I’ve had such a ball since I started using WordPress in February and enjoy following numerous excellent gardening blogs. I always admire the weekly creative floral arrangements shared through Cathy’s ‘In a vase on Monday’ Meme.
I’ve not contributed, partly because Mondays is a work day and partly because I am more of a ‘bunch of wayside flowers or twigs in a tin’ type of person. Today’s no different really. This post is very late.
The greenery is a conifer branch that I found on the ground last week and brought it home because I thought it might make part of a Christmas decoration. The flowers I am using are not exactly fresh from the garden, but when I re-discovered them in the back cupboard earlier today, they were so cheerful (on yet another miserable, wet day) that I thought I would air them and share them. I found them hanging upside down in the fuse cupboard when I was looking for some string. Yes, they are everlasting flowers, helichrysum (xerochrysum now) that I’d saved when I pulled the fading plants from the borders. They were really beyond their best picking time, but I thought it was still worth a try drying them and now I am glad that I did.
So here is the first (and last) vase that I’ve shared this year:
Bright and cheerful Xerochrysum bracteatum
I hope that they brighten your day.
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Yes, they are bright and cheerful. Lovely.
Thanks. They so nearly ended up on the compost.
The dried flowers look remarkably fresh and very appropriate to the season with the added bit of greenery. I hope this won’t be your last contribution to the “IAVOM” meme!
I’ve love these flowers since childhood, when I discovered that they feel like they are made of paper. I was lucky to find the pine bough though. The IAVOM meme is wonderfully inclusive, so I am sure that I’ll try to join in again.
They are lovely and quite appreciated on this first day of winter!
Thanks. Yes their bright sunny faces are the only way I will get to see any sunlight today!
Gorgeous and all the better for being once in the garden and then recycled from the airing cupboard. The conifer makes a great contrast to the bright flowers and is a great combination.
Thanks. I do like the effect the clustered needles make as a backdrop to the sunny flowers.
Gosh – that was a shock to the system when I first saw the post! How could something as bright as that not fail to cheer anyone on any day of the week? And how long they have been in the airing cupboard – are they this seasons? I suppose being in the dark they will have kept their colour better anyway. Oh – and wayside flowers or twigs in a tin perfectly are most welcome for the meme: it’s whatever you can pick that brings you pleasure. Look forward to seeing more vases (or tins) in 2016!
They are a bit intense for first thing in the morning! I picked them in October (this year), but in fact I have a small bunch from 3 or 4 years ago and there is not much difference in the colours. I am certain that the dark is critical in keeping them look so fresh though. Thanks for running the meme. It is inspiring and very friendly.
Very cheerful and I like the idea of rescuing a branch of wayside conifer. Someone’s tree perhaps or just a windfall? Happy Christmas.
I think that the giant baubles that they’ve strung up in some of the trees around Wimpole are causing a bit of damage in the strong winds that we’ve been having, so I happened to gain from that. I took the branch home, rather than put it on the bonfire pile.
Happy Christmas to you too!
And very pretty too . The colours just glow and they look perfect with the rescued pine. Happy Christmas Allison.
I would say that these are indeed the brightest flowers I have seen….I love how they dry so beautifully! And I am glad you added your vase this year! It is wonderful….Happy Christmas.
Thanks. I love that the flowers are paper dry even as they open on the plant. They are such a surprise to touch and it is fortunate that the colours stay put as they dry right out.
Happy Christmas to you too!
Thanks. I think that next year I will grow some plants specifically to cut, especially now that I’ve seen Christina’s post about the Cotehele swag. Have a great Christmas!
Love these, my mother used to grow them for the winter arrangements.
I remember them from childhood too. They are fairly old fashioned I think.
Probably they are.
A great idea to use those everlasting flowers – lovely and bright and cheerful! Happy Christmas!
Thanks. Have a wonderful Christmas.