In a Vase, on Monday: A Lighter Shade of Blue

Spring has definitely arrived in my part of Canada and with it a never ending list of gardening tasks and, finally, a lot of choices for a Monday vase of cut flowers. Narcissus in all sizes, Muscari, early tulips and Hyacinth are now in bloom. Lovely for bees and other pollinators, lovely to bring indoors to enjoy after the sun goes down. If you’d like to see a few dozen more vases from around the world, check out Cathy’s site, Rambling in the Garden. Here’s what I came up with this week:

The daffs are likely Tate-a-Tete, although I can’t be sure. I buy several small pots of daffs in late winter to provide a foreshadowing of spring – they’re labelled simply ‘Mini Daffodils.’ Come spring, I plant them out and they come back, year after year. Here’s the row that I cut these from:

The blossoms on the twigs are from a dwarf sour cherry – I had to prune it a week or so ago and, lo and behold, the cutting I put in water have bloomed!

But the star of this vase is, for me, the Muscari latifolium. This bulb sends up a single broad leaf in the spring, followed by the flower stalk, which can get quite tall (up to 12″, I’ve read, although I’ve not had any more than eight or nine inches). Here’s a few, taken in the morning a few days ago. I just like the shadows here!

The flower on this Muscari starts out dark blue, almost indigo, and as it grows and matures, the tip turns a lighter blue. It’s really striking, I think.

The vase is a small Raku piece we’ve had for a while. Perfect for these small blooms.

As a bonus…I accidentally cut these larger daffs when transplanting them. Oops! Luckily they fit nicely in this old milk jar, along with the remaining cherry twigs.