In a Vase, on Monday – Summer into Fall

It’s Thanksgiving Monday here in Canada – a holiday where we all (aside from those who don’t eat meat) cram our bellies with a lot of turkey, cranberry sauce and various vegetables to celebrate the fall harvest. Plus pumpkin pie. With whipping cream. I put together today’s vase not so much to celebrate the harvest (I’m sure you’ll see oodles of photos using that theme), but with the approaching winter in mind, and called it Summer into Fall. It features the last of summer’s fiery red zinnias, asters that started to bloom in late summer, tips from a tall ornamental grass that is a highlight of the fall garden plus dried flower/seed stalks from Siberian Iris – a memory of spring and reminder that in just Six Short Months we will once again start to revel in warmer temperatures. (Is that a run-on sentence?)

The vase likely started life in a flower shop, used to deliver a bouquet of posies for mother’s day or some other celebration. I paid 50 cents for it a local thrift shop.

It was a perfect autumn day yesterday – sunny, cool and windy. Great for outdoor work, not so great for flower photography!

After last weekend’s frost most growth has stopped – zinnia buds remain unopened, marigold foliage has turned black, calla leaves are yellowing, beckoning me to pull the bulbs (or tubors) and store them safely indoors for the winter. There’s a few cherry tomatoes and some chard still to harvest (plus the winter squash) but the garden over all is really winding down. Heavy sigh.

Thanks, as always, to Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for hosting this weekly collection of flower vase creations!