In a Vase on Monday: a Glass Honesty Box

I had to rein myself in when choosing flowers for today’s vase but even so there is a far greater variety and quantity of blooms than usual. It had to be roses of course, because they are just getting better and better – so today it is around a dozen stems of Zéphirine Drouhin most of which began as buds but almost seemed to be swelling and opening as I worked with them, such was the warmth of the house after several days of sunshine.

As with most home grown roses, the flowering stems were quite short but I had already planned to use this chunky box shaped vase, after enjoying seeing Christina‘s larger version, so they were well suited. Accompanying blooms were kept to softer or pastel shades, and comprised self seeded orlaya, white flowered Allium cowanii, a few sprigs of white ‘Tall Spencer’ and two-toned ‘Purple Pimpernel’ sweet pea blooms (the latter from seed collected last year), pale pink Sweet Williams also from last year, Cerinthe majus from seed sent by Annette (the first time I have been able to successfully grow them) and fresh seed pods from white flowered honesty grown from seed a number of years ago.

Obviously I have nurtured the roses, but everything else is the product of some sort of action on my part and although they weren’t chosen today for that reason it gives me a small and quiet degree of pleasure realising that this is indeed the case.

More action was required to create the overall display as I had tried holding the roses in place with glass beads and then adding the other blooms around them – but, unable to insert the other stems easily,  the roses had to be removed and the other blooms built around them into a posy before tying them together and plonking the whole bunch in the vase as a whole, the beads then packed around them.

Realising I had forgotten to include the honesty, this was tucked into the vase almost as an afterthought, the end result being all the better for it as it softened the edges. It was the first time I have used honesty in  vase and I was admiring the dense green-ness of the seed pods its potential usefulness when I had the inspiration for the post title, so it was a most welcome afterthought! The single prop today is for the benefit of Woodland Gnome who failed to see the fairies in last week’s vase… 😉

Not surprisingly, the vase surprises me with bursts of fragrance as I pass by – divine! and long may it last! I look forward to seeing what will appear in other vases today – do join us, finding material in your garden or nearby to pick and bring inside to give you pleasure during the week. Just leave links to and from this post and yours so we can all share.