Monday Vase: Summer Pastels

Today's vase is made up of soft and silver hues; they seem very appropriate for the end of June.

This is a curious mixture, all the same, combining garden roses and wild foliage.  Here is how it came about.

Most of the roses have slowed or stopped flower production in deference to the heat, which has reached well over 105 F (41 C) daily for I'm not sure how long now.  I'm pleased to see them putting bloom on pause while the bushes still look healthy - after all, these are all newly planted.  But a few insist on blooming anyway, and they cope by producing much smaller flowers.  The bloomer-in-chief is Crown Princess Margareta.  These blooms must be more or less unrecognisable to an eye familiar with her large, apricot-toned flowers; but this is still the Princess - blooms about half size or less with colour tending to pink or nearly white from the intensity of the sun.

There is a fine little crop of these right now, and I thought it wouldn't hurt to cull them before the rabbits did, so I cut five this morning.

Along with them I used some readily available foliage and stems.  These are the grey, crinkly leaves of  Atriplex, species unknown.  It sprouts in various spots around the yard, and it seems to be a relatively well-behaved small shrub so far.  It is occasionally recommended for landscape use out here, so I assume it is not too hazardous to let grow on.  With the soft silver of its foliage, it seemed like a good addition with the roses and saves me from cutting any of my baby shrubbery.  I have no idea how it will respond to being plonked in a vase; at first I thought perhaps I needed to have sealed the stems, but we shall see!  It is not thorny so it is fairly easy to work with, other than a rubbery tendency to pull itself back out of arrangement!

I did like the two elements together.  I was going to use a different vase, but it was my dark-glazed stoneware jar that I took to the garden to collect flowers.  The size was just right, and I liked the effect so, after a rest to condition everything a little, I went ahead and made up the arrangement in the same jar.

I am looking forward to seeing these roses in all their glory after the heat breaks, but isn't this a fantastic plant to still give these lovely blooms?

From pastels to brilliant colour, it is a good time for vase-making.  Do check out the others at Rambling in the Garden!

Happy Monday!

Weather Diary: Partly cloudy; High: 107 F ? (42 C)/Low: 88 F (31 C)