In a Vase, on Monday – Six Hours Later

Chris Mousseau

With temperatures in the low twenties over the weekend, and continuing this week (that’s into the 70’s for some folks), it seems spring has prematurely ended and summer has arrived. This will likely (but not definitely) be the last week to feature spring bulbs (since Lilacs have just started to open…) and, happily, one of my favourite daffodils opened on Friday, just in time for today’s vase of cut flowers. I don’t know what it’s called, it just appeared although I’m sure I planted it at some time. I get three flower stalks every year; this is one of them:

For fragrance and contrast, I paired this solitary daff with several N. Quail, still going strong, and, supposedly the star of the vase, Pittsburg Tulips, the final tulip of the year. Its tall stem makes it perfect for cutting and the lovely purple adds grace to anything.

I titled this post ‘Six Hours Later’ because I took the first set of photos soon after cutting the flowers, around 6:50 Friday morning. The light was perfect, but the tulips were closed tight, so I took the vase inside, where the warmth of the house prompted the flowers to open wide. I brought the vase out again at 12:30 – a bit of a difference!

Many thanks to Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for hosting IAVOM and giving gardeners around the world an opportunity to share their flower designs. Have a great week everyone!

21 Comments

  1. Now that I posted my second vase, I am realizing how much effort goes into getting vases and pictures of the vases right. Compared to yours, mine is deplorable. Well, I am a horticulturists, not a floral designer. If the lighting for your later pictures was less than perfect as it was for the earlier pictures, I can not tell. I can see that it is ‘different’, but not in a bad way.

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    1. Thanks Tony – for the noon hour photos I had to do a bit of processing with my computer to tone down the brightness and add contrast. I’m not a great photographer but I’ve learned to love ‘the golden hour’ of the morning, just before the sun hits the ground.

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      1. Yes, that helps. Now that I have tried to take pictures of vases, I realize how difficult it can be. Almost all of my pictures are taken outside, either at a good time, or where shaded by the forest.

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      3. Ha! I just did that for the photinia that I need a picture of for the garden column for next week. I did not plan the picture, but just happened to notice the photinia that I needed, out in a parking lot at about noon. I got picture of it in the sun also, so will use the better of the bunch.

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  2. A gorgeous vase shouting spring all over. The dark tulips make the daffodils shine. Mine have finished some time ago and the roses have started although I cannot say summer has arrived, quite the opposite actually, it’s cold and wet. Have a good week!

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  3. I love watching tulips develop in a vase, and how the stems elongate, and curve, you could keep bringing that vase in and out…..

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    1. I know!! I’ve had a vase outdoors with tulips and daffs and the tulips seem to change shape as the vase is shaded and then as it gets sun again. Interesting.

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    1. I am lucky! It’s very similar (although a bit larger, more yellow, with a totally orange cup, no fragrance…) to N. poeticus, which has just opened in abundance. I’m torn between the two.

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  5. And I just try and take my pictures outside as the light is always better there whatever time of day it is! It was interesting to see the time delay with your tulips, and like mine it is intriguing to see the colour change as they open. I do like fluted necks to a vase, like this one – useful for keeping stems where you want them!

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    1. Yes, I love this little vase, simple and ‘cheap’ as it is. I’m looking forward to thrift stores to open, and garage sales to start again, to look for more vases. Lockdown here for another 15 days…

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      1. Car boot sales could operate again from mid April which we were unsure was a good idea – and seeing the queues for our favoured one confirmed this and we turned back…too soon for that, as there is no way people would be socially distancing

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  7. Light can make such a difference and I love seeing tulips backlit with the sunlight shining through their petals. That is a lovely purple. The morning light in your photos is gentler and probably a more accurate reflection of the colours.

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    1. Early morning light takes away the harshness of the world in general, I think. My favourite time of day – just me and the birds! (This morning a pair of wild turkeys joined me in the garden – from a distance. They’re so loud though I was imagining alien invaders had landed and were coming up behind me – their gobbling was either “hello we’re lost” or “earthling prepare to die…”

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      1. Wild turkeys sound so exotic to me! The largest birds we get are buzzards – love hearing them shrieking as they circle on the air currents. My morning entertainment is watching the hares at the moment. One had a mad running fit today, racing around in big circles. He must be happy!

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