ed. Since writing this post, I have determined that the foliage and berries in this vase were not
Pistacia lentiscus, but rather
Schinus terebinthifolius, the Brazilian Pepper tree. I have corrected the tags in the article but opted to leave the post unchanged otherwise. For more information on this young tree and the identification, please see my post
Mystery Solved?
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And it's Monday again so here is a vaseful of flowers and berries. Today's collection is particularly bright, but perhaps that's just as well for December. Even here in the desert it's a bit overcast this morning. Also, being December, a few berries seemed just the thing.
None of this comes from the garden proper. The bougainvillea is a rough and tumble shrub on the west side of the house. It is not very big; I trimmed it back hard last spring; and in any case bougainvillea routinely sustains some frost damage here, which keeps these otherwise enormous shrubs in check. But it is in full bloom now! The berries come from the little mastic tree (Pistacia lentiscus) at the very back of the property, where it is doing its best to revert to shrub form, a feat already accomplished by its twin a few yards away.
But both are bright with welcome colour right now, and here is the result from this morning.
The colours seemed a perfect blend. The bougainvillea leaves had to be removed as they were fairly ratty; grasshoppers, I suspect. But the mastic foliage more than compensated. It was plentiful on these stems and set off the bright pink/soft red tones happily.
Like my last vase, I took the pictures out in the front patio on the little red table there. The vase is another of my handthrown stoneware pots, this one with a rustic look encouraged by a tin white glaze. I've always loved the simplicity of this glaze, a soft, slightly cool white that combines well with the warm, rough clay colours beneath.
So there's a bright patch of pink, red, green, and white for today. I missed last Monday's vase but am looking forward to continuing this project. Thanks again to Cathy for hosting it and do go take a look at her vase at
ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com and check out the other lovely contributions there too!
χριστουγεννιατικες συνθεσεις…. υπεροχες!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteεικαστικη η διαθεση….φαντασια…χρωματικη ισορροπια…..πολυ ομορφα ολα!
καλο υπολοιπο ημερας!
Yes, I thought the berries created a little bit of Christmas, even though they are not a bright red. It's time for a festive mood :)) Thank you so much - I'm so glad you enjoyed the bright colours as well as I!!
DeleteThis is so lovely Amy, I have just read your about page too, your plans sound very interesting, liked your about the gardener notes too.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Julie! Time will tell whether I can create my little garden oasis here or not, but I am thoroughly enjoying working toward it and writing about it. Glad you liked the about the gardener notes; I had a lot of fun writing that up; I believe yours is the first feedback I've gotten on it ;) I saw your fine wreath earlier today though I didn't have time to leave a comment - I like the use of the dried honesty seeds with the cut greens!
DeleteHow lovely to have bouganvillea growing outside with no attention from you apart from chopping it back to keep it in check. The berries are the perfect accompaniment and how nice that you can show off your own handthrown pots - are you able to 'pot' at home, or do you go somewhere to so it? Thanks so much for joining in and sharing your Monday vase.
ReplyDeleteYes, we're lucky to be able to grow bougainvillea as a garden shrub here, and I'm hoping to use one of the soft-coloured ones in the eastern bed in the garden itself. The thorns are a nuisance, but that could be said of other classic garden shrubs! Interestingly, making these arrangements up is giving me a new angle on my own pottery, which I've needed lately! I work in a second garage here at the house, where we have both a potter's wheel and several kilns for firing. The whole set-up is fairly self-sufficient. My mother set up a small home studio when I was small, so I was fortunate enough to grow up with the processes and equipment. In fact, we still have that first little kiln that she and my father bought - the one that used to decorate our dining room...!
DeleteBougainvillea and berries - what a wonderful combination. I'll have to try it someday too.
ReplyDeleteYes, I would think there might be all sorts of great combinations of the two, depending on the colour of the bougainvillea :) Thanks for dropping by!
DeleteIt seems amazing to have bougainvillea growing outside and flowering at this time of year; does it last well in a vase, I like the effect a lot. I have just planted a small Pistacia lentiscus but it looks different to yours and doesn't have any berries, I wonder why?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteHi Christina,
DeleteI laughed a little when I saw you had asked about the bougainvillea lasting. I poked it in the vase with no conditioning, just a diagonal cut such as I would use on a rose stem. Later in the day I started to worry, remembering a disastrous arrangement I made a year ago. It was just a few stems of bougainvillea, and I had started a painting of them that first day. I am not a fast painter, and the flowers collapsed overnight. I picked a new batch and dipped the stems in boiling water; they lasted fairly well over the next four days, as far as I can recall. So I have been waiting to see what would happen with yesterday's pick. As of this morning, they look very good - nothing has wilted at all! So I really don't know without a little more trial and error. But they look great in the vase this morning... :) I checked on the Pistacia lentiscus, and apparently there are male and female plants; our little shrubby one doesn't have berries either, though it had the same little sprays of flowers in springtime. And there is the chance that I have misidentified my plant: it was already here when we moved in...!
Back to the drawing board here, Christina! I have done some additional research and decided you are quite right to question the P. lentiscus identification. Schinus terebinthifolius would appear to be the correct ID. I've posted (with a link to your blog - hope you don't mind!) about the little tree and my investigation: http://smallsunnygarden.blogspot.com/2014/12/mystery-solved.html - if you're interested in seeing any more. Thanks so much for setting me on track to check this again :)
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