Tags
Cosmos in a vase, Gaillardia 'Arizona Sun', In a Vase on Monday, Marigold 'Jaguar', Zinnia 'Zowie! Yellow Flame'
The dreaded “f-word” was prominent in last weekend’s weather forecast, so I spent a fair amount of my Saturday catching up on some much procrastinated chores: bringing the last few houseplants indoors, taking cuttings of coleus for winter rooting, and harvesting the window box full of basil. The most fun task, however, was cutting as many annual flowers as I could and arranging them in vases all over the house. 
This vase of self-seeded ‘Pink Sensation’ Cosmos wound up on the roll top desk in our entryway. 
I mixed a few more Cosmos with some ‘Jaguar’ Marigolds, and put it on the corner of the same desk.
The Cosmos didn’t last long in the vase. By Tuesday evening (three full days), most had shriveled and withered and found their way to the compost bin.
I put another bouquet of ‘Jaguars’ in the family room. I really like the look of yellow flowers in this denim-blue pottery vase. My best friend gave it to me a few years ago, and she happened to be visiting this weekend, so I was happy to show her that I like it and use it!
I grew these marigolds from seed I had collected from plants the year before, then direct sowed them into the garden in mid-July. The first flower opened about six weeks after sowing. I wasn’t sure what I would get, since ‘Jaguar’ is a hybrid, and was pleased when it bloomed true. Its longer stems and loose growing habit (less mounded than many marigolds) makes it a great cut flower. They last well in a vase, too–after five days, I’ve had to remove only a few droopy blooms.
I even put a small vase full of them in the bathroom!
Two Gaillardia ‘Arizona Sun’ made their way into a tiny vase on the kitchen windowsill. One was a barely open bud which has opened widely over its days in the house. This Blanket Flower has been a powerhouse bloomer in the garden all summer, taking no breaks in flowering since mid-June. I like it so much that I purchased and planted two more this fall!
Here’s one of my favorite vases, full of “Zowie! Yellow Flame” Zinnias. They closely resemble the Blanket Flower, don’t you think?
These sit on a kitchen counter. Normally, I have a hard time keeping my counters clear of paper and other “stuff”, but when there’s a bouquet of fresh flowers to highlight, I make that clutter disappear!
Such a bright, cheerful flower! These are lasting a long time in the vase as well. They do suck up a LOT of water each day, so I’ve been vigilant about refilling the vase.
Finally, here is a mixed vase on the dining room table. It includes a few ‘State Fair Mix’ Zinnias, one very mature ‘Zowie!’ Zinnia, some self-seeded Cleome, ‘Jaguar’ Marigolds, and three plumes of Zebra Grass from my neighbor’s yard:
The Cleome has dropped a few petals on the table, but otherwise, this vase is holding up well. Of all the vases I made on Saturday, this is my favorite. I really like the combination of colors and textures it holds. 
We did indeed get a hard frost on Saturday night, followed by snow squalls during the day Sunday and even lower temperatures Sunday night. A couple of times this week, I’ve caught myself thinking, “Hmm . . . I should go out and cut a few more marigolds or Cleomes to fill in the empty spots,” and then I am sad when I realize that they’re all gone until next year! At least I still have some mums and asters blooming outside, and some well-budded Christmas cacti and African violets in the house!
Even though it’s well past Monday, I am linking to Cathy’s weekly In a Vase on Monday blog party. It’s a great place to meet other bloggers and get inspired to create your own arrangements from whatever may be blooming around your garden each week!
It’s inevitable, but it’s still sad when we lose our flowers for another winter. It seems too early for snow! We got frost the same night you did though, and many of our flowers are gone too. I hope the rest of your autumn still has some warm days and that enjoy a cozy winter. Thanks for sharing your lovely bouquets! -Beth
Lovely to see you managed to rescue some flowers – and they are all so pretty! Yes, the mixed vase would be my favourite too, but those orange zinnias are amazing, and I like the Gaillardia too. I grew Marigolds from seed for the first time this year and they were a similar colour to yours but had such short stems I couldn’t use them for cutting. So yours have that added bonus. Thanks for sharing Kimberley!
All lovely and each has their own individual attraction so i don’t think i could have a favourite – it’s just lovely to see all those blooms even if the frost has now seen off the last of them ;( I had forgotten about marigolds for the last few years but have recently autumn sown some – yours are so pretty. Thanks for sharing, whatever day of the week it is.
I like the expression “rescue vases”. I have two on my kitchen table right now in the Johnson City, NY area – one with cuttings of the three coleus varieties I was growing, and one with other assorted flowers. Alas, the nasturtiums I “rescued” in the vase are long gone, along with Japanese anemone, and soon all I will have left is sedum.
Beautiful flowers but in my opinion it’s a sad post. I hate to see that first hard frost and it’s even more annoying when followed by weeks of warm growing weather. But if it gave you an excuse to bring all those zowies inside to enjoy well then I guess there is some good that came out of it!
fyi I bought a bunch of tulips yesterday, hopefully we’ll be sharing tulip photos next spring!
The only good thing about the warm weather after the frost is that it makes it much more pleasant to be out there pulling out all the dead stuff and planting the bulbs. Hopefully I’ll have tulips next year! The Zowies still look great in their vase, by the way, even after 8 days! (Most of the Jaguar marigolds are still looking pretty good too!)
We did not get that weather but some wet snowflakes and a little frost that licked a few plants…many are still blooming as it gets colder here. Beautiful rescue vases!
I did the same thing with my zinnias when we hit 30 one night. I cut them all and brought them in. I rarely cut my flowers so it was so cheerful to have a vase full on the table. How cool to have a house full! 🙂