In a Vase on Monday : It Don’t Mean a Thing (if it ain’t got that zing)

I may have got a little carried away picking for today’s vase, but once the theme of ‘zinginess’ has suggested itself I just kept picking the brightest and boldest blooms possible and ended up with a real rainbow of colours. Thus we have a single ‘Double Price’ tulip, a trio of Allium ‘Purple Sensation’, a few Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ and an unnamed pink wallfower, Geum ‘Prince of Orange’, ‘Totally Tangerine’ and ‘Mrs Bradshaw’, single stems of Euphorbia griffithii ‘Fireglow’ and Hellebore foetidus, red Sweet William ‘Black Prince’, bluebells, comfrey, self-seeded pink columbine and a handful of Nasturtium ‘Banana Split’. Oh, and some of that striking lime green aquilegia foliage that people either love or hate.

This must be my biggest vase of the year so far and needed this chunky vase that has been unused for months and as I trimmed the blooms I resisted the temptation to cut them too short and thus retained some height. The allium has such tall, straight and striking stems it was almost a shame to cut them but I knew their contribution to the vase would be welcomed. Surgery was needed  for the pink wallflowers which were getting leggy but their colour was just what was needed and stripping dead blooms from the lower part of the stems improved their appearance. Time spent arranging the blooms was minimal (so what’s new?!) – just enough to mix the colours and achieve a relatively balanced look.

The first photographs were taken inside against the backdrop of a ‘mock’ stained glass door – a coloured plastic film is smoothed over the glass and looks quite effective – to try and match the zinginess of the blooms, but the light wasn’t brilliant and the clear glass of the vase showed the jumble of stems. Spur of the moment Plan B involved wrapping a sheet of sparkly card around the vase and cutting lengths of rainbow coloured ribbon and Plan C brought the vase outside to one of my favourite photo shoot locations. Photographing Monday vases outside always gives a better result and today’s was no exception.

With May’s abundance in the garden I suppose it is fitting to have a vase that represents this abundance and this zingy collection does seem to fit the bill. I wonder whether there will be other zingy vases today? It is so exciting seeing what our blogging friends find in their gardens to pop into a vase on a Monday morning – if you haven’t already joined us please do, either every week or just once in a while. It’s not competitive, just an encouragement to pick blooms and bring them into the house for your own pleasure – and if you add links to and from your post we can share in that pleasure too.

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