…and good for our gardens too, providing a foil for colourful blooms and giving texture, colour and interest throughout the year.
If you look closely, you might see the following in today’s vase: ivy, epimedium, grasses Amenanthele lessonia and Luzula sylvatica, Penstemon ‘White Bedder’, parsley, hart’s tongue fern Asplenium scolopendrium, Trachelospermum asiaticum, Nandina domestica ‘Obsessed’, Dianthus ‘Sweetness’ and one of my newest roses Rosa ‘Strawberry Hill’ with a tiny bud and red-edged leaves. The vase is 1980s Tupperware and not having thought to pack a sprout in my suitcase on our return from my Mum’s at Christmas I was unable to provide a real sprout as an example of edible greens.
This vase is every bit as attractive as any with flowers as the main component, so who needs blooms?! Certainly not every week, and it shows that thinking laterally extends the potential for creating our weekly vases – flowers, foliage, herbs, twigs, seedheads, vegetables, fruit…let’s use our imaginations. It is such a joy to share our homes with a regular vase so think again – it may be winter in the northern hemisphere but is there potential you have missed? Enjoy a vase just for yourself or share it with us by leaving the usual links to and from this post.
Rambling in the Garden 
Love the reminder that we need green in the garden, and just how effective it can be without blooms. You have picked material with varying form and structure, different greens etc…very refreshing after all the colour during the festive period.
Here is my last contribution for the year…very nearly repeats and therefore reminders of previous arrangements http://noellemace.blogspot.com/2018/12/in-vase-on-monday-memories-of-past-year.html
I decided not to even look for any blooms, Noelle, and I am glad I did
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A wonderful collection of greens. I might be the Bad Fairy at the party this week! https://daffodilwild.wordpress.com/2018/12/31/new-years-eve-fireworks/
A very happy New Year to you Cathy and to all the ‘In a Vase on Monday’ posse.
A bad fairy…?! The mind boggles 🙂
HaHa! 😀
Hi Cathy and Wild Daffodil
Love the calming vase Cathy, but love even more being part of a ‘posse’.
Here’s to a fabulous 2019 with lots of vases – flowery or otherwise.
Thanks for being part of our posse, Jen – and yes, just think how many vases we will produce between us in 2019! 😀
The greens are so very restful in a vase. I like flowers, of course, but the greens are even more important in the winter. I’m going to have to look some of these up later to find out what they are! One of the joys of IAVOM. I like all the different shapes and textures and it’s quite appropriate for this time of year. Here is my link: https://ablogaboutcompost.blogspot.com/2018/12/an-oddball-collection-in-vase-on-monday.html
It was fun rambling round the garden deciding which greens to pick as of course there was so much choice – sorry I didn’t do individual pictures of the components but enjoy looking them up!
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As you say, foliage is important in our gardens and our vases all year, I like your fun interpretation today. A very Happy New Year to you Cathy; here’s my contribution today: https://myhesperidesgarden.wordpress.com/2018/12/31/in-a-vase-on-monday-happy-new-year-2/
Thanks Christina – and it was fun walking through the garden deciding which greens to pick. Wishing you a wonderful 2019 too
Love your healthy greens, Cathy! Thank you so much for hosting and having thought of this joyous meme. Happy New Year!
Thanks Ali – it was refreshing to have a purely green vase today
It’s amazing how many shades of green there are. When I had a bigger garden I toyed with the idea of having a green area using lots of shapes, textures and shades of green. Anyway, I love your green vase today.
Ahah – is that idea still festering, Chloris? Do you still have some grass to ‘get rid of’…?! 😉
Yes, there is still grass but I don’t think I have the room for an all green garden, there are so many other things I want to do..
That doesn’t surprise me…
That looks so fresh and new, a perfect way to begin 2019. We have had such fluctuating temperatures that I actually managed to pick a few bits of foliage from my own garden; a rare event in December in my climate. My vase is here: https://www.lindabrazill.com/each_little_world/2018/12/ivom-the-dark-cloud-.html
Thanks Linda, and how thrilled you must be to have found something to pick 🙂
Very refreshing, foliage is a vital component in any garden, so many people question that and want everything to flower. I am surprised you have T.asiaticum in your garden, I could grow it here easily , too easily so I have none. Happy New Year to you and Thank You for all your IAVOM works. Here is my vase. http://theshrubqueen.com/2018/12/31/in-a-vase-on-monday-dombeya-jambalaya/
Thanks Amelia – is Trachelospermum thuggish for you then…?! I have had T jasminoides before and that was killed off in a bitterly cold spell so I guess this could be too, although it is growing againsta wall so will have some shelter. Thanks for your kind words and my best wishes to you too
Yes, thuggish and a pruning nightmare. There is a tricolor one that is really pretty – though I would never keep up with it.
I love your greens Cathy. And you are so right, green at this time of year is just as refreshing as flowers. If only we had anything green here in Ohio. Green would be a sight for sore eyes here. I’m not extremely fond of snow, but even that would be preferable to the drabness of winter here.
Well…Green is favorite color and there are so many different greens to chose from. Love yours. Happy New Year to you and yours.
Thanks bcp – yes, I could have ended up with a much bigger posy than I did if I had picked one thing in every shade of green!
Hi Cathy, very clever of you not to be stuck even if it is winter. I could have provided the sprouts – they’re not my favourite vegetable so there’s still a few in the fridge. Like the use of the Tupperware too – now that’s a blast from the past! I didn’t find the time last week – just too frantic – but if I had you would have seen that I filled several vases with cuttings from our fir tree but not so this week – I’ve been able to go for all out colour instead. Here’s my link: https://silverscrappers.blogspot.com/2018/12/in-vase-on-monday-marigolds-on-new.html
Thank you Elizabeth – no need to send me a sprout but I appreciated your Christmas wishes! I scheduled my Christmas Eve post several days in advance as we were off to my Mum’s for Christmas and it was hard enough squeezing the time in the week before!
You’re so much more organised than me – though in my defence I didn’t bargain on hubby’s emergency admission to hospital just before Christmas. Fortunately, he got home soon after. Anyway, never mind that. I’m here again because you asked about our ‘stained glass’ window – sadly, it’s a film. I’d love a real one and maybe one day I’ll get it, but in the meantime the film is a lovely substitute.
Oh gosh, I am so sorry that your husband has not been well and do hope he is recovering well. I think the film works reall well and I certainly take ours for granted, forgetting it isn’t ‘real’ 😉
What a wide assortment of greens you collected! Some blue-green and chartreuse in there as well I see. There aren’t as many flowers here at the moment but there still are some and I used them and red berries to toast the new year. My morning newscast told me that New Zealand has already rung in the new year so it’s on its way! I hope it brings you and your family joy, Cathy. Here’s my post: https://krispgarden.blogspot.com/2018/12/in-vase-on-monday-welcoming-new-year.html
I didn’t even stop to see what blooms there were Kris, but just went straight for the greens as it is so easy to take them for granted.
A very bright and refreshing green arrangement, and I love the use of parsley in a vase Cathy. Happy New Year!
Thanks Cathy – I tried to use some different textures or leaf shapes as well, so the parsley was a perfect choice. Have a good new year yourself and fun planing your new garden
It’s that time of year when we’re even more grateful for the marvelous greens in our gardens and your vase shows them off beautifully! It’s like you brought a little piece of your garden inside. My offering is here: http://outlawgarden.blogspot.com/2018/12/in-vase-on-monday-winter-incense.html
Thanks Peter – and that’s the main ethos of IAVOM, bringing our gardens inside
Cathy that most magnificent vase with the full range of greens. I love ivy and parsley and everything else. It is cheerful and does not need flowers, although I have managed to see the little rosebud. And the vase is a wonder: a tapperware from the 80’s. I can not enjoy my garden in winter, because now I live in Madrid. But I think that in Primavera I will plant some more shrubs to have more green. Cathy all the best for you and yours in the new year. Happy New Year 2019! Greetings from Margarita.
Thank you Margarita – there are so many shades of green and different forms and textures of leaves and plants, so they can be a real asset
Clever you Cathy! What a lovely collection of green for a fresh start to a new year! I have failed miserably to come up with a vase over the last two Mondays. A combination of Christmas, visitors, and not such great health has rather scuppered me! But I will be back next week! Looking forward to it already! Happy New Year to you, and all your wonderful and creative readers! Amanda x
Thanks Amanda but so sorry you have not been well. I do hope you will be more yourself again next week – sometimes gettjng back to our usual routines can make a big difference!
Oh you’ve made most effective use of some of the forty shades of green as well as the the odd tinge of red Cathy. What a tranquil and easy on the eye vase. I love sprouts but have not devoured a single one this festive season. Will have to remedy that soon 🙂
It is good to see your greens. Happy IAVOM.
Thanks Lisa – and it is refreshing looking at this vase for real
1980s Tupperware! That is almost as excellent as the bloomless greens! Tupperware is not my favorite, and is intentionally absent from my kitchen, but the 80s ROK!!!!!!!! . . . . Okay, so you are probably wondering why I am overreacting to plastic. I am over it.
Anyway, the lack of bloom demonstrates a defiance to the lack of color in the garden that so many of us dislike this time of year. (It is easy for me to say that because I am in California.) We grow palms and redwoods, which are not known for their blooms, but are pretty nonetheless, sort of like spruce and firs in other regions. No one seems to notice that they lack color. Color is certainly excellent, but is not necessary. Well, I don’t need to tell you that.
An unusual arrangement. And you are right: who needs blooms 🙂
Thanks Piglet – I was pleased with the end result and glad I took the opportunity
I love green as much as any colour. It’s very soothing and calming. Something we all need at the moment. I’ve cheated and chosen flowers from the greenhouse. Wishing you a very Happy New Year Cathy. Love karen x https://bramblegarden.com/2018/12/31/happy-new-year/
It’s not cheating, Karen, and I will be using blooms from my own greenhouses when I have some!
Thank you Cathy. I’ve still got some pink alstroemeria I’m going to pick for the house tomorrow. Only four stems, but so precious in January.
They will be as lovely in the house as out, I am sure