In a Vase on Monday: A Pair of Snips

I have to confess that this vase was not created especially for IAVOM, but when the time came to create this week’s vase I liked the existing one so much that I decided to share it with you. The contents literally are a ‘pair of snips’, having been snipped from their parent plants because of their over-exuberant growth:

I don’t think I realised quite how large Inula magnifica and aconitum (probably Spark’s Variety) were going to grow when I first bought them, and they certainly make more than just a normal statement in their respective borders. I am always very respectful of aconitum because of its reputation as a poisonous plant but love its fresh emergent foliage in spring and, in this instance, the deep violet blue blooms. The inula is in a class of its own with its huge leaves, long flowering season, and multitudinous blooms that are a joy at every stage from bud to seedhead, and I have become very fond of it.

The two offcuts were popped into one of my Zeller pottery jugs and accompanied by a pair of snips, a nice compact pair that suit not only my small hands but my pockets as well. I have recently mislaid another pair of snips somewhere in the garden, a cheap but nevertheless useful pair that were kept in the bottom greenhouse, and was wondering whether to ask my garden visitors this week to look out for them… This thought reminded me of  playing the ‘Wide Game’ as a child in which my siblings and I were sent out (on the streets: no parental cosseting in those days) with a list of things to find – it might be a certain kind of leaf or flower or any of a number of things, but I particularly remember my Mum adding, in a tongue-in-cheek way, ‘washing up bowl’ to the list, hers having blown away from where she had left it on a balcony, and her not surprisingly being dumbfounded when I returned later with a piece of the aforementioned bowl!

Many of us who partake in IAVOM were reluctant to cut blooms from our gardens to begin with and although we progressed beyond this a long time ago this snipping vase shows how excess growth can be readily harnessed to make a simple vase which will bring just as much pleasure as anything more elaborate, but without detracting from the our gardens in any way. If you are reluctant to pick for a vase, try thinking of it as a pruning or tidying up exercise – even a just a stem or two will look good in a little vase or jug or jar so do give it a try. If you would like to share with the rest of us, just leave links to and from this post in the usual way.