Fine ceramics for your table, kitchen and garden produced in Memphis, Tennessee
Fine ceramics for your table, kitchen and garden produced in Memphis, Tennessee
1:52
A blue version of my Modern Ironstone tulipiere, because I love blue and I love white flowers.
These earliest narcissus are two types found in my garden. First, the pure white versions, are bulbs that I have planted willy-nilly after forcing during the holidays. They don’t always rebloom, but they often do. They are the same sort I sell in kits, so if your bulbs have bloomed out, tuck them into a warm corner of your garden and see what happens. The narcissus with the yellow cups are old varieties my mom first bought in Natchez, MS and shared with me as her bulbs multiplied. They have curved, thin petals, a longer cup than the white varieties, and an intense fragrance. For me, a city/marginal zone 8, they always bloom right after Christmas.
Both white and blue tulipieres are available in my shop and I look forward to playing with this vase form this year. Happy New Year!
2:52
After more than a month of unseasonably warm weather, Memphis was hit by a deep freeze. I picked everything that was blooming that wouldn’t bounce back- the last rose, the paperwhite narcissus from last week, and these tazetta narcissus- grand soleil d’or, which I planted along my driveway a dozen years ago. They smell heavenly, are suitable for forcing, and are hardy in zones 8-11 (though the majority of my area is zone 7, living in the center of the city gives me a warmth bump).
I showcased this exact same arrangement in a very similar (but satin finish) vase last year in February. I have this vase in gloss and satin finishes in my shop, and I’m working on a mini version for spring.
3:52
Last February Memphis was hit by an unusual week (or more? it felt like it lasted months) of sub-freezing temperatures. So many plants in my garden suffered -I lost camellias, a fatsia, multiple roses. Camellia japonicas are more tender than sasanqua varieties, and this camellia, Professor Sargent, was hit hard. It was just beginning to come into bloom when it was coated in a sheet of ice. While the plant itself is alive and sending new growth, it was as tall as the back addition and lost much of that height. I have been so happy to see the beginnings of its bright rosy blossoms.
I plucked a single stem to place in my long necked bud vase. This form is meant specifically for displaying a single spectacular blossom, like this camellia. I have these in two colors in my shop.
4:52
I am so glad that hellebores have come back into horticultural fashion. They really fill a role in the winter garden- popping up as the rest of the garden sleeps, shining through the rare snow and ice in the deep south, bending low but popping up cheerfully again once it all melts. I picked several stems of white/green and pink cultivars from different shady spots in my garden weeks ago. They are still sitting, perky, in a Modern Ironstone Trumpet Vase in the studio. These come in satin or gloss white, and in multiple sizes, and are in my shop.
5:52
After several prolonged cold snaps over the last few weeks , I was grateful to find this bright yellow narcissus in the garden. I popped it into this satin celadon bud vase I just pulled from the kiln.
Fewer blossoms make me appreciate the bounty I usually have to work with even more.
6:52
The end of this last week has been encased in ice. Right before it hit I went out and pulled his vibrant purple hellebore. It was a gift from a friend a few blocks over. Many of us began rethinking our gardens during the early pandemic, and she thinned here shade garden. I chose mostly white hellebores, but this purple is a stunner! And I am enamored with all of the pollen it offers to the bees in deep winter.
I have just a few of these egg vases, but am offering a new size (nearly ostrich egg) before Easter begins. It is available as a preorder! These will ship 2/7 and again after 2/20.
7:52 (Nashville TN edition)
This week’s flowers come from my dear aunt’s garden in Nashville, TN. She has a fabulous collection of hellebores that I chose for my rose-embossed small brick. I am at the Antique and Garden show this weekend and wish I had made and brought more of these vases because I just have a few left.
Nashville is zone 7, and the weather has been bananas. Friday was nearly 70* and this morning is 17*. These sweet flowers won’t last long in the house because they were frozen when I clipped them. I added some of their textural foliage and some beautiful (I know it’s somewhat controversial) ivy with golden variegation to fill out the whites, pinks, and mauve blossoms.
These bricks are handmade from a slab of clay embossed with a hand-carved linoleum sheet scattered with my favorite blowsy antique roses. I have two in the shop ready to go, a very few at the show, and plenty available for preorder.
8:52
Ever year I wait for the magical week (usually just before we have an ice storm) when the neigborhood early flowering plum blooms. I believe it is prunus mume. This year it’s a little later and happily is just beginning to bloom, so perhaps our show will be a little longer. I cut a few waterspouts and crossing branches from this enormous tree (which was planted at the street in front of an apartment building and is pretty regularly hacked on by our utility company) to pop into my copper blush moon vase, which I’m enjoying in the studio. I have two of these vases in the shop with more to come. Each vase is thrown in two parts, trimmed, and decorated with a blush of copper oxide before firing, then finished in satin white glaze. Each vase is unique but retains “family” characteristics.
9:52
Daff season has begun! As a march baby, I have always loved daffodils and have hundreds planted, though I don’t know the names of most of them. I plant them to pick and give away, as I did this bunch yesterday. Many are heirlooms (saved from old home-sites facing development, gathered with permission by my mother), a very few were purchased. They naturalize readily and are a joy in the late winter.
I have arranged this group of daffs in one of my tall flower bricks. This particular brick is joining the work of many other potters in a humanitarian aid effort for Ukraine organized by potter Sasha Barrett. The event goes lived Monday. Click on his link for more information. I have others, in white and speckled blue glaze, in my shop, and am donation a portion of sales through March towards Ukrainian relief through Doctors Without Borders.
10:52
This long slog of winter is nearly over in my part of the world. Though the temps have largely been mild for me, the days have been short and dark and we are ready for sunlight and renewal. This week’s offering is the last of winter’s flowers- white quince that is beloved to me but in a tough spot in my garden and too old to move, and my Camellia Japonica Prof. Sargent, which suffered so much damage in 2021’s freeze that I’m delighted with any blossoms it has (though they were nipped by frost). I have tucked them into a one of a kind Bavarian styled flower brick that is based on the hand-painted decorations I picked up at a tiny church tag sale a few years ago. I love how the color drifted a bit under the clear satin glaze, like old flow blue ceramics that have always set my heart pitter-pattering. There may be one or two more of these this year, but not many. These are very limited edition.
Happy Spring!
11:52
When I clipped these flowers on Thursday I was excited to welcome larger arrangements again- feeling spring’s lushness returning. The daffs have just been stunning, the hellebores are knocked out, hyacinths all up, and the white flowering quince just erupted for what feels like the first time in years. Friday night landed us with 4+ inches of powdery snow and another blast of arctic cold. I was grateful for snow rather than ice.
This handled urn is one of my favorite vases. I started with an armload of daffodils, added a framework of quince and forsythia branches, and filled in with blue and white hyacinths and hellebores. This vase is one of my favorite shapes that I’ve developed in the last few years and the first of the taller vases in my collection. It works for all sorts of flowers and may be the vase I reach for most often in my home. There is one in my shop with more on the way.
12:52
I was so excited to pick my first tulips to add to my mostly-daffodil arrangement in this tulipiere. I am in a little lull in my daffodil season- the camperneles and tete a tetes are nearing their end and my late daffs have not yet begun. The weather has kept the tulips down, but they are coming soon.
I will tell you a secret- I love things that have been given new life, repurposed, repaired. Some of my favorite ceramic pieces have been mended, and this particular vase has been mended. When I was unpacking from my last show, I was so sad to see that this vase suffered in my haste and had two chips- one on the spout, one on the top. The chips didn’t affect the piece’s function, just its appearance if you looked closely. I decided to mend this vase with a coat of my speckled blue glaze (there is a second vase with this same treatment that was planned) and I couldn’t be more delighted with how it turned out. Both vases are in my shop. This vase is discounted to reflect the mend. Maybe you will love it as much as I do.
13:52
In my garden, I am just past the main season of daffs, waiting for my smaller mostly white late collection to begin, waiting for the perennials to bud up. It’s time for the minor bulbs to shine. I have always loved deep ultramarine blue muscari and its tendency to naturalize. Over the last few years I’ve purchased new varieties, like this Valerie Finnis, which has done well, and white, which didn’t do well but I’ll try again. I am also a fan of violets, which I pull out of flower beds and plant instead in the “lawn” because I’m not a fan of grass. Violets are evergreen, spread, are low-growing, happy in clay soil, and most importantly, withstand labrador feet. They are also edible- I love to pop their blossoms in spring salads and beverages. I filled this out with a few last spikes of hyacinth and white voila. I popped them all into a camellia brick, a low self-arranging vessel meant for smaller stems and available in 4 glazes in my shop.
14:52
The tulips have popped! I have been so delighted this week to see all of my creamy tulips burst into bloom. Every year I buy white tulips and every year they are varying shades of cream, some blush-tinged, but rarely actually white. Still, I love how these creamy flowers pop against my evergreens and the emerging green perennials in my garden and I look forward to the progression of pale creams through the year.
We had a severe storm late this week so I picked everything that was fully open, plus my favorite double Thalia (pure white) and the poeticus (white with a bright cup fringed in red) daffodils and the hellebores, which begin white and age to bright spring green. I added a few sprigs of maidenhair fern and loaded them all into this tall pedestal vase I decorated with cobalt blue inlaid drawings of birds. This vase is a limited edition, just one available.
15:52
Last week I wrote about my primarily white and cream floral choices in the garden. This week’s tulips blow those choices out of the water. I believe that these tulips are many years old - I dug up my beds when I rebuilt them last year and moved all of the old tulips to the south side of my house. They have come up in joyful profusion and I clipped them this week, enjoying how they grow and twist in the vase.
This vase is a new form for me. Slightly taller and narrow, a little formal and a little whimsical with knotted handles. I have a few of these in my shop and more, slightly smaller, on the way.
16:52
Welcome Happy Morning! This week was filled with strong storms, so I proactively clipped and stored flowers for this Easter arrangement, full of blue and white to coordinate with my holiday table. I picked the last of my tulips, and tucked in the spicy sweet Sir Winston Churchill narcissus, white dianthus, and vibernum. I also tucked in green-white hellebore stems, delicate white columbine, and a few fringy stems of fleabane, the wild daisy-like flower that grows in the margins of cultivated and wild spaces. I added blues in the form of Spanish bluebells, dark and light blue muscari, and trailing variegated vinca. I used a vintage cagefrog to create this arrangement in a low handled flower bowl I made early in the year and have been saving for Easter.
17:52
Today’s arrangement is one in which I had an eye to the forecast and the calendar. When last week’s big storm was approaching I pulled ALL of my tulips, white for the Easter arrangement, the last red and my fluffy double white tulips, and the knocked out parrot tulips, the first I’ve ever grown. I didn’t arrange them so much as place them in the openings of my tulipiere, letting them grow in the vase for a few days as I waited for good sunlight and finally took this photo.
The tulipiere, in a few variations, is available in my shop.
18:52
As much as I generally revel in my warm climate, there are some plants that I struggle with because of our heat. Lily of the Valley is one such plant. I have seen it happy in old, deeply shaded gardens in Memphis and I keep trying to grow it. Last year I got two small stems. This year, a few more, which I dug up, popped into this Modern Ironstone Pedestal Bowl, photographed, and replanted where I thought it might be happier.
This bowl is a favorite- I use it (and its siblings) for fruit, as a cachepot, and for flowers. An optional glass frog or metal pinfrog is also available in my shop.
19:52
Tulipieres are not just for tulips! Here, I’ve filled my rounded six-spouted vase with all of my cream, golden, and apricot roses, plus some sage blossoms. The roses are Tranquility, Lamarque, Bolero (white/cream), Desdemona (blush), Graham Thomas and Jude the Obscure (yellow to buff) and Versigny, (pinky apricot). This smells like heaven.
I have two of these tulipieres, which I often rest on little carved wood pedestals to protect fine wood finishes, also available in my shop.
20:52
Though most of the roses I choose to grow are soft colors, white/blush/apricot, sometimes I have gotten a wild hair and ordered brightly colored roses (though four of these were gifts). Today I’m featuring my pink/cerise collection. I keep a red, single blooming climbing rose planted by birds along my fence, a red/cerise rose that came with my house that puts out bouquets of blossoms all summer long, both of which are tucked in the back of this arrangement. I talk about my single-flowered Mutabilis which is a great beginner rose frequently. A china rose, its color changes from apricot to pink to magenta as the flowers age. This blowsy pink rose is an old rose without an identity that came from my aunt’s garden. Of the bright roses I bought, we have Wenlock and Rosa de Rescht, both 2-3” flat intensely fragrant blossoms. The striped rose in front is Ferdinand Pichard. It is joined by pinks Caldwell Pink, Lavender Lassie, and another unnamed found rose.
In April I was helping a friend put together a wedding gift and we came upon this idea- one of my cachepots paired with a vintage flower frog. I pick up both glass and metal pinfrogs anytime I see them, and love using them. I love how the roses look spilling out of this square cachepot.
21:52
This week has been a bridge between spring and summer. The heat and humidity came hard and fast and fried so much, but coaxed later flowers into bloom. I knew I wanted a blue and white arrangement to complement this blue and white hand painted Bavarian motif vase. I also knew the sky blue salvia uliginosa, which is a 6’ tall, waving patch of bright blue in my sunniest border, would be the first blossom I chose. Like all the salvias, it shines in heat and humidity. It is joined by periwinkle “walker’s low” nepeta. The majority of the flowers in my garden are white so that they’ll show up against the dark brick and in the shade. The spring mock orange flowers are nearly done, and a few white roses from the garden’s first flush are here. I also added summer standouts Queen Anne’s lace, salvia gregii (Texas Wedding Sage) which gets huge but is light and airy and blooms from April through December, the first gardenia blossoms, and Madison star jasmine.
22:52
Last fall I went on a bit of a lily buying binge. I have always had an Easter lily in my garden, planted after the first Easter we bought our house, and at some point I collected and scattered tiger lily bulbils, but I’d never intentionally set out to plant. I bought Casa Blanca, Madonna, and Regale species lilies and though I planted them quite late, they are beginning their show. Lilies add height to the flower border- some reaching 6 ft tall or more, and have an incredibly long life as a cut flower. I placed these Casa Blanca, the first of the lilies to bloom, in my blue allium printed trumpet vase. I am remaking these vases, in both modern ironstone and embossed in this hand-carved allium print, to improve their shape and stability. This is the first of the refigured design and have to-order options in other colors.
23:52
It is early summer and a time of transition in the garden. The first flush of roses are over and many of the summer perennials are still waking up. It is also the beginning of Japanese Beetle season, a true scourge for Southern gardeners. I am alternately a smasher or dismemberer- this morning I cut several with my clippers. Another option is to bag rose buds before they are open, or I’ve also been advised to give roses a good summer pruning so they will rebloom after the beetle breeding cycle has passed. So this morning I cut all of my roses that are in bloom (Maggie, Louis Philippe , Iceberg, Mutabilis, and a found climbing mini) as well as the first dahlias (Sam Hopkins is the dark Red and the white is L’Ancresse), self-sown Queen Anne’s Lace, and some heuchera and thalictrum to fill the arrangements out. I have put these in my Moon Vase series- each has a center cup to hold stems for easier arranging.
24:52
It’s my annual hydrangea party! The first batch of hydrangea bowls are on my website, and I made my annual snipping trip to my friend’s garden to get these vibrant blue-purple lacecap hydrangeas. Right before the pandemic I invested in several shrubs and having an under-used bed that runs along the entire side of my house cleared out. Part of the shrub haul were hydrangeas, all of which turned out to be the native lacecap type, which are my favorites because of how happy they make the polinators visiting my garden.
These bowls are roughly 6” wide and 3” tall and feature a built-in frog to hold the stems. I have begun having problems with my staple claybody, particularly in terms of attaching handles to thrown pieces in that they don’t want to attach. It was unfortunately reformulated right after I invested in 1000 lb. I’m looking for a new clay and will have more of these bowls in stock once I’ve settled on a new clay.
25:52
This week’s flower is one that I have a love-hate relationship with. Milkweed is beloved by monarch lovers as well as all pollinators. The milkweed in my garden came under a cinderblock fence from my neighbors garden. It travels by underground runners and airborne seeds. It is prolific. When it’s not blooming early in the season, I rip it out by the handful. When it’s blooming, the fragrance is just incredible and each globular cluster of flowers is covered with native bees, bumbles, honeybees, butterflies, wasps, and flies. It is a host plant for monarch larvae, so I check for eggs and caterpillars before I pull them up. Otherwise they will take over the entire garden, the lawn, and they even pop up in driveway cracks. But oh the fragrance. And oh the pollinator feast.
After I cut and seared the ends of these blossoms (every flower that produces sap- milkweed, poppies, euphorbia, must have the cut ends either seared over flame or dipped into boiling water to prevent wilting), I popped them into the celadon version of my mini knot vase. These now come in four satin colors and this runny celadon reminds me a little of McCarty Jade.
26:52
The Memphis area has been struggling through an early heatwave. We’ve had August temps in June, no rain, and everything is wilting. This week I chose flowers that look cool, even though we aren’t. These two dahlias, fleurel in front, frozen in back. I leave my dahlias in the ground, under mulch. When I lift them they always die, so I treat them like tender perennials and leave them in the ground. I’ve had Frozen for two years with no blossoms so I was very happy to see it budding up, even though heat and insects have marred this first blossom. Fleurel is in the front, and I have several of these in my borders. They also happily survived the winter in ground. As with my roses, I don’t spray or treat for insects. Many growers who compete or grow for sale will place blossoms in organza bags to develop, but as these are part of my landscape, I just leave them to it.
These two “dinnerplate” dahlias measure just 5” for me and are a warm cream rather than stark white. I placed them in the blue satin camellia brick, because nothing is visually cooler than blue and white.
27:52
My wedding anniversary was this past week, so today’s flowers are a nod to the very simple flowers I carried 22 years ago. We married in a tiny but opulent Episcopal church, in July, in Mississippi. It was hot and frankly crowded, and in that carved, gilded, red velvet and stained glass nave, I wanted to keep things as simple as possible. I brought in giant pots of ivy for the altar and I carried simple white lilies. It was probably my earliest indication of a preference for a green and white garden to temper the business of everything around it. This year for the first time I grew the same Madonna lilies that I chose for my wedding, so here they are today. I put them in a knot vase that dried before I could add handles, so I glazed it in the blue speckled glaze to make up for the lack of decoration. I have just one of these in my shop, but I may get a wild hair and do more of them in the future.
28:52
A very pink and white, nearly bridal moment in the garden. It’s been so hot and dry for the last several weeks that I anticipated a very minimal grouping this week, but instead I have an abundance of roses (the usual suspects- Perle, Mutabilis, Caldwell Pink, plus Desdemona, a pale blush-white Austin), a handful of white dahlias- ball to pompon, the early panicle hydrangea, and the native lacecap, and David phlox, which is a cultivar of native Panicula Phlox. In addition, I have a few deep plum and green drumstick allium, a pale pink reseeded zinnia, and river oats. I put this rounded arrangement in a tall (for me) Modern Ironstone Column Vase, which is a 7x4” rectangular footed variation of my tulipieres. More to come.
29:52
We are officially in a state of drought in my part of the world. While I was briefly out of town it was so hot that I lost a few of my dahlias. There are a few shrubs, perennials, and natives that are still happy, including this crocosmia, which was part of a wedding gift of perennial plants given to me when we bought our home in 2004. It’s a funny plant that runs and develops on corms. It easily gets out of hand and stops blooming if it is crowded, so I routinely yank out a handfull and it continues to bloom. I also have river or sea oats, also a native, that grows in a stand along my driveway. It is a very hardy grass that likes to move around. I
I have put both of these plants in my knot vase, which I’ve redesigned to be a more--similar upsized version of the mini knot vase. It’s a 7” columnar vase that exactly fits my ceramic frog . Both are in my shop.
30:52
I am so excited to have these ginger jars out in the world. Larissa and I have been working on them for the longest time and it feels good to be sending them out. This week’s flowers are in the 4” ginger jar (it also comes in a 6” size). I have been watering regularly and snipping blossoms in the mornings as they open, then storing them in the fridge and cooler rooms so that I’d have enough for an arrangement. The blue plumbago white althea, and white liatris need no such babying. They are just fine with the heat. These flowers are joined by a Fleurel and pompon dahlia, david phlox, a white panicle hydrangea, and David Austin roses Tranquility, Desdemona, and my old reliable Climbing Iceberg, which puts out occasional blooms despite the heat and humidity.
Clicking the photo above will take you to my shop page for the ginger jars.
31:52
This weeks flowers are a nod to my preppy past- a pink and green party. It’s high summer and the zinnias are in full bloom. My zinnias have mostly reseeded themselves- the ones I planted became bunny food- and are almost all in the pink/purple family. They are joined by a few roses- Maggie is the darkest pink/red, followed by the single petaled Mutabilis, whose blossoms float like butterflies, light pink Perle d’ Or and Caldwell Pink, and white Lamarque. For contrast, I’ve added white David phlox and a little lime panicle hydrangea- its a dwarf version of the popular Limelight. I’ve tucked this into my amphora vase, available in my shop.
32:52
A little shift for this edition of my Sunday flowers. It’s been a long and complicated week with home repairs necessitating a heavy garden cutback and working through a backlog of bisqued pieces that were on hold for one reason or another. Today’s flowers are in two versions of my gridded flower bowl, a small 4.5” bowl and a larger low bowl meant for a centerpiece. I have filled the low bowl with short-stemmed dahlias (mostly fleurel), mountain mint, echinops (which I’d left on the plant to dry, but would have been damaged by painters), clippings of Little Lime panicle hydrangea, David phlox, white zinnias, and Sally Holmes rose. This arrangement is probably the best reflection of my intentions for my garden- white, blue and green with blush against a blue backdrop. I filled a small striped flower bowl with a profusion of (broken) zinnias, salvia, and a Sweet Nathalie dahlia that blooms shocking pink for me rather than the intended blush.
I have several of the small bowls, a single large bowl, with more to come in my shop.
33:52
After July’s extreme heat and drought, the cooler temps and rain have been a relief. This week I chose flowers and foliage in cool blues, whites, and more glaucus (bluish gray green- I’ve been paying attention, Gardeners World!) tones in the garden. My white fleurel dahlias are really the only ones that are happy right now- it is the star of this arrangement. I added more David Phlox, which likes to spread in my garden and I’m always happy to see, a bit of tuberose, blush Sally Holmes Rose, and hydrangea. The panicle hydrangeas are lovely in the late summer, and I was surprised by a bit of rebloom on my native hydrangea arborescens. I added blues in cape and hardy plumbago, Salvia uliganosa, and a few velvety lambs ears leaves.
The vase is one of my knot vases, available in two sizes and a range of colors, in my shop.
34:52
The roses are awake! This week’s arrangement is a collection of roses in my favorite pale apricots, yellows, blush, and white. We have golden Graham Thomas, my first rose, joined by pale golden varieties Jude the Obscure, Wollerton Old Hall, Star of the Republic, Bolero, a blush to white variety, Sally Holmes, the single-flowered rose I love so much, and Tranquility. Many of these are David Austin hybrids that do well in the mid-south, with a break for a midsummer nap when the heat and humidity is at its worst. I also tucked in a tuberose stem because I love them so. All of these roses are in a slightly larger moon vase that I made to test a new clay. It does not have a cup to hold flowers but I have included a vintage pinfrog . This color is a limited edition, available for a short time in my shop linked above.
35:52
The arrival of the anemone in my garden marks a seasonal shift. Cooler nights bring these tall, wand-like clusters of blossoms in pinks and whites (so far just pinks in my garden). I’ve been watching them in anticipation for a few weeks, and I love the movement and airy texture they bring, floating above dark mounds of foliage in dappled shade. They are joined by a collection of white (fleurel, which is my best white dahlia, frozen, and l’ancress) and deep pink to red dahlias, also happy with the cooler nights. I will be digging up this eye-poppingly bright dahlia and moving it to a friend’s garden after our first frost. The red is one I’ve had for a few years, but the pink was not what I ordered and doesn’t work for me. I added a few fronds of Japanese painted fern, a cool silvery blue edged in brighter pink. In my garden, it lives happily with the anemone, hostas, and hellebores. All of these are tucked into a low flower bowl, approximately 10” wide with an affixed ceramic frog.
36:52
Though my garden flower preference is consistently found in pale buff, creams, and white flowers, this week’s flowers are deep and moody to go with this one of a kind black floral vessel. I made this footed oval bowl, finished with hand-knotted clay straps as handles, early this summer. As I walked around the garden this week, I noticed this velvety dark red dahlia, Sam Hopkins (one of my best bloomers, in near-constant flower since June, and in its second year in my garden) and chose it as the base flower for this arrangement. I added some of the new blossoms of hyacinth bean, deep purple, some of the darker coleus in my shady planters, and a few wispy stems of gaura. I particularly love how the dahlia and coleus colors play with one another. This vessel, one I won’t repeat in this colorway, is in my shop.
37:52
My zinnias are late bloomers ever year. They self-sow, moving where they like (many in the strip of grass next to my neighbor’s drive, and I pop them back into the beds). They come up in a range of pinks, oranges, and happily this year many white. Saturday morning, before a day of rain, I cut a generous handful to pop into this round tulipiere. It made a nice round low-key arrangement for the end of summer. I have just one of these in my shop.
38:52
Hello Dahlia season! Dahlias are loving these warm days, low (for us) humidity, and cool nights! I admittedly neglect the bed that runs along the south side of my house because I can’t see it- it abuts my neighbor’s driveway, and is riot of color. I bought a collection of red dahlias a few years ago and planted them there, in the full sun, and they have taken off. This week I disovered two plants covered is velvety red blossoms and cut them all to put in this satin black knot vase. The only one of the bunch that has not done well is Bishop of Landaff, a daisy-flowered red dahlia that I’ve tried three years in a row with now success. I think we’re finished with that trial.
This mini knot vase is one that I use regularly- I love it with both white flowers and deeper velvety tones. This vase, and its siblings in other colors, are in my shop. Click on the photo to go there.
39:52
Last winter I made two big tulipieres for an event and they sold in a flash. I began making another, realized the extent to which my clay had been reformulated (attachments no longer stuck, whether mug handles or additional spouts on tulipieres), and I wrapped this piece up in plastic and forgot about it for months. When I discovered it again, it was just damp enough to pierce the top. I finished this in my favorite speckled blue glaze and prayed for enough pale cream and blue flowers to fill it. My late season garden is tattered, heat worn, but the blue flowers have been the backbone of planters and window boxes. The white dahlias are still producing, and my favorite Sally Holmes rose is decked out. The pink anemone are finishing while the white anemone are just beginning their show.
This one of a kind vase is in my shop, linked above. I have plans to make more, so there is a preorder option as well.
40:52
This week, noticing the number of pinks blooming in my garden, I considered a pink to red chromatic arrangement, but the fall allergies have gotten to me and it didn’t happen. Instead, I pulled the white and deep red dahlias, the varying pinks of my mutabilis rose, and the pale blush Sally Holmes rose. They are in my tall handled modern ironstone vase, which has an oval opening that allows the flowers to spill out over the sides of the vase in a way I consider most pleasing.
41:52
After an extremely busy week, I looked forward to a calm, quiet weekend (that didn’t happen, it was joyful but busy) and my flowers for this week reflects that wish. Anemones are flowers that I did not grow up with. I first saw them at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens in Nashville in 2020 and fell in love with the blossoms that seemed to dance in the breeze, lighting up dappled shade. This one, ruffled swan, is new to me. I love its winding flowers and simple form. My pink anemone bloom first, followed by the white. After a long, hot summer, it is a refreshing change in the garden and I thought it would be perfect in this new marbled tulipiere.
42:52
Now in mid-October, the garden has transitioned into its waning days- seed pods are ripening, the dahlias are loving the cooler days and nights, and the foliage is beginning to turn. Here in my glossy (and quirkily handled) urn vase I have tucked a half-dozen red dahlias, the ripe calyx of roselle (the tea hibiscus), a few red and bronzy pink roses, coleus, and the seed heads of river oats.
This vase comes in gloss and satin glazes and is in stock in my shop.
43:52
Earlier this week we had an early first frost. I frantically covered the dahlias, brought in my tender begonias, and left everything else to fend for itself. I’ve enjoyed the dahlias and zinnias all week, but this morning I took dawn garden stroll and clipped a few happy fall garden bits to tuck into this new round-bellied mini amphora. My first camellia opened- this one is part of the Ackerman winter series of hybrid sasanquas- this one is winter’s snowman. My salvias- mexican (tall velvety purple), argentina skies and ensign guargantica (sky and royal blue), uliganosa (sky blue) - and plumbago made it through the frost with no damage. I rounded out this group with an unnamed white rose, climbing iceberg, and and Austin- tranquility.
44:52
It’s full autumn now, everything green is turning gold, russet, red, and flaxen tan. Every day I walk past a magnificent red maple, admiring it. This morning I found some fallen branches from yesterday’s storms, noticed the peppervine that grows wild turning bright golden orange and retaining its glossy black berries, and brought some home to accompany my deep toned dahlias. I popped them into my large black opal knot vase. This is a piece that’s also available at Paradox in Midtown Memphis. I have just one in my shop.
45:52
One of my favorite roses for the landscape is mutabilis, a china rose also called the butterfly rose. It is a single flowering form that is in bloom from April through December, covered in pollinators all season long. In my garden, this grows well over 6’ tall and easily as wide. It makes a statement.
I cut several stems and let them drape themselves in my Modern Ironstone Column Vase for an easy weekend not-arrangement.
46:52
This summer when I was developing a new line of work for a shop that opened in Memphis I added little thrown arms-akimbo loop handles to my classic bud vase. I made a few in black and loved them. It took a while to make them in other colors, but now I have! These vases are meant to highlight one spectacular bloom, like this quill-petaled heirloom spider mum. I got a start from my friend Amy Lawrence of the Chubby Vegetarian fame last year. I babied it and was delighted to see it growing this fall. Heirloom mums are very late bloomers and require vigorous staking. I have two more varieties that will bloom in the next week or two, and another that I broke so many times that it will have to wait for next year.
47:52
Of all the flowers I’ve grown over the past few years I might be most proud of this one. I have really struggled with learning heirloom chrysanthemums, which really just want to grow, but keeping them happy and safe and not breaking off the budding branches has been a challenge. This is Alexis, an incurve chrysanthemum that yes, I broke this week trying to keep her safe from the hard freeze. This lavender pink isn’t my favorite shade, but there’s so much texture and depth here (it also comes in an apricot which I may order in January because it’s more up my alley) that when we have more normal Novembers I’ll have roses to pair with it. I popped this blossom in one of my little round flower bricks to enjoy for the next week or so. More bricks like this one in my shop.
48:52
Late roses are such a gift. All of these pink/buff/apricot roses (perle, mutabilis, and Belinda’s buff, a new rose I put in this fall) coordinate beautifully with the bronze Evening Glow chrysanthemum, the coral bark maple, and the brilliant blueberry foliage. I tucked them all into a small amphora as a celebration of the last of fall. Next week I’ll begin focusing on winter flowers (hopefully my roses will continue to bloom), but for now, I’m enjoying these warm tones and the incredible fragrance of the roses.
49:52
Simple flowers this week, camellia sasanqua blossoms floating in one of my candle plates. I made these plates slightly deeper than expected specifically to float flowers or fill with beach stones. Here I have yuletide (center and left), setsugekki (white with pink tinge, lower center), winter’s snowman (top right), and the other two blossoms are shi shi gashira. Camellia sasanquas bloom from fall into deep winter, and though expensive, are long-lived shrubs that keep me going during the dark days of winter.
50:52
I noticed my Bolero rose, a sweetly scented white floribunda, was blooming early this week. I waited for a break in the rain and went to clip them, a bud of Desdemonda, the Setsugekki and Winter’s Snowman camellias, and a few snips of ivy that I have growing in planters. I tucked them all in one of my little ginger jars (they come in 3 sizes: this is the petite 4” version) and promptly developed covid symptoms. I had really planned to make one more vase for this year’s series, but it looks like that won’t happen. Still, two more weeks of flowers! Having roses blooming in December is a gift.
51:52
For my penultimate offering, my best camellia sasanqua, shi shi gashira. It was probably five years old when I bought my house and now reaches almost to the roofline. Last year it was damaged by an ice storm and I need to give it a big pruning this year, so I am cutting lavish bunches to bring in and enjoy. Some years it blooms from September through January- it is still loaded with buds. I popped several cuts into this simple new square-topped vase I made to test my new Indigo glaze with . Like real indigo, each use varies in strength and intensity. This application is faded like year-old denim. I will play more with this form and this glaze in the coming year. This vase is in my shop.
52:52
I cut all of these flowers right before an arctic cyclone hit Memphis. I moved and covered all of my camellias in containers, and the newer smaller shrubs. We’ll just have to see what happens with the rest. But I loved this arrangement with every blooming camellia I own, one early hellebore, a last few rosebuds (Caldwell Pink), variegated osmanthus, which resembles holly but is not, and possumhaw (a native deciduous holly which my birds love) berries. They are tucked into a modern ironstone flower bowl, one of a series I’ll expand upon in 2023. Merriest Christmas, happiest holidays, and wishes fore peace and joy to you and yours.
