That certain shade of green with shiny black, a New Year mantelscape

Once the Christmas decorations are in place I can't help but start to think about what I'll put on the mantel when the holidays are over and the decorations come down. After all having an empty horizontal surface to fill is not something that happens often in our small house. 

This year's scheming began when I used these black glass tumblers as water glasses and remembered how much I loved them on the mantel—plus I had the larger footed glasses that I'd never used. Bonus: my collection of black and white Royal Copley vases and planters are the same shiny black.

Oh! And I have matching candle-sticks—yes things were really coming together!

But what to use with them? Hmmm, I've been cleaning in our basement storage room and admiring the large green Bauer Swirl pot my mom gave me, it's too large for the mantel but...

Looking around I realized just how many things I had that were that exact shade of green. 

And that's how it came together...

The bromeliads I got at Little Prince of Oregon (LPO) went in the big green Bauer pot, the blooming bromeliad is a holdover from the Christmas decor.

A crocodile fern, aka Microsorium musifolium 'Crocydyllus' and the Begonia chloroneura from LPO went on a side table.

Taking a closer look at the mantel, starting on the left...

I bought this cholla skeleton with a couple of tillandsia on it when we were in Spokane at Christmastime. Of course I added a few more before I hung it. 

This tillandsia came home with me from my visit to Lotusland last November. The aspidistra will go outdoors, in the ground, come spring.

The green bud vase is filled with cuttings from the garden.

This cutie is a Syngonium rayii...

Mahonia nervosa, that dark cool-weather color goes with the scheme so well.

This Cryptanthus zebrinus was shallow rooted, enabling me to plant it (temporarily) in a short-sided green bowl. Many of these plants will eventually work there way into different containers and/or outdoors.

You also might be wondering about light, as we've definitely entered the dark time of the year. I've got rechargeable clip on lights that I move around, so each plant can get a nice session in the sun, so to speak.

Pyrrosia lingua 'Cristata' leaves, or, er, fronds.

There are three of this little Peperomia 'Ruby Cascade' worked into the mantelscape.

Tillandsia chiapensis 'Gigantesco', a gift from a friend.

Stems from Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum 'Hindwarf'.

Turns out I wasn't the only one putting things on the mantel. Do you see Andrew's addition?

He definitely fits the color scheme.

Clockwise starting with the tall planter; a Pteris cretica (I believe, it came unlabeled), Pteris quadriaurita 'Tricolor' and another Peperomia 'Ruby Cascade'. If you think this all was an an excuse for more plants, well, you wouldn't be wrong...

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