It is commonly believed that gardeners are eternal optimists; why else would they bother with an occupation so full of promise, which often remains unfulfilled? ~Ursula Buchan
The past week was spectacular. A picture perfect autumn where the warmth of the sun is cooled by the breeze carrying the crispy leaves to the ground. The plants were still pumping out flowers (like this miniature rose) even though the foliage all around was bedraggled and fading. Strange to see flowers blooming on browning plants. Or at least they did until the freezing temps last night.
And with the first big rains (2 inches) last Thursday, followed by a cold wave slated for this week, the garden has faded quickly replaced by blackened seedheads, drenched and disheveled foliage of different autumn hues of red, orange, yellow, green and brown. All the colors of autumn I love.
The first autumn color that made a standout last week, was this incredible sunrise on Thursday before the drenching rain. These colors ushered in a major change in our weather that will likely stay now. Later October weather. Low 50s in day and high 30s at night. Brrrrr!! (they are calling for a frozen mix all week….sorry I had to whisper this as I didn’t want to actually say the words out loud)
And as the sun rose higher that morning, the garden was washed with an orange hue. It made the yellow and orange foliage an even brighter orange against the greens still hanging on. This is what the garden actually looked like…no Photoshopping this picture for effect…none needed.
As I do every Monday (or before Monday sometimes), I wander the garden looking for what plants might make for a lovely vase to bring indoors. Cathy@Rambling in the Garden hosts this wonderful meme, In a Vase on Monday. And I also love to link in with Today’s Flowers hosted by Denise@An English Girl Rambles, and Judith@Lavender Cottage who hosts Mosaic Monday.
So within the entire garden, there must be some interesting plants to find for a vase wouldn’t you think? As most blooms are gone now, it will be a challenge to create a vase. But I love the challenge.
Yes I could have put together a cute little nosegay with small left-over blossoms of hardy geranium, fairy roses and coreopsis, but I thought it would be good to use the true bounty of the fall garden.
As the garden fades and gets colder, we turn the waterfall pump off in the pond. And we cut back the cattails before they go to seed. This year, I was determined to use these in a few vases in fall. But what else could stand up to these huge cattails?
And then I remembered this standout hydrangea…the oak-leaf hydrangea. The foliage turns a brilliant red while the flowers continue to grow white to dusky rose. I love the contrast. So I cut the 4 remaining decent looking flowers with some foliage for the vase.
Lastly I needed something dainty, colorful and plentiful to fill out the arrangement. I continued to see dozens and dozens of these coral pink miniature roses (pictured at the top of the post too) blooming even after a light frost pictured here. I have used these roses for a few vases this summer and fall, but I never get tired of them. So they were a must for this vase too.
And here is the finished vase…..
Simple really….I love the autumn garden colors of the vase and the complementing garden foliage behind it.
Here is a close up of the vase with the creamy hydrangea flowers turning that dusky pink that goes beautifully with the brown cattails and roses.
Some additional views in this fun collage I created with Fotor.com.
And one final collage also created with Fotor.com. I really love this autumn’s last colors vase. And I have many more cattails waiting for next week’s vase too. That will be an even greater challenge as I don’t think there will be many flowers left, if any, in the garden.
I really am adoring creating vases, and I think autumn is the most creative time to look around the garden to see what can be combined for an arrangement in a vase. As always, I will be taking lots of cues from nature as she provides some of the most stunning arrangements in my garden.
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Next up on the blog:
Monday will be time for another Vase post combined with a Garden Book review. And next Wednesday I will have fun garden post for the spooky holiday ahead.
I am also joining in I Heart Macro with Laura@Shine The Divine that happens every Saturday.