautiful focal point in the bowl. :)
David C. (Friday, 10 November 2017 08:31)
I never thought of hollyhock as anything exotic...now I do! Like Loree said on how well the bowl works...
Amy@smallsunnygarden (Friday, 10 November 2017 22:34)
Cathy@Rambling in the Garden, Loree@Danger Garden, Kris P., Cathy@Words and Herbs, and David C. - I do apologize for my tardy replies! This week has been a welter of caring for family needs plus a sick dog (doing better now!). I hope no one minds a combined reply...
Cathy - It's a bit difficult to explain the seasons: this is unquestionably autumn looking toward winter, but winter and spring are the main growing seasons due to the mild temperatures, which are rather like early spring and a cool summer in northern zones. I think perhaps the zinnias should have been started earlier yet, but it's still difficult for me to focus on annuals. Maybe in a year or two the garden will be far enough along for that. :) The bowl is indeed one of my own making, and I simply balanced the short-stemmed flowers on the longer lavender stems...
Loree - Thank you! :) I do like the effects of low bowls; the nice thing this time was that I managed to avoid all the fuss of using foam. I am a very lazy flower arranger, I guess! ;-)
Kris - I'm always pleasantly surprised at how well I like the effect of flowers in bowls. Getting them to go in and stay in is a different matter, but as I noted to Cathy, this time it worked out nicely thanks to the lavender stems. The hollyhocks are one of the more surprising successes of desert gardening...!
Cathy - The hollyhock does steal the show, doesn't it?! I've really enjoyed having them, and everything looks set for Creme de Cassis to be somewhat perennial as winter temperatures are unlikely to do it any damage here.
David - To be honest, I think they work much better as exotics. ;-) When my sis grew them in the Midwest, they were such messy plants that I never really liked them. Now I'm trying to decide where to plant more... Thanks so much!