In a Vase on Monday: Sweet Harmony

Like many other Mondays, this vase opportunity just presented itself with little encouragement required from me. The post title comes from the little iris, which I think are Iris reticulata ‘Harmony’ and which completely took me by surprise in the greenhouse during the week.

Some time in late autumn when I was rounding up stray pots in the garden I came across a pot which was empty apart from a number of bulbs beginning to sprout, and a label saying ‘Pencrobar’. Two years ago I had  Pencrobar narcissi in the baskets at the front of the house along with the usual pansies, joined last winter by some last minute half price irises. Summer planting saw the contents of the baskets replaced and  the bulbs were left to languish in an empty pot where they were rediscovered a couple of months ago and planted up just in case they possessed a strong survival instinct! Meanwhile, I had forgotten about the irises so was shocked to see purple spikes appearing and very quickly unfurling in the sunny greenhouse. A must for today’s vase, along with a sprig of winter honeysuckle, Lonicera fragrantissima, and a marbled leaf of Cyclamen hederifolium. Sweet harmony indeed.

The props? I don’t share a lot of personal information in the blog, but it was too serendipitous (and something I am perhaps absurdly excited about) not to do so. I have been in awe of barbershop singing for many years and a few weeks ago discovered that there was a female barbershop group virtually on my doorstep (how had I never come across them before?) and looking for new recruits. Doubting my ability to maintain a harmony in this kind of singing but boosted by a friend in a male barbershop group who confessed it was not as hard as one might think, I turned up. One learns (in this digital age) by listening and singing along to your part over and over again, either on its own, dominating the harmony, or alongside the harmony. Even by the second week the three new recruits could sing our part of our first song with the rest of the group – a goose pimply moment of sweet harmony.

So we have props of sheet music for one of our tracks (harder than the first one), an MP4 player devoted to the various combinations of the songs we are learning, and a cut throat razor from another of the Golfer’s lapsed collections. The vase is a purple crocus vase with a few amethyst crystals in the bottom to boost the height of the iris. It took a few attempts to find  cyclamen leaves without curly stems and all the leaves of the lonicera were blotchy (not sure why) and were snipped off, but apart from that the vase was quickly put together.

Last week’s teeny tiny vase has been remarkable – the comfrey flowers began to open after barely a day and over the week the stems  became more upright; because the vase was so small there was a limited amount of water and twice they drooped but perked up again with fresh water and the vase still looked good yesterday, amazingly so for such a small offering. A real success that one, albeit small!

If you would like to join us in finding something from your garden or foraged nearby and plonk it in a vase or other container today or any other Monday, then please do. Props are optional – the meme is a personal challenge and there is no pressure to outdo anyone else. We are indeed a supportive bunch and are learning a lot from our own and other people’s vases so please do share, leaving links to and from your post. Have fun!