Calla Lily Arrangement

As I went through the garden doing my Sunday morning stroll today I noticed that my calla lilies (zantedeschia aethiopica) are finally blooming and I knew immediately that they would be the ideal blooms to use for a little flower arrangement.

At the end of the process I was pleased with the arrangement above, but getting there was quite a struggle. First I thought I would be able to cut five blooms, but it turned out that one of them was already over and another one had too many blemishes to be used as a cut flower.

Having only three blooms to work with presented quite a challenge because they looked lost in a bigger vase. Like in my last bouquet (see the post here) the solution was to cut the long stems of the flowers down quite a bit and use plenty of greenery (five calla lily leaves) as a foundation for the blooms.

I realized that my final arrangement resembles the way a calla lily naturally grows. Mother nature always knows best!

The strong architectural presence of a calla lily bloom always fascinates me.

And the leaves are not less captivating with their beautiful veining.

Usually, I like more romantic bouquets, but I find that calla lilies call for simplicity and restrained to not disturb the beauty of their clear lines and understated elegance. So a simple modern glass vase seemed to be a good fit.

To me, the arrangement has a bit of a Zen-character which inspired me to accompany it with a sound bowl with a simple wood striker. When I bought the bowl I had been told that it is very old and from Nepal. That might be true or not, but it definitvely has a wonderful sound.

I love in this shot how the light shines through the leave of the calla lily and illuminates the white flower.

Pure elegance.

I can get lost looking at these beautiul leaves.

The flower seen from a different perspective, revealing the yellow spadix.

Calla lilies are truly pieces of art.

After a long time I like to participate in Cathy's very popular "In a Vase on Monday" meme, where she encourages us to pick something from our gardens and bring it indoors to be enjoyed up close. Please go over to her blog and see what she and other people have filled their vases with this week.

Wishing everyone a good start into the new week!

See you in the garden!

Warm regards,

Christina

I am linking up to 
Rambling in the Garden - In a Vase on Monday
Dwellings - The Heart of Your Home - Amaze Me Monday
Between Naps On The Porch - Metamorphosis Monday
Cedar Hill Farmhouse - The Scoop
Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays
21 Rosemary Lane - Share Your Style
Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Oslon - Share Your Cup
Peonies & Orange Blossoms - Thursday Favorite Things
A Delightsome Life - Home and Garden Thursday
French Country Cottage - Feathered Nest Friday
Holunderbluetchen - Friday-Flowerday
Rattlebridge Farm - Foodie Friday and Everything Else
How Sweet The Sound - "Anything Goes" Pink Saturday
One More Time - Share It One More Time
My Soulful Home - Sundays at Home
Angie The Freckled Rose - Dishing It & Digging It
botanic bleu - Monday Social
Coastal Charm - Show And Share
Shabby Art Boutique - Create, Bake, Grow & Gather

A Caterpillar and Some Random Garden Shots

We were having an usual cool Memorial Day weekend here in San Diego (highest temperatures today were about 70 F/21 C and lowest temperatures predicted at 56 F/13 C) with mostly gray skies with very little sun and even a light drizzle from time to time, but unfortunately really not enough to water the plants.

I worked on Saturday, but had yesterday and today off and got at least some gardening done, like planting my last white dianthus (how many dianthus can one plant?) and finally fertilized all roses in containers on the terrace for the first time this year. I know that is way too late, but hey, nobody is perfect. I also weeded and cleaned out the Calla Lilies of spent flowers and yellow leaves. Since the weather was bad I didn't take any pictures this weekend, but was going over photos from the last weeks and would like to show you some of those tonight.

The decent rains that we were getting lately did wonders to the garden. And the rain drops look beautifully on some of the plants. Here is a photo of Stachys ‘Helene von Stein’, more commonly known as Lamb's Ear.
  

Close-up shot of Stachys 'Helene Von Stein'. Don't the rain drops remind you of diamonds? Who needs real diamonds when you can have something like this for free?

Zooming in even closer. Nature is simply fascinating!

My second alstroemeria 'Little Miss Sophie' has finally bloomed, after giving her plenty of fertilizer.

I think it is such a pretty variety and the best thing is, that the flower stalks don't flop over, because they stay short and don't become leggy like so many other varieties do.

I didn't have too many blooms on my Calla Lilies, zantedeschia aethiopica, but the ones that I got were lovely. Unfortunately, Calla Lilies are anything but drought tolerant, so their future in my garden is uncertain. 

I went to the spring garden tour of the San Diego Horticultural Society. Besides the gardens that could be visited they had a big market place where many vendors were selling plants and garden related items. I came late and things were pretty much picked over, but these two beauties immediately caught my eye and I managed to get a hold of them. As far as I remember the vendor told me that they are miniature pelargoniums and he claimed to have bred these plants himself. 

This one is called 'Linda Zee'. I really love the cheerful little flowers. Usually the color of the flowers would be a little bit too bright for my taste, but somehow it didn't bothered me at all. As a matter of fact I really find them quite charming exactly how they are.

The other one 'Cornelia O Plume' picks up exactly the color hues of a regular size Martha Washington pelargonium that I already have in my garden. I think these two are just the perfect addition to my small collection of pelargoniums. Now I just have to find a good place in the garden for both of them.   

To my knowledge coleus are annuals, but I cut mine (coleus 'Wasabi') back hard in winter anyway and to my surprise it came back just fine. It actually stayed more compact so far than last year, which I like even better. The chartreuse color of the variety is just perfect!

My recently bought heucheras 'Lime Marmelade' got planted into the ground in close proximity to the chartreuse coleus mentioned above and are doing fine. For a heuchera you can call them almost vigorous, which is rare in my climate. And so far they hold their chartreuse color well, just as the label promised. 

My white flowering bell flowers (unfortunately I lost the label with the name of the variety) are blooming for the first time since three years and have formed a nice ground cover around one of my Pygmy Date Palms. I believe that this is due to the winter rains that we got. 

For many of you maybe not so special, but I just love the dainty white blooms. 

First open bloom on my dark violet gladiolus (sorry, I have lost the label of this variety, too).

  

A few days later the plants looked like this. Gladiolus offer only a short show in my climate, but they are totally worth growing in my opinion.

My 'Iceberg' beaming in the morning sun!

Hardy geranium 'Rozanne' seem to be even more blue after the rain.

And now we come to the caterpillar.

I found two of these hairy fellows in my garden. One was happily munching the petals of my white Hybrid Tea 'Pope John Paul II' and therefore needed to be provided with another food source outside of my garden!

Doesn't he look fascinating?

For a better size idea we put him on the cuff of my husband's shirt.

The caterpillar was quite agile and quickly made it down to my husband's knuckles...

...and fingers. My husband tried to identify him but no luck so far. Does anyone of you have an idea what the name of this guy is? Does he become a butterfly or a moth?

Always interested in trying out tech things my husband put his Iphone on the concrete of our terrace and took this slowmo video of the caterpillar. At the beginning and end you see the real time speed of this little guy. I think he was impressively fast. 

Just want to mention at the end that recently I passed 250.000 pageviews. That is a quarter million clicks on my blog! I find this a mind boggling number considering that I am not blogging that often. Thank you all for visiting and reading my blog, you made my day!

See you in the garden!

Christina

More Spring from my Garden

As usual I have taken tons of photos this spring in my garden, that I didn't get around to publish. So I thought I will just put a post together with at least a small selection of them.

The calla lilies, zantedeschia aethiopica, which are growing in urns by the pool, were flowering fabulously in early spring this year, when the temperatures were still relatively moderate.

I am always fascinated by the elegance and simplicity of a calla lily bloom. 

Two new chartreuse/lime green colored heucheras with ruffled leaves (did I tell you that I have a weakness for chartreuse colored plants?), made it into my garden. The name of the variety is heuchera 'Lime Marmelade' and they are supposed to retain the chartreuse color well year-round.

Ajuga reptans 'Catlin's Giant', also called Buggleweed or Carpet Buggle, was blooming generously in a lovely deep blue hue, which you don't find that often in the plant kingdom. The green-bronze foliage is quite attractive as well.

My white bearded iris 'Platinum' reluctantly gave me only a few spring blooms, but at least it did. I was taking photos of the blooms in different light conditions. Here it is on a gray overcast morning.

Same variety back lit in the late afternoon...

... and hit by sunlight from the front. I think, it is amazing how different the flowers look depending on the changing light conditions.

The 'Lavender Crystal' miniature rose, produced blooms in an absolutely stunning bluish/lavender color. Apart from the color I also like the flower form of this variety very much.

I have transplanted 'Lavender Crystal' from a container into the ground last year November already, but the rose is still struggling, only able to grow into this spindly very small shrub. I guess, it is time for some pampering with fish emulsion and hopefully that helps. 

Alstroemeria Princess Lilies 'Claire' blooms continuously and tirelessly since weeks and is one of my favorite plants in the garden right now.

My white cyclamen (variety unknown) in the blue container bloomed very floriferously this spring, which I believe is due to a good feeding with fish emulsion. This stuff can help some plants to achieve amazing performances. Martha Washington geranium 'Regal Elegance Purple Majesty' in front of the cyclamen just started to flower in this photo. 

Here are some close-ups of the blooms of the Martha Washington geranium 'Regal Elegance Purple Majesty'. It was flowering very happily and still is, but right now needs a good deadheading. 

I am really in love with the color of this particular variety.

It is very easy to grow in my garden...

...and the blooms are almost always perfect. 

I have another Martha Washington geranium 'Regal Elegance Rose Bicolor', which seen by itself is pretty as well,...

...but the color is very bright and bold and not so easy to integrate in my cool color garden scheme. I seem to go back and forth by the week, if I really like it or not in the front yard. 

Floriferous 'Climbing Iceberg' rose strutting her stuff.

'Grandmother's Hat in her full swing. This rose has a wonderful perfume...

...and the blooms can be outstandingly beautiful.

'Reine des Violettes' is a little bit of a diva in my garden, that requires extra attention and the bush itself so far is not a lovely sight, but the blooms and fragrance, oooh my...

My white camellias 'Nuccio's Gem' were a mess this year. I blame the drought, early heatwaves and the water restrictions for all the scorched, brown and balled blooms. But every now and then one opened to perfection. These camellias were so breathtakingly beautiful last year (here is the link to my post about them from previous year), so it is really sad to see them suffer like they did this spring. Even though the climate data doesn't give much reason for it, one can always hope for a better next year...

An unknown light green cymbidium orchid was blooming its heart out this spring. You see how many flower stalks it had and, as far as I remember, I had cut already a few to fill my vases indoors when I took this photo. The plant itself is not the most prettiest sight, though. I assume, that is was sitting in too much water, which can lead to the brown leaves. Maybe the drainage hole in the pot is clogged...

The blooms are so gorgeous, pure and perfect...

...and I simply love, love, love the light green color.

Before I leave you I just have to share that we had rain yesterday and the temperatures dropped down quite a bit to 56 F/13 C. Altogether we maybe got a little bit over an inch of rain (25.4 mm) or so (note to the gardener: I have to get a rain gauge!). For most of you this is probably not worth mentioning, but with the severe drought and heat that we are having here in California, it was really a reason to be happy for me and it looks like the plants felt the same. 

See you in the garden!

Christina