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Today’s vase is a celebration of green; particularly the Echinacea ‘Green Jewel’ new to our garden.
I was extremely fortunate to find Echinacea ‘Green Jewel’ offered on Brent and Becky Heath’s end of season perennial sale a week ago. I bought two pots, already in flower. I finally cut two of the flowers for today’s vase, with the intention of helping the plants establish a little better without their flowers setting seed.
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That set the color note, and I added various shades of green with Apple Mint and Coleus ‘Gold Anemone’ for the background foliage.
My offering today features a smattering of favorites, including some a friend especially admired on our impromptu garden tour this morning. I love the opportunity to deepen a friendship while sharing a garden. It was her first visit to ours, and now I’m looking forward to visiting the garden she and her husband have designed.
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She was interested in the mints and the Coleus especially. Of course, the ‘Under the Sea’ line of Coleus are so unusual they really don’t resemble normal Coleus very much. I love the fern like fringe of these leaves.
There are a few stems of flowering Basil in the vase today, along with a a handful of our happy Black Eyed Susans and a few roses.
I’ve walked past the roses in recent weeks, trying, like Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, to feature a few of our more unusual flowers. But I love the roses and they bring us such pleasure each day. I relented and cut a few for today’s vase.
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I especially like how the mostly green arrangement sets off the peachy tones of these ‘Lady of Shalott’ roses from David Austin’s collection of English shrub roses.
This is one of my favorite green glass vases, acquired second or third hand many years ago. The green egg is Malachite and so is the tiny green frog. This stone frog reminds me of the tiny frogs we find hopping around the garden in August.
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It has been very hot here again today, and we are truly dry for the first time in months. I spent much of yesterday watering the garden and pulling grass and weeds from around thirsty perennials.
The jewel like green surrounding us a few weeks ago looks a bit faded today, showing the growing distress of our trees and shrubs. We still hope for some rain tonight and tomorrow. In fact, clouds were gathering from the west as I went out late this afternoon to cut stems for today’s vase.
I didn’t make it out to the garden this morning before the heat set in, and so waited for the blazing sun to fade behind the gathering clouds before cutting this evening.
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I hope you are still finding beautiful and interesting stems in your garden to cut and bring inside to enjoy.
Preparing a vase each week, or two or three; gives us the opportunity to appreciate the garden’s offerings at leisure and up close. The flowers look different, more special somehow, trimmed, arranged, and placed just so indoors. I appreciate Cathy encouraging garden bloggers to cut and arrange each week by allowing us to share with one another through her posts.
Please try your hand at it if you haven’t already. This is one of summer’s simple pleasures and is not to be missed.
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One of our new Echinacea ‘Green Jewel’ before I cut for today’s vase.
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Woodland Gnome 2015
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Forest Garden 
The rich greens of the vase and Malachite, plus the coleus and Green Jewel, make a magnificent setting for the peachy flowers, peachy roses are my favorites. That’s an interesting tip about the Echinacea, I hadn’t heard that before. I’ll have to cut some flowers to see if it helps my plants get larger. Echinacea have been very slow to bloom for me. I also have a foresty garden, 2 acres with a lot of trees. I find the shade gardens a lot easier to keep weeded.
Dear Hannah,
You are absolutely on target about shady gardens being easier to keep weeded. Some of our trees feel two summers ago, and what was shady suddenly became bright full sunshine. I spent quite a bit of time managing the weeds in sunny areas. I hope you’ll find that cutting the flowers helps your Echinacea grow more vigorously. Thank you for your kind words on the arrangement. Best wishes, and thank you for visiting, WG
I’ve heard that about echinaceas, that you should remove the first year blooms on new plants to help them make it through the winter. Good luck, it’s a cool color!
Oh and the rose is perfect in there for this time of year. You enjoy it so much more in the house I think.
Thank you! I have grown and enjoyed green Zinnias, so I thought these would be fun as well. I think you need warmer colors to set them off. Thank you for the kind words. you are right about enjoying them more in the house. At least you can enjoy them more when you have the vase where you spend more time. ❤ WG
A beautiful arrangement – I love daisies in any form and the black-eyed susan and green coneflower are wonderful, summery flowers. As hot and humid as it is today, I too, sense the change that lies ahead. But I won’t admit it until Sept. 21! 😉
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That unusual mix of plant life came together beautifully in your handsome green vase. The egg is awesome and I’m a big fan of frogs.
Thank you, Rickii 😉 I love Malachite eggs. They always have such beautiful patterns.
Thanks for sharing all these thoughts about your vase and your garden. We share so many thoughts with fellow bloggers in our posts and comments and over time feel we know and understand each other that little bit more. And how lovely to be showing a new friend round your garden for the first time – this really makes you look at the garden with fresh eyes, doesn’t it? Your new echinacea is lovely (and you will be pleased to know I have ordered some coleus seed to try for next year) and together with the contents conjure up the idea of a woodland garden with splashes of sunlight appearing through the trees. Thanks for sharing
Thank you, Cathy. We do see with fresh eyes when we bring visitors into our gardens. I was grateful I’d taken time to do the extra trimming and weeding the day before, and that my husband had mown everything! How exciting that you’ve ordered seeds to experiment with the Coleus next year!
A lovely vase with that wonderful echinacea perfectly showcased in the green glass.
Thank you, Donna ❤