Why I Oughta...

For Thanksgiving, I put together a pair of evergreen and eucalyptus arrangements for the two hosts (are we still saying "hostess"?) we were visiting that day.  These are arrangement three and four that I've posted on the blog.  Here is #2 .   One of these has Curly Willow while the other one has more Magnolia leaves.  But, they're *mostly* identical to the previous ones.  I found some Viburnum berries, but decided against including them in these.   These are (notably) in a quart mason jar (on the right) and a thrifted glass (on the left).  They are both smaller than some of the ones that I put together last year.  By design.    Here's one that was tall and wide from last year that I gave to my Mom .  And, here's two other larger ones (in thrifted vases) that I gave my sisters last year.  This year's version fit in the car cupholders, for ease of transport. We have a month-or-so until Christmas, so I'll probably see i...

Yesterday, I posted a photo of the first evergreen arrangement that we put together and talked about how it was the first of a bunch that were on their way.  That first one was small and tightly pulled together.  This second one below is a bit more wild.  It has sprays that open up and cast their tips broadly.  This includes blue spruce, thuja, a couple kinds of eucalyptus, some Magnolia, a short-needled fir with tiny (and pretty cute) pinecones and a couple branches of curly willow.  Foraged, mostly.  Eucalyptus is from TJ's.  This one is also in a mason jar for easy transportation - as this one is destined for across town.  Winter arrangement with eucalyptus, boxwood, fir and blue spruce

Another day, another mixed dahlia arrangement .  This one (below) includes some larger blooms from the Melina Fleur plants, a bunch of Ivanetti dark purple blooms and some smaller Wizard of Oz ball dahlias along with a little bit of eucalyptus, some rosemary, Dusty Miller and the Lucky Charm Anemones that are thriving right now in the back garden. The tags that show off the full catalog of dahlia arrangements include [ countertop flowers ], [ dahlia arrangement ] and [ arrangement ].  

Back earlier this Summer, I planted a small quart-sized plug of Eucalyptus Pulverulenta (Silver Dollar Eucalyptus...or "Florist Eucalyptus" as an accent plant in one of the containers on our back patio.  I found it at the orange Big Box store nursery amongst the other 'accent plants' like Sweet Potato Vine, Spikes and Asparagus Ferns.    Below is a photo from May when I stuck it in the container along with the Crazytunia (purple one) from The Growing Place: Here, below, is the container that it came in - from Vigoro (which...I think is Home Depot's 'house brand', right?). I don't seem to have posted about this when I planted it, but I think that's because I wasn't sure how this would do.  That container chewed through a few things - killing off some spillers/fillers like this Icicles plant .  Perhaps it was a soil or water problem, but whatever it was...this Eucalyptus has overcome them.  So, too, has the green Medusa Sweet Potato vine ...

A few days ago, I shared a photo of what I'm calling V2 of my Winter Arrangements for 2023 .  The first one - where I learned a bit - was in the Santa planter .  V2 is a series of four in various vases from GoodWill that I picked up over the weekend.   Below is a photo the second of the four in the V2 Series that we gave to my Sister (Equation Boy/Man's wife).  This one (as the title of the post suggests) is a bit more wild (I'm not sure that's the right word, but it is the one I'm using...for now) and has no color in it aside from green.  Just like the others, this one is foraged but for the eucalyptus.  Has a couple of large pine branches that have some cones on them and a big bolt of juniper that is covered in berries.  This one lacks the crabapple branch(s) and has more eucalyptus and curly will branches.  This vase is a bit shorter and has a wider mouth, so the arrangement is wider with the branches splaying out the sides.  There ar...