In a Vase: Native Charm

Although there are a few flowers scattered here and there in the garden, I decided to use mostly dried material for this vase.  (And yes, it's Tuesday!  Yesterday's schedule allowed me to collect the material and partially arrange it, but I have had to finish and take the pictures today...)

This is a collection of native plants: two wildlflowers whose names I still don't know, and Hesperaloe parviflora, another native plant now frequently used in landscaping in the arid southwest.  First, here are a few pictures from earlier times in the year when these plants were in full bloom.

One is a small sub-shrub whose beautiful bell-flowers are hardly visible unless you look very closely.  The flowers are gone now, but in bloom they looked like this.

Another is a large shrubby plant with strawlike bracts tasseled with fine silk.  The silk is gone now, but the bracts are still showy against the green stems.

And lastly, Hesperaloe parviflora, whose much larger shrimp-pink bells hang from stalks ranging from about 4 feet (1.2 m) to about 7 feet (2.2 m) tall.

However, this is January, even here in the desert; and all these formerly-flowering stems are either dried or drying.  So today's vase is a monochromatic combination of stems, bracts, and seedpods.

The hesperaloe seedpods are marvelous.  Many still contain a few black seeds, which rattle around inside like a toy.

Stems and all (a little top-heavy, perhaps!) went into a stoneware pitcher that I made last year while experimenting with forms.

The weather has warmed a little, and I had no trouble shooting these pictures outside against the patio wall.  I hope you enjoy this excursion into the wildflower patch!  As late as I am, I will go ahead and link this post to Cathy's Monday Vase meme, always inspiring!

Hesperaloe seedpods