July yields many wonderful composite flowers: Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus), Gloriosa Daisies (Rudbeckia hirta), Calendula (C. officinalis) and Zinnias; all of which have begun to flower in earnest in my garden. Naturally, I chose my sunflower pocket vase to display them.
I love the little starry florets that make up the centers– why should the ray florets get all the attention? I used a seeded head of dill as an anchor and filler to keep the flowers in place. It’s so sunny, I can’t but smile when I look upon this one.
I’ll share another arrangement I gave to a friend this week who generously shared some of her beautiful daylily plants with me. This one I put in my Moroccan pitcher.
In addition to the Sunflowers and Gloriosa Daisies, there are cobalt blue Cornflowers (Centaurea cyanus), purple Hosta, yellow Patrinia umbels, Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota), Daisy Fleabane (Erigeron annuus), yellow racemes of Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria) Poppy seed pods (Papaver somniferum) and Brome grass (Bromus erectus).
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.
While the quality of these photos are not my best due to low light conditions and the camera being handheld, I wanted to share the unusual flowering in our woods of Striped Wintergreen (Chimaphila maculata), also known as Pipsissewa or Spotted Wintergreen.
I picked this little bouquet as I walked along our trail by the river, gathering a few pretty flowers I saw, ending with some chartreuse flowers of Lady’s Mantle (Alchemilla mollis) from the garden.
Below is more eye-popping color from two arrangements I created for a talk I gave on herbs this week. Can you believe these are mostly edible? 
I’ve teamed up with my yoga instructor to create a series of outdoor, socially-distanced workshops entitled ‘Yoga in the Garden.’ As you can see from the wet background, the weather was intermittent showers with mist in between, reminding me of UK weather. We were somewhat soggy by the end, but it was fun all the same. We haven’t met since March, so it was nice to see some of the other regulars. There will be two more workshops to come and hopefully, the weather will be better.
Purple Coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea), white Cleome (C. hassleriana) and dark purple Angelonia (A. angustifolia) are the major players in this week’s arrangement.
Eye-popping color creating contrast between bright yellow Sundrops (Oenothera fructicosa), yellow and orange Calendula (C. officinalis), purple Angelonia & Mealycup Sage (Salvia farinacea) and blue Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus).
Sundrops (Oenothera fruticosa) are bright and beautiful in the garden right now. In a contrasting cobalt blue jug, their gold color just pops.
Eliza Waters 