Tuesday Bouquet

 

Today's bouquet:

Or should the "Steel Grass" be shorter?

My bouquet did not turn out like the instructor's.  We were supposed to make a kind of see-through cage out of the "Steel Grass" (Xanthorrhoea johnsonii) by sticking one end of each grass in one side of the container and the other end of each grass into the opposite side of the container.  The instructor's looked very cool, like electrons orbiting a Gerbera daisy nucleus:

My attempt did not look like that.  It looked seriously lopsided, flat on top, too dense in some places, sparse in others.  And, honestly, scanning the room showed the rest of the class didn't do much better on theirs.  

Admitting defeat, I pulled the wayward electrons and did simple:  a sparse mohawk.  I know my limits.  Give me a week and I'd figure it out.  In an hour, nope.  

Elements of the project:

Five florist Gerbera daisies

"Steel Grass", aka Xanthorrhoea johnsonii, which I found astonishing--a slow growing plant like Xanthorrhoea used as florist greenery?!!?  

Hypericum 'Coco' (the green berries)

"Monte Casino"  aka Aster ericoides   

Last weeks arrangement still looks decent.  The Alstroemerias all opened--that helped a lot.  

Out in the garden, I've been cutting back the roses.  Looking around...oooh!  The not-Tuberose bulbs have begun to flower.  Mini Daffs?  The flower is just an inch wide:

Leucadendron 'Blush' is getting ready to blush.   It's still unembarrassed at the moment:

New plant purchase:  Pelargonium 'Caldera Pink'.  It looks to be the 'Mystic Spires Blue' for this year (quickly ubiquitous everywhere) because this plant blooms like crazy non-stop.  We'll see how it does.

Need to plant a lot of plants yet.  Like the Teucrium azureum. 

Oooh!  What's that splash of pink?

Some roses didn't get cut back last year because of the knee.  This year I was able to easily and pain-freely climb into terraces and do a good job on them.

At least that's something good in 2025.  A splash of pink, a last gorgeous 'Yves Piaget' before cutting it back:

Keep your spirits up, in whatever healthy, positive way you can.