And now for something completely different, a vase constructed from Lego!
As soon as I saw the Lego Botanical Collection featured (in a small way) in the RHS monthly magazine earlier this year it went immediately to the top of my wishlist; my wish was granted when Elder Daughter gifted me the above Flower Bouquet at Christmas – well, not the bouquet, but the 756 Lego pieces required to make up the constituent parts of it. I took my time, usually constructing no more than one bloom or leaf in a day, thoroughly enjoying the fiddly and detailed process – definitely Lego for adults (recommended for 18+)!
The designers have made a brilliant job of translating the various shapes and colours of bricks (many used in alternative colourways for other completely different models – car bonnet or petal of Californian poppy anybody?) into recognisable blooms, most with articulated petals to allow nearly closed buds or almost past their peak blooms. Can you recognise what they are? Clockwise from the left: antirrhinum, daisy, Californian poppy, lavender, aster (I like to think of the latter as scabious, which it closely resembles too) and rose.
Lego was first created in Denmark in 1932, the name being derived from the Danish words meaning ‘play well’; I played well over a number of days creating today’s bouquet and then rooted in the big box of Lego in the loft that my Now Very Grown Up Girls played with in their younger days to construct today’s prop, a rather evil looking girl looking for blooms in her garden to pick for IAVOM (I couldn’t find a happy face, most of the bodies having been decapitated, leaving their heads rolling around in the bottom of the box…). Once the week is over, the prop will be returned to the loft as the Grannie Day grandchildren are not quite yet at the age to play sensibly with Lego.
The stems of witch hazel in last Monday’s vase lasted right up to Saturday, but this week’s vase should last a little longer. There are many options for Monday vases, even when we don’t have fresh blooms in our gardens or foraged nearby – twigs, leaves, berries, dried flowers, houseplants or even Lego. All can bring pleasure to the creator and to those who pop into IAVOM, so please consider joining us, leaving the usual links to and from this post if you do.
Spoiler alert: with an outstanding birthday present to choose, I decided to indulge my recent pleasure and have ordered the Lego Botanical Bonsai Tree…
Rambling in the Garden 
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That is amazing! Whatever will they think of next! I was a great fan of Lego as a child but would never have dreamed of this. 😃 I looked up the series and the bonsai looks lovely. I also noticed a group of succulents which is very attractive. A lovely Christmas gift Cathy, which has no doubt brought immense pleasure already. The lavender is especially close to the actual flowers. I am so impressed!
Here is my vase today. Thanks as always.
It’s brilliant, isn’t it? Strangely, the lavender was my least favourite until I shortened the stem by removing a couple of pieces and I am happier with it now. I love the way thehy have recognised the changing colours of an opening antirrhinum and the fact that the heads often begin curved (one of them here is straight and the other curved)
Yesterday I gave a sack of lego cast off by my grandson to a friends little boy who immediately disappeared to start constructing. If only it had been around in the UK when I was a child! Sigh! One of the other guests had been given the flower set for Christmas which was the first I had heard of it so it is nice and timely to see what it looks like.
But Lego was invented in 1932 and I suspect you are younger than 90…? 😉 I remember asking for some as a child, and was given just a few boxes of basic bricks, whereas I had been hoping for a proper ‘set’, even a small one. I am sure your fellow guest will be as delighted with theirs as I am with mine – well, if they are gardener, at least!
It probably was available but I didn’t hear of it until my own children came along. And anyway my parents would almost certainly have thought it was unsuitable for a girl.
Ha yes, that was very much the case in my childhood too – perhaps not so much unsuitable, but not something they would think of
Close up they look a little odd, but together from a distance the bouquet does look real. I’d have loved this as a child. I had a garden kit, a lawn with borders in which you could plant flowers with a little spade – I used to buy packets from Woolworths and design gardens to go with my Lego houses!
I had the Britain’s model garden too, and added to it for a number of years – you can see some of it here, from when I was 11, I think, and would have been my most played with toy. https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/2016/04/04/in-a-vase-on-monday-salad-days/
I still have it, sadly much mutilated by children. and my Mum has the original lead version. No Lego houses for me though…
Yes! That is what I had, from the same age too. No idea what happened to it, probably my parents threw all my toys away when they sold their house (many years later)
Parents have a lot to answer for sometimes…! 😁
I remember buying sets with my pocket money – they cost 1/11 (or maybe 1/10), I was going to say, but then had a mental aberration… It’s what popped into my head but then I couln’t be sure that’s was how we wrote it…one and eleven, which meant one shilling and eleven pence although that seems like nothing, but of course it was back in the early 60s… Hmm, my memory is clearly not what it was, Jude…🙄
That seems like a lot, but I can’t remember how much pocket money I got then. 1s 11d is how I would have written it, I’m not sure we used the / symbol then. I do remember when I was six that I got 6d a week and half a crown (2s 6d) a month which was deposited into the school savings account.
I think it the typed 1/11 that didn’t look right! When I was 6, we were getting a penny for every year old we were, so I got 6d at 6 too!
Ooo! I just had a look at your 2016 post, which I missed at the time. I didn’t know about the Britains Garden as a child – I would have loved it.
You can still buy pieces on eBay, Sandra…
Don’t encourage me! 🙂
I love this, Cathy! I thought it was flowers at first glance and wondered what in the world you had found in your garden. It does look a bit fiddly, well done. I think the Lego girl is concerned she is outshined by the flowers. Here is my Monday vase: https://theshrubqueen.com/2023/01/09/in-a-vase-on-monday-sage-salvias/
It’s great, isn’t it? The instructions are diagrammatic and generally pretty easy to follow, but some of the pieces are quite tiny so are fiddly.
Oh that is a fun idea.
Isn’t it just?!
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That arrangement certainly took a lot of patience to build up, and I agree the lavender is excellent. Here is my vase today.https://noellemace.blogspot.com/2023/01/in-vase-on-monday-mid-winter.html
They blooms are all really clever, and the leaves too
Oh how wonderful!!!! I am a huge Lego Fan and so are my Grandchildren. I have seen the floral kits and lusted after them – what a gorgeous gift!
My offering is much less colourful!: https://daffodilwild.wordpress.com/2023/01/09/in-a-vase-on-monday-candle-holders/
They have increased the range even more I believe – but I shall stick at this and the bonsai for the time being… 😉 On the rare occasion we have popped into a Lego shop I have been in awe at some of the things on offer (and the prices!!)
Yes the prices!!!!
Indeed!
Legos! Who knew! Though I have not been commenting lately, I am usually doing vases each week on my blog. I recently did a Blurb.com book of my Monday vases and gave you credit for your wonderful meme. You can find the book link on my blog and look at it without buying it. Best to you. https://www.lindabrazill.com/each_little_world/2023/01/ivom-by-the-book.html
Hello again Linda – long time no see! How lovely that you are still creating vases each week and that you have created a book from them – do you recall I did a Blurb book after the first year of IAVOM, just privately though? Thanks for the credits
No doubt they are fun but flowers that aren’t flowers ,even paper ones, just don’t do any thing for me unless they are on a greeting card..3D of course.
Well, it is all in the eye of the beholder of course, Beverley – and you make lovely cards!
Thank you for the kind words but I haven’t even done that lately….I nees too but the shipping is out of sight to mail the boxes.
Out of sight?
Love it Cathy 😂 It reminds me of a certain miniature garden we both had in our childhoods. You must have had great fun putting it together. A bit like doing a jigsaw🤔
Yes, I thought you would like it – and I have glorious kit that I shall share on the blog in due course that we came across out of the blue at Birmingham Botanical Gardens on my birthday weekend, which will remind you even more of our childhood gardens…
I remember “tray gardens”where the glass was a frozen pond . They were fun.
Ooh yes!
It took me a second or two to realize that your colorful blooms were Legos, Cathy! The folks that make them have gotten more and more clever over the years. There’s currently a Lego display in place at my local botanic garden, which features animals like polar bears rendered in fantastical colors. I can’t say I like that particular display even though I appreciate the artistry that went into creating the animals; however, I loved the display the garden hosted several years ago with animals and even a tired gardener rendered in more realistic colors.
Here’s my post: https://krispgarden.blogspot.com/2023/01/in-vase-on-monday-new-arrivals.html
Why would it be a tired gardener and not a tired zookeeper, do you think, Kris…?! 😊
Ha! Well, the original Legos show featured animals like rabbits and cows so I tired gardener wasn’t really out of sync. I supposed the current show with psychedelic-colored wild animals could use a zookeeper (or maybe a drug enforcement agent), though 😉
😁
Great fun! Well done lego!
Thanks – I think it’s fun too 😁
How fun!
It was/is!
What a great idea! Very creative, colorful, and fun. 🙂
Thanks Beth, yes it was, I really enjoyed it, taking my time to increase the fun
LEGGO! You know though, I was one of the few kids who never got it. Other kids had it, and I thought that it was excellent. However, it was not quite as excellent as my garden. Perhaps I should have appreciated LEGGO more.
Haha, my parents were not imaginative present givers either – the best presents came from a uncle who was single until his middle years. There was always something creative or exciting from him!
How wonderful! The multiplicity of the pieces is very clever. Maybe that lady is a villain, or perhaps she is a goth? 😉
You can buy Lego with your own features on the faces these days…at a cost, of course!
Cathy I love how you embrace life! You must have had a great time assembling this vase. My husband had a great time for a while with the architecture legos; I missed the lego boat completely. I’m late joining in but hope you won’t mind a tardy vase this week. https://pbmgarden.blog/2023/01/10/in-a-vase-on-monday-miracle/
There are some astonishing sets you can buy these days, and this Botanical series is certainly tapping into a different market (and would appeal to people in flats with no access to a garden as well as people like me). I noticed you hadn’t posted on Monday, so was very pleased to see were still able to create a vase
Very well arranged. Was it more difficult, not less, than arranging than real flowers?
Thanks. I suppose because the stems were more rigid they were all going to be upright, which made it a bit harder – but some stems I could shorten by removing a piece, which helped. I could have chosen a less restrictive vase, but had just grabbed this one to pop the blooms into as I constructed them and just stuck with it.
I love Lego and flowers, I think I might have to treat myself. Isn’t it wonderful how timeless lego is? Something for everyone. Thank you for this cheerful post, much enjoyed!
Thank you – I enjoyed writing the post, Helen, which generated a lot of discussion and seemed to bring back a lot of memories for people!