Here’s what I have to work with.
I’m especially fond of this vintage frog. It’s a nice artifact sitting in my downstairs work area. It also works really well for anchoring stems in a vase. Of course we won’t see it once it’s pressed into service here.
I usually use the green pot as a cachepot into which I slip a nursery pot. It has recently held Cyclamen, then Poinsettia, but now I’m going to treat it like a vase. Some branches of Chamaecyparis ‘Barry’s Silver’ form a feathery background to the rosette of Lanceolata Kale. We’ve been putting this kale in our morning smoothies, but, with the help of other greedy critters, it had been whittled down to what could pass as a dark green cabbage rose. A few bare, red branches from the Oxydendrum provide the only non-green element, but there is enough yellow-to-chartreuse in there to make it feel quite colorful.
To keep the green theme going I set the table with green napkins in my favorite napkin rings (ivory-painted cast iron birds, each in a slightly different pose), and a green metal dish containing river rocks.
Started by Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, this meme challenges us to find material for a bouquet every Monday of the year right in our own back yards. It’s an eye-opening exercise that can be downright habit-forming.
I like your green theme a lot. The use of the kale is inspired, there is a good amount of variation in texture and color and the red stems add movement. Lovely.
Susie~I’m always on the prowl for green flowers, so this wasn’t much of a stretch for me.
I adore that vintage frog…and I love this arrangement. The vase is the perfect lovely accent to the foliage….lots of texture and color. A stunning vase all around.
Donna~Thanks, and thanks for stopping by.
Very nice Ricki, I especially love the “vase”…
Loree~Me too.
You’re right there is an amazing amount of colour in your ‘greens’.
Christina~I tend not to notice so much when the riot of colorful flowers is drowning them out.
Thanks for sharing your lovely green vase rickii – well, green post in fact! Those napkins brilliantly mirror the kale, don’t they? It really is an eye opening exercise, as you say, because we surprise ourselves as well as each other with what we come up with. I was intrigued to see your vintage frog as I bought something similar (but domed) at that antique fair last year – it wasn’t labelled as that but I guessed that’s what it was and I look forward to using it. Thanks for joining in and sharing š
Cathy~I’m not much for collecting, but I do have a lot of frogs (including the living kind).
Anna~You could just join in when the spirit moves you. There are no hard and fast rules, and we all understand what it is like to have a job and family and garden upstaging blogging activity.
I like how you mixed the Oxydendrum stems with the green stuff. Thought it was red osier dogwood at first.
Jason~I’ve been wanting some of that red twig dogwood, but when I looked around I was surprised by how many red stemmed plants I have.
You always come up with something fabulous for In a Vase on Monday! Love this ode to green!
Peter~”Ode to Green”…high praise indeed, coming from a poet such as yourself.
Beth~I always enjoy a limited palette, even when it is forced upon me.
I so much prefer the old-fashioned frogs to nasty crumbly plastic Oasis blocks. I’ve discarded my rusty pinholders, but will look for flower frogs in the charity shops.
Diana~And the Oasis is toxic besides.