I’m featuring a simple arrangement in my little Ikebana vase that was a gift from my son and his partner. Representing ‘heaven and earth with man in the middle,’ are Mealycup Sage (Salvia farincea), Cigar Flower (Cuphea ignea ‘Vermillionaire’) and Sunflower (Helianthus annuus).
Ready for arranging
On Friday, I co-hosted with my yoga instructor the last of three socially-distanced ‘Yoga in the Garden’ classes entitled “Creative Flower Arranging.’ 
After a wonderful, relaxing yoga session that focused on our second chakra governing Creativity, I led the group in a mini-floral design class. It was a lot of fun and everyone got to take home their own arrangement.
Masked, socially-distanced, flower arrangers!
In A Vase on Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Cathy at Rambling in the Garden. Click the link to see arrangements made by other gardeners around the world.
Eliza Waters 
Beautiful flowers and great arrangements.Thanks for sharing .Take care.🌹👍🙏
Thank you, Francis!
Most welcome.🌹👍🙏
I love the flowers 🙂
Thank you!
How I laughed at myself; your first photograph illustrates a ‘simple’ arrangement. Beautiful as that is, I thought at first that your second was a more complicated one featuring bouquets of flowers spilling over a wooden fence. How do you get them to stick like that? THEN I looked at the caption: a beautiful choice of flowers all ready for the yoga class!
Thanks, Anne! 🙂
What a blissful Yoga time, spent in your peaceful garden and creating beauty together. What an uplifting post.
Thank you, Sandra. It was a wonderful time, uplifting our spirits during these crazy times. I’m looking forward to the day when we can meet again without worrying about C!
Such a creative idea Eliza 👏🌈
Thank you, Karen. We’ll continue to meet outdoors as long as we can before the weather turns colder, which is sadly only weeks away.
I love your ‘heaven and earth with man in the middle’ flower arrangement with the chakra colours Eliza and your yoga in the garden followed by arranging flowers sounds like such a wonderful combination too! 🌻💜🌻
Thank you, Xenia! A happy gathering for sure. 🙂
What a wonderful idea
Thank you, Sheree. 🙂
What a wonderful idea, I wish I had been there!
It was great fun. I only wish we came up with the idea in May, rather than July. But we’re all making it up as we go along in this brave, new world. 😉
You must be the first person to say something nice about our world!
😀
It looks like everyone had an awful lot of fun and your Ikebana is lovely. Is is a perennial Salvia?
Thanks, Chris. It is what they term half-hardy (to 40F), so treated as an annual here. I grow it every year as it performs so well.
Love your arrangement, and I can only imagine how much fun it was to gather with friends for two of your favorite past times.
It really was a lot of fun. 🙂 Thanks, Judy!
How creative – not only the flower arranging but the socially distanced classes. What a fabulous idea. 🙂
Thank you, Joanne. We have really missed our weekly classes, so this was a way to still meet within the recommended guidelines. Once the weather cools, we won’t be able to be outside, so we’re enjoying it while we can.
Beautiful, Eliza! Good to see people doing yoga. YAY!! xo
🙂 Thanks, Amy!
Welcome!!
That first arrangement is very elegant. And what fun to have flower arranging AND yoga in the park. We humans are nothing if not resourceful. Gives me hope.
🙂 Thanks, Laurie. This was in my back yard under our old oak tree, which I now appreciate even more for its sheltering boughs during the recent hot weather.
Your backyard! Wowsah!
🙂 This area is to the right of the big garden I feature here sometimes.
Nice! You live in a place of beauty.
Thank you, I do feel quite blessed. ❤
Your arrangement is one that I think I could manage and I have all the same (similar) flowers. That was a great idea for a yoga class. I always felt yoga and nature went together well.
Thank you– outdoor yoga is wonderful, as you can really connect and ground to earth (we gardeners feel this all the time 🙂 ). A subtle relaxation similar to Japanese forest-bathing adds much.
A unique and bonding experience: exercising, flower arranging, caring & sharing. The pottery Ikebana vase is pretty.
Thank you, Alice. This group has been practicing together for many years, so we are pretty bonded. 🙂 It was nice to be with everyone again.
What a lovely time you and the others must have had, channelling your creativity. And of course your simple ikebana arrangement is not as simple as one might think, but perfectly constructed. Thanks for sharing your creativity, Eliza
Thank you, Cathy!
This made me smile!
Thank you, Valencia!
Oh that’s simply fabulous!!!
Thank you, Loree. It was a lot of fun– the first two classes were on herb gardening and pollinator gardening. Most signed up for all three, very gratifying.
Beautiful initiatives, with the yoga and the flower class. We all need that kind of positivity.
Thanks, Maria. We must work with the hand we’re dealt. 🙂
Absolutely!
Very cool, Eliza! I bet everyone had a great time.
Thanks, Kris! We really did. 🙂
Nice Ikebana. Love your creative yoga/flower arranging class.
Thank you, Susie. It was so enjoyable!
Lovely cheering flowers, and what a nice work around in these Covid times. Enjoy the rest of the outdoorsy summer weather. Here in SA, by contrast, we are having another cold week across the country with snow on the mountains.
Thank you, Carol. It is hard to believe on this warm sunny day that it will frost in less than 2 months and could be snowing in 4 months time. Seems unreal.
It certainly does seem unreal. That wheel keeps on turning …
Lovely gift from your son and beautiful selection and photo of the flowers awaiting the wonderful combination of creativity and outdoor yoga!🙂
🙂 Thanks, Susan!
A lovely arrangement and a wonderful idea!
Thank you, Belinda!
Hello Eliza
I am always a fan of your floral arrangements; on the other hand yoga, it’s not at all my thing and no question of making me do it
I always say if you don’t like yoga, you haven’t found a good teacher. 😉 I find it relaxing and works all muscles for a complete work out. It is great for those who garden, esp. seniors. 😉 Have a good week!
Once again a lovely arrangement and how nice that you and your friends found a way to get together, practice yoga, and do some creative flower arranging. Sweet!
Thank you, Steve!
A beautiful arrangement Eliza. And all those flowers you picked for the yoga ladies are wonderful too! Glad you could have some fun. 😃
Thank you, Cathy. It was great fun – I hope to do one more before the cold weather sets in. I just have to figure a theme… any ideas? 😉
How about a Japanese theme, with ikebana arrangements? 😉 I read an article some time ago about how special yoga classes helped people evacuated from the area hit by the terrible tsunami and resulting nuclear power station catastrophe. It relieved anxiety and strengthened ties with their fellow beings as well as helping them to get back in touch with nature.
I thought about ikebana, but not right after last week’s class. Maybe in another month… I was thinking about forest bathing… Thanks for the feedback, Cathy, if you have any more ideas, I’d love to hear them. x
I love this Eliza! Wish I could have come! 😊
You would have been most welcome 🙂 Thanks, Julie!
What a fun way to be creative, Eliza! And good for you too! 🤗
Thank you, Donna! 🙂
What a wonderful way to share your garden! Love this idea and your overhead shot too!
Thank you! It was a lot of fun to do.
How lovely!! What a great idea to combine yoga with flower arranging. Smiling … maybe yoga followed by weeding would work in my garden. 😉
Thanks, Val! Yoga has made it possible for me to continue gardening, so to my mind, gardening and yoga are a perfect fit. 🙂
Love, love, love this! Cheers to you and your teacher.
Thank you! I wish we could do outdoor yoga year round, but that of course, can’t happen in this climate! 😉
My goodness. We certainly live in different worlds. I can’t even imagine a day of flower arranging and yoga — what luxury! I especially liked the photo of the flowers ready for arranging, although I, too, wondered for a minute how you got them all to stick on the wall!
Thank you, this is what we come up with when we have to social distance… we just find bigger spaces! 😉 It was hardly ‘a day of arranging,’ about 1.5 hours, not much longer than a regular class. However, the prep the day before took twice that amount of time. Do you have access to exercise classes where you live?
When I was collecting the flowers for arranging, I set them on the steps to the deck and when I saw them from above, I thought it would make an nice photo. I didn’t even see the ‘optical illusion.’ 😉
Good for you for seeing the flowers from above. They really are glorious from that point of view. As for access to exercise classes, I suppose they’re around. But I earn my living doing brightwork on boats, and after 6-10 hours of physical labor every day, the last thing I want is more exercise!
You must have strong arms and back to do that work all day – and sport a great tan! 😉
I try to avoid the tan, though!
Your arrangement is wonderful, as always. I would love to take a yoga and flower arrangement class with you. ❤
Thank you, Robin. Wouldn’t that be great? Teleport all my yoga friends in for a class. 🙂
What a blaze of bright colours!
Thank you, Adele!
Yoga and flower arranging? Brilliant!
🙂 Thanks, gardening and yoga are a perfect fit!
what a lovely day-your arrangements are beautiful.
Thank you, Michele!
I like the homage to all the gardeners and the top-down view of the flowers. We need more of those moments I suppose with these times.
Thank you, Maria. Yes, we must find the best in the midst of all this.
Such fun! And what beautiful flower arrangements.
Thank you, Fi. It was a lot fun, for sure!
How w
How wonderful! 💕
Thank you, Laura Denise!
Hi Eliza! Yoga in the garden is a nice idea. I am doing Zoom yoga with my teacher three days a week. I really look forward to it. Best regards, Pam
Yoga is the best thing for the body, IMO. I love how it makes me feel. 🙂 Thanks, Pam!