It’s a race against time to use the things that still look good in the garden before the weather closes in. For this, I started with a branch of plump beauty berries (seems like they would have tempted the birds by now, but who am I to complain).
A branch of Coleus plays backup, while one of Nicotiana langsdorfii introduces a little hit of acid green. The pot is an early Frank Boyden, a famous potter/sculptor in local circles. I should have taken a photo of it empty, to show the detail of the opening (I always think of these things too late).
Some of the annuals have succumbed to the intermittent downpours we’ve been experiencing, while others keep chugging along on borrowed time. Soon we will need to be more creative in our search for things to put in a vase, but, inspired by Cathy (Rambling in the Garden), we will soldier on to meet the challenge year-round.
You and Lori should team up and do a class !
That would be fun!
This is amazing! Well done. Really nice container you’ve selected today.
The birds haven’t been interested yet in my beautyberries either but eventually I suspect they’ll disappear.
If I were a bird, I would head straight for those beautiful berries (when I wasn’t entertaining myself by flying over the rainbow).
I love the beautiful purple berries but I can only wish that I could grow them. I’d give up half my flowers if I could get a downpour or two.
I’ll try to really appreciate our downpours with you in mind.
Lovely! The whole arrangement, from the flowers, fruits, and foliage, to the wall and backdrop, is wonderful. It’s elegant and earthy. I love the design and colors of the pottery, too.
That pot has been tucked away in a corner, out of harm’s way. I’m glad I trotted it out to take a bow.
Oh the colors! I’ve always shied away from beauty berry because the color of the berries seems so demanding of drama queen status, as though they wouldn’t play nice with others. You’ve shown that’s not the case.
I could have sworn that drama queens held an attraction for you. I surrounded my Callicarpa with flaming foliage quite by (happy) accident. It’s my favorite little slice of the garden right now.
This is among my favorite arrangements you’ve done! Sheer perfection in the color echoes of vase, and it’s contents, props, table runner. The plant part of arrangement stands out as the most saturated representation of the purples, it’s inclusion of the acid yellow, and it’s triangular shape. The roundness of the pot contrasts nicely with the angles of the writer’s block and candlesticks. Seriously love this especially because I would never have thought of combining those two purples and yet they work like a charm!
Your words of praise are much appreciated. Half the fun of this meme is picking up new ideas from others.
Lovely pot – does it have a fish shaped opening, or fishes’ moth shaped even…hope so….? And your name for callicarpa is ‘beauty berry – how apt. They are so surreal, and the first time I came across them I was amazed how tiny they were having seen only pictures up to them. I love this colour anyway, so it’s definitely a win-win plant! The plain dark coleus and green nicotiana support them perfectly here in the gorgeous vase – thanks for sharing
The opening is roughly shaped…nothing quite as surreal as you suggest, but still more interesting than a smooth rim.
This absolute perfection….the vessel is fabulous…and the rust coleus leaves took m breath away against the vessel. The addition of the purple berries was a fabulous contrast and again worked perfectly with the colors in the vase…just a hint of green made it all come together and shine! A work of art!
I blush!
Beautyberry is no kind of space hog, so fitting it in should be easy.
Oh, I’m a sucker for those Calicarpa berries!
Do you have some?
that is magnificent.
Both the vase
and the singing colour of the flowers!
High praise…thanks!