In a Vase on Monday; they can't all be winners...

I bought that little orange (painted) glass vase at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show, in the Vintage Market...which after 3 years I decided to go ahead and drop my boycott and shop at (the boycott was in place because I believe that floor space would be better suited to plant vendors, it is a GARDEN SHOW after all).

I stuck it up on top of the refrigerator with the other vases because I didn't really have any other place for it. Then I realized what a nice trio they made, and decided to fill them for a little grouping on the kitchen counter.

Working with the colors of the vases I thought a few Grevillea victoriae 'Murray Valley Queen' branches in the creamy Fiestaware bud vase would be nice.

And maybe a couple leaves from Astelia nivicola 'Red Gem' worked in...

The collection needed a dramatic backdrop so I cut a Fatsia polycarpa ‘Needhams Lace' leaf, or two.

For the small green vase I decided a sprig of Brachyglottis greyi (Senecio greyi) would work well.

And as you can see the new orange vase got a bit of Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow'...

Inside though, I did not like what I'd created. Too big, too dark...didn't work.

I moved them around but couldn't find a space where they all looked good together until I put them on this small shelf. That's better...

Especially with my wheel-barrow man added to the mix.

The dining table needed something new too, and I'd spotted this old bowl thing when moving some storage in the basement.

My thought was I'd float some Hellebore blooms in the big side and do something with moss on the small side. Once I had the blooms in place though (sorry, I didn't take a photo) I had a visual of my husband moving the container to the side of the table when we eat dinner. Water and flowers everywhere. Not a great idea.

So they went in this smaller container...

And I went back to the moss plan...

Hmmm, moss and Ajuga reptans 'Black Scallop', ya...

And a few cuttings of Sedum confusum...along with gravel to hold what bit of soil came with the moss and a little moisture for the Sedum and Ajuga to (hopefully) root into.

This combination was incredible hard to photograph, but really fabulous "in real life"...

However I still wasn't loving the flat bowl thing so much, it needed some height. So I grabbed a vase I had that matched the bowl (same black paint/shiny silver combo) and cut some Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Atropurpureum'.

And since the Azara microphylla is blooming with it's chocolaty scented flowers I cut a few bits of that too.

And a couple Euphorbia amygdaloides var. Robbiae flowers to round it out.

Here's the whole thing on the dining table. I think it's kind of a "fail"...

But I still enjoyed putting it together!

And it smells good!

As I said in the title, they can't all be winners – and even when something isn't fabulous we still learn from the process, right?

So get out there in your garden and cut a few things! See what you can create.

Then post about it (and if you don't have a blog...start one!) and then join up with Cathy and the rest of us by sharing your post on her blog Rambling in the Garden!

All material © 2009-2016 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.