The small bouquet of only four roses that I shared last week was my first for In A Vase On Monday, and should have been my last. I do not intend for this to become a habit. I just happened to encounter a few cheap and trashy flowers right outside that I thought I could assemble for a picture. If I had planned this better, I would have gotten some more interesting flowers from work, and perhaps a more appropriate vase.

Common florist cyclamen should be finishing bloom now that the weather is warming. I am none too keen on how florist cyclamen is used as an expensive cool season annual, so started planting ‘used’ plants into some of the landscapes where they can grow as cool season perennials. They go dormant through summer, and then regenerate during autumn. I do not know why the specimen that produced these few rich red flowers was not planted with the others. It got potted instead, and is now in the recovery nursery.

Mosquito shoo geranium is a bit perplexing also. I got a few cuttings of what I thought was a more appealing scented geranium several years ago. I thought that those cuttings desiccated while I was in Southern California for several days. A few months later, mosquito shoo geranium appeared where the cuttings had been, and grew like a weed. I do not know if it grew from a surviving cutting, or from seed that blew in on the wind and just happened to land there. The specimen that provided these few flowers grew as a second generation seedling.

Flowering maple, although not naturalized, grows from seed near specimens that were intentionally planted. They are remarkably variable. The specimen that provided this single flower, as well as several other small specimen, were taken from a neighbor’s garden that could not accommodate all of them. We intended to add them to our landscapes, but have not done so yet.

The tiny vase is a ‘shooter’ bottle that formerly contained an ounce of some sort of tequila. A few of the same were found in the ivy of one of the landscapes at work. I like them because they are glass rather than plastic like the more common vodka shooter bottles. Also, they are adorned with that distinctive blue agave motif, which sort of makes them more horticulturally oriented.

The dusty shelf and glare on the glossy white background are no accident. The vase was placed on the sill below a whiteboard in our meeting room at work, just inside from where the flowers were collected. It seemed like an appropriate venue at the time, although I can now see that I could have done better.

In A Vase On Monday, which is also known simply as IAVOM, is graciously hosted by Cathy of Rambling in the Garden. Anyone can participate. Simply arrange flowers or other material from the garden in a vase, and share pictures of it with commentary and a link back to Rambling in the Garden. Also, leave a comment at Rambling in the Garden with a link back to your post.

29 thoughts on “In A Vase On Monday: Bad Habit”

    1. Thank you, but since I am a horticulturist here, it would have been more appropriate to find a few prettier flowers in the landscapes. Flowering maple is Abutilon X hybridum, or related species. Since they generate viable seed, they must not be hybridized too extensively. However, the genetic variability of their progeny, and tendency to revert back to more basic forms, suggest that they really are hybridized and genetically confused.

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      2. Tropical? I do not think of it like that, since the mild frost here does not bother it. Tropical hibiscus, like is common near the coast of Southern California, is more sensitive to mild frost, so it makes sense that flowering maple would be somewhat sensitive. Rose of Sharon prefers a bit of chill, and performs better where winters are cooler.

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  2. I’m not so fond of pink, but I enjoy red and pink together, and rarely see it in peoples’ floral arrangements. I like this one, and I especially like that agave bottle. I was lucky enough to find a sotol blooming this weekend, in an area where sotal isn’t “supposed” to grow. So much for that!

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    1. Well, I do not know how to select colors. I just take what I find, preferably white. I have not cut a Yucca flower in decades, and have never seen a sotol that I am aware of. Does it bloom like a Yucca?

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      2. Yucca whipplei, which is the first species of Yucca that I met in the wild, blooms with stalks that are potentially taller than ten feet. Of course, it happens to be the most spectacular of the Yuccas.

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  3. An unusual but very pretty combination :). Although I don’t contribute every week I love IAVOAM because it gets my creativity flowing, so maybe this won’t be your last vase either. 😉 Happy Monday!

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  4. It is as much about the story and props Tony. If I came across such a pretty cut glass vase it would certainly be used for a few flowers, and I like the fact that you had your little posy at work. The geranium is very pretty indeed and looks similar to a cultivar called Pelargonium Pink Capricorn, in a scented geranium range, but the leaves are not all that scented to my nose.

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    1. This mosquito shoo geranium is delightfully aromatic, but can get weedy. Individual plants do not last long, so must be replaced every few years. That would not be a problem, but it does not grow from cuttings as easily as other geraniums do. I am inclined to layer copies next to old plants before they die. Also, the flowers produce raspy seeds that blow about, and have potential to get annoying. Well, now that it is here, It likely always will be.

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    1. Thank you. The bottles were just too interesting to get discarded. There is another small vodka shooter bottle that lacks adornment. Most shooter bottles are plastic. We find quite a few of them at work.

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  6. I would have hung onto that bottle too – perfect for a few blooms like this. Is the flowering maple the one with the red bloom. Those cyclamen are sold as ‘cool season annuals in the UK too. Thanks for joining us again -are you suggesting this is a bad habit? 😉

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    1. I got two of these bottles. I like them, even though I now know what they are. There are two very pretty and rather old medicine bottles too. The rich red but otherwise plain flowers are the cyclamen. The single flowering maple flower is the pendulous red, yellow and dark brown flower to the far left. It looks like Ronald McDonald with a black eye.

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  7. As the Abutilon looks like it’s dripping from the Cyclamen flower, I think you did well with your arrangement. I had to look up “mosquito shoo geranium” as I’d never heard of it but it seems I have some relatives of the same Pelargonium 😉

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    1. Mosquito shoo is perhaps the lowliest of the scented geranium. It grows like a weed, and sometimes produces those annoying seeds. I do like it though. I actually find some of the more interesting scented geraniums to be less interesting, and some of them are difficult to grow.

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  8. Is the Mosquito Geranium scented then? I had a scented Geranium once that reminded me of lemon and rosewater but didn’t take cuttings and it didn’t survive the winter indoors. Probably too dark for too long here.

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