The garden is currently a soggy mess of collapsing, tangled stems and leaves. (I WILL get out there this week to clear the stage for the snowdrops and crocuses to shine in the front garden.) However, with a sparkling new vase from my son for Christmas to fill, I was keen to finally get outside to look for some fresh material to use.
A tangle of contorted hazel, silver birch twigs, erysimum ‘Bowles’s Mauve’, dianthus ‘Green Trick’ and winter honeysuckle
What I found was a strange mixture of old and new.
I started with some pieces of contorted hazel and added some blown-down silver birch twigs to form the frame for the arrangement.
Some things are still flowering from last season: ‘Bowles’s Mauve’ perennial wallflowers are twisting outwards on ever-extending racemes; Dianthus ‘Green Trick’ fell over in the trough months ago, but has continued to grow upwards, so when picked and held upright the moss-like balls cascade downwards in growth that looks a bit like knitted hats.
The fresh elements I used were some unfurling arum leaves with beautiful marbling and some lovely scented winter honeysuckle.
Sweetly scented Winter Honeysuckle, Lonicera fragrantissima
Lonicera fragrantissima is one of the classic sources of winter scent in the garden, so I was pleased to bring a little inside to enjoy. Early bees are usually happy to find it in flower now too.
Indoor lighting ups the colours in the arrangement
So this is a simple first vase of the year for Cathy’s IAVOM meme. I warn you that sinister things are afoot on her blog, so go check it out!
Frogend dweller's Blog 
I love the pink and chartreuse colors within the contorted tangle of twiggy branches. Beautiful!
Thanks Eliza. I have to steel myself to cut the contorted hazel, but I am enjoying their dynamics indoors.
Lovely!
I have a couple of knitted hats in the garden too – has anybody ever grown Green Trick into an attractive plant?! 😉 You have some lovely thngs in your motley collection – twisted hazel (if that is what it is) always enhances a vase and you ust be chuffed to have some of ghe honesuckle in bloom now. I noticed the first bloom had opened on one of mine today – oh the fragrance! – so I know yours will be wondeful too 🙂 Love your title today – you could have used a piece of tangled string as a prop perhaps…? (tangled string theory) Thanks for sharing
The honeysuckle saved the day and it does smell lovely, but only close up. You are so clever with your props and titles, so I will endeavour to accessorize the next vase!
Look forward to it! 😉
What a pretty honeysuckle! The shadows cast by the contorted hazel add a whole new dimension to the vase too.
Thanks Kris. I had only really thought of the shadows as a distraction, but now I see what you mean and I like it. Thanks.
What fun, I love your knitted hats. Such a pretty combination, so clever of you to have come up with this in January when there are such lean pickings in the garden.
Seriously, if I hadn’t found the honeysuckle in flower I would probably have abandoned the idea of a vase for another week. No matter how untidy the Green Trick is, it has been displaying it’s pompoms for a long time, so I can’t fault it.
At first Inthought you had ingeniously stuck some blobs of moss onto sticks,, but then realised it was a ‘trick’! 😉 Lovely fluffy and straggly arrangement, and the shadow of the hazel in your last photo adds an extra element!
Thanks Cathy. The moss is a neat idea actually. I could make a ‘cloud pruned’ branch, hmmmm …
A lovely tangle. Those dianthus are intriguing, I’ve just seen something similar in a catalogue.
I was transfixed by a picture of the mossy dianthus in a Sarah Raven catalogue last year and just had to have it. It has never looked as neat as that inspiring shot, but I have had fun with them!
I must look out for a winter honeysuckle now…
It is a great winter scented shrub, if a little bit messy in form, but that just means that you can prune bits for a vase and feel that you are improving it!