The Poinsettia Challenge, so many creative people...

I can't believe the beautiful and imaginative entries that came in answering the poinsettia challenge...you guys are incredible, thank you! Before I share your creations I want to show a few images that came in all the way from Italy, via Shawna Coronado...

Shawna's been over in Rome, visiting her daughter, and doing some poinsettia spotting...

Who knew Romans love their poinsettias so much? (and can have them outside...)

Another friend of the challenge, Debra Prinzing (she of the slow flowers movement) put together a striking arrangement and blogged about it here. She didn't actually email me her entry, but I copied the photo below so you could be inspired by what she put together...

Now on to our official entries! I'm listing them roughly by last name and including a link to that persons's blog/website (if I know it) and the bit of info they sent along with their photo, enjoy...

Linda (Each Little World): "I wanted to use my grandmother's Roseville jardiniere as the "vase" for my Poinsettia and I didn't really want to cut the plant apart as I was not sure what I would end up with after surgery. Thus I opted to keep the plant whole and try to tone down its color and its dominance by adding dried material in shades of brown and dusty pink. Some of this is material clipped from the garden like fern fronds but the statice is from the florist. I added these around the edges of the plant as well as sticking them down into the plant in a number of spots. I also made the pot part of a larger arrangement so the Poinsettia again would not dominate but would be one element of a whole tablescape"

Alison (Bonney Lassie): "It's a Christmas "wreath" made out of a picture frame. The petals on the poinsettia are made from book pages, rubbed with gold stamping ink." (see more of Alison's creative paper poinsettias here)

Linda (Whatsitgarden): Since it was too grey, damp and cold today instead of bloom day posting I stayed in to meet your challenge. I wish the wreath showed up better: juniper beaches with a few snowberries and perscaria blooms. Now the Poinsettia, under planted with two Fatshederas that I rooted up in a jar of water, they needed potting up so, why not? The branches poking outward are from the filbert on my road side, I like the creamy catkins. and the monkey puzzle cone…nicked form a neighbors yard"

Shirley (Rock Oak Deer): "Kokedama Poinsettia, or is that Poinsettia Kokedama? I hadn't planned to enter until my friend Melody gifted me with a tiny Poinsettia plant.  After several tries to surround it with unruly reindeer moss I grabbed some red glitter cord to tame the moss and then it hit me that this was perfect for Kokedama, the artful Japanese method of displaying a small plant simply.  I couldn't find a plain background suitable for hanging so it's been set in an antique silver candy dish against the red entry wall."

Peter (The Outlaw Gardener): " 'Taking refuge from the cold' is a combination of plants more suited to warmer climates  and a few hardy plants and cut stems from my garden.  All are huddled together enjoying the warmer temperatures in the house  and lending their own visual heat to our entryway to warm our hearts as we come and go."

Anna (Flutter & Hum): "Had a little more time today than for the other challenge. Had fun with this one, and made several. Thanks again for the fun challenge, and Merry Christmas! Now, we're going to watch (and probably sing along with)  A Year without Santa Claus - a definite fave!"

Kris (Late to the Garden Party): "This pot and a similar one sit next to our front door to greet guests.  It's contents change with the seasons making it the perfect choice for my entry into the poinsettia challenge. The coral poinsettia featuring rose-like bracts is accented by Acorus gramineus 'Ogon', Coprosma repens 'Evening Glow' and a few Aeonium 'Kiwi' cuttings from my garden. The coral and lime plant colors pick up the colors of the bench cushions and pillows next to them. Another maligned holiday symbol, the gnome, stands alongside as sentry, holding a cutting of Aeonium arboreum (pandering to his audience)."

Nancy, this one showed up without explanation but not without inspiration...

Sheila (Denver Dirty Girls): " 'Holiday Party' is composed of some of my favorite things... Santa and his reindeer, the kid that's not happy with the prospect of a lump of coal because she bit her brother one time too many, Tillandsia snowballs and of course The Christmas Shoe! (The shoe was a gift from a stranger that liked my succulent-filled heels that adorned our fence for an Open Days Garden Conservancy tour a few years back. He didn't tell me why he had them and I didn't ask!)"

Susan (Flower Garage): "Ode to the Pacific Northwest" aka "The Behemoth" checks in at over 6’ long and includes a carnivorous garden,  ferns, mahonia flowers, orchids, schefflera berries, and amazing shelf mushrooms"

Jane (Close to Home): "So the idea behind this arrangement centered upon a poinsettia is that the poinsettia symbolizes the returning sun even to the new buds in its center and its warm red color. The leaves, apple and persimmon, and the dark, barren sand-cherry twigs represent the old year dying. There is transformation from the dead to the living. The title of this centerpiece is “Here Come the Sun”. It represents the winter solstice, dark changing to light, dead changing to living...Here comes the sun, Here comes the sun, and I say, it's all right."

Annmarie: "My name is Annmarie and I live in Colrain, MA, but worked in Brighton MA at Mahoney's Garden Center until recently. I am a gardener by trade and temperament. I have a one and a half year old son named Bo who likes to help me in the garden, mostly by collecting rocks and getting really dirty! We are having weirdly unseasonable weather here on Massachusetts, so I was able to take my design outside!"

So...while you're all winners in my heart there does have to be an actual "winner"...right? I mean that was the promised outcome...
.
.
.
But...instead of a winner...there are two! (as determined by our crack team of judges - introduced in this post)...Susan and Annmarie!!! Detail shots of their creations...

And in an exciting turn of events the very generous Sean Hogan, owner of Cistus Nursery, has offered up a $25 gift certificate for each of you (lucky!). Congratulations to you both!

(but wait, there's more)

We also have a pair of "runners up" whom I want to acknowledge: Peter and Anna...

Thanks again to everyone who sent in an entry for the Poinsettia Challenge, I had a blast and hope you did too. I'm going to take a couple months off from this "challenge" business but be back again with a new one in March or so...it's just too much fun not to keep going, hope you agree.

All material © 2009-2015 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

It's a wrap!

Tonight's the deadline to send in your entry for the Poinsettia Challenge, I hope you'll share your poinsettia creation (email: spikyplants at gmail dot com, please include a line or two about your entry), photos will be posted next week. In the meantime enjoy this graphic made by one of our judges, the talented Kate Blairstone. Joyeux Noel indeed...

All material © 2009-2015 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Image by Kate Blairstone, used by permission. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

Holiday cartoon déjà vu...

When I last visited Marbott's Greenhouse & Nursery (to take photos for the Poinsettia Challenge post), I was struck by a strange sense of déjà vu as I rounded the corner headed towards the poinsettia greenhouse...

Do you see it too?

Now of course there wasn't any snow in my version, but use your imagination.

Did you know the Frosty the Snowman Christmas special was based on the song? In other words the song came first, then the animated television special. I had no idea! It first aired on December 7th, 1969. (source)


"This special marked the first use of traditional cel animation (as opposed to stop-motion animation) for Rankin/Bass in a Christmas special. Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass wanted to give the show and its characters the look of a Christmas card, so Paul Coker, Jr., a greeting card and Mad magazine artist, was hired to do the character and background drawings..." (source)

Marbott's just got even more magical...

All material © 2009-2015 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

In a Vase on Monday - the Poinsettia Challenge edition

Right up front let's acknowledge that I'm breaking the rules AGAIN. Poinsettia do not grow in my garden, and in order to participate in "in a vase on Monday" you're supposed to work with things from your garden. However everything else in the vase did come from my garden (or in the case of the conifer branches scavenged from the park just a block away) so hopefully since 4 of 5 elements are as intended that means I'm in...

So this is another post on the Poinsettia Challenge. For my attempt at a cut flower arrangement I wanted to work with a slightly garish poinsettia, just to see if I could deal. A quick trip to Target unexpectedly produced more hideousness than I was prepared for, purple with glitter?

Blue with glitter!

Or red with glitter? Oddly I'm not ashamed to admit that in a moment of Dorothy/Wizard of Oz fanaticism I actually considered working with the "ruby slippers" of poinsettia land. But since I don't live alone I just said no. I didn't want to send Andrew out crying into the streets because of a red glitter pointsettia.

This is what I settled on, it's a bit obnoxious, but also kinda cool. It reminds me of my grandma but I'm not sure why, I should ask my mom. Anyway, I found this treasure at Home Depot. My previous Poinsettia Post included plants from a small local nursery, time to turn the tables and go Big Box.

I spent quite awhile checking out the various plants at HD, and once I'd settled on the stripy variegated one I was looking it over - and that's when I realized one of the stems was broken. You couldn't tell by looking at the colorful bracts, they were as happy as could be. I bought it anyway, brought it home and stuck that stem in water, where it spent almost an entire week and never missed a beat. Still, when it came time to take cuttings from the plant I went ahead and seared the tips as recommended here. Probably just becasue I wanted a chance to use my fancy wooden Agave matches.

There were a few tiny blooms/bracts on the plant that I couldn't let go to waste. Those were used too, more on that later...in the meantime an aside: see how I'm wearing rubber gloves? I learned the hard way. DO NOT go scavenging fallen conifer branches and then answer your iPhone. Don't do it. Pitch is difficult to remove from your fingers - imagine removing it from your phone. It's not something you want to do, trust me.

Back to the vase: when putting together the mantle-scape I'd bought a silver teapot with simple lines which I didn't use. That's what I decided to use for this arrangement. A glass tumbler was placed inside so I didn't have to worry about leaching chemicals or water flowing out the spout.

I feared that our insane rains would make it impossible to cut things from the garden but inexplicably the morning I decided to put it all together the sky cleared and there was actually a little bit of sun. It was heavenly.

Besides the poinsettia stems the bouquet includes Brachyglottis greyi (aka Senecio greyi) and Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Atropurpureum'. The former included because I've always thought it to be a great winter foliage, the latter included because its mottled dark leaves seem to harmonize with some of the poinsettia leaves.

Around the bottom are the conifer branches picked up on walks around the neighborhood.

And Stachyurus salicifolius branches were included for their foliage, catkins, but mostly for the pink stems. They play so nicely with the colorful poinsettia bracts.

The mix makes me very happy.

Remember those tiny bracts I showed you early on? (in my gloved hand) Well I couldn't just toss them - so they went in a very small arrangement.

Along with another conifer branch. The whole thing is in a mercury glass votive holder...

Here's the pair, they're currently living on our dining table but it's impossible to take a clear detail photo there. This one is a bit antiseptic but at least you can see the overall look.

Here they are all mashed together on the table, sadly the color is dreadful in this photo, it's better in person, "In a Vase on Monday" is hosted by Cathy at Rambling in the Garden. I hope she doesn't permanently ban me for breaking the rules, again...

If you're inspired to participate in the Poinsettia Challenge just email me (spiky plants at gmail dot com) an image of your poinsettia creation. Others have been including a title and a one or two sentence backstory on what they've come up with so if you're so inclined please do!

All material © 2009-2015 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

Did you know? Today is International Poinsettia Day!

I learned about International Poinsettia day just yesterday, when Debra Prinzing wrote about a living poinsettia gown...

Floral stylists: Okishima & Simmonds | Photo credit: Stars for Europe. Photographer – Julian Winslow

Poinsettias got their name from Joel Roberts Poinsett, the man who introduced them to the US in 1828, and Poinsettia Day commemorates the death of Poinsett on December 12, 1851 (source).

While clicking away, looking for information on International Poinsettia Day, I ran across a photo collection from The Telegraph entitled Inspirational poinsettia arrangements for Christmas. If your thinking about entering the Poinsettia Challenge (details here), but feeling a lack of inspiration check it out! Here's a trio...

Happy Poinsettia Day!

All material © 2009-2015 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

It's a red poinsettia Christmas...

Since the 2015 Poinsettia Challenge is my doing I thought I'd take it up a notch and challenge myself to embrace the red poinsettia. You see, while it has been years since I've purchased any poinsettia, the red ones were been taboo even when I did buy. The creamy white or green-ish white ones were just so much easier to love...

Then, to make matters even more challenging, Andrew mentioned that he found poinsettias to be depressing. Not tacky, tacky I could deal with and hope to overcome, but depressing? Yikes! I don't want to depress my husband during the holidays.

Thankfully he had nothing but kind words for the finished display - not depressing at all...

Since I'm still hopelessly in love with my inspiration image (shared at the top of this post) I've been collecting vintage (a fancy word for used) silver for the plants. I love the deep, rich, quality they bring to the bright Christmas colors. I also wanted to integrate wood (an excuse to include a brown color) but couldn't come up with a way to do it that I liked. Then it hit me, conifer cones and (I'm very excited about this part) branches from a monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana)...

Back when I stopped by Peter's garden in October he gifted me a bag of fallen branches he'd collected from a neighbor's tree after a wind-storm. They'd been patiently waiting for just the right time to be used and this was it!

Such a great color and texture.

This image was taken during a rare moment when the sun was shining. The last week here has been very dark, dreary, and rainy. I'd initially put up the grapevine wreath unadorned, but without the sun to light it up it became a dark hole. I'm not in love with the red ribbon but it was an attempt to add color and I guess it works.

Here's the real shocker...I LOVE the poinsettias. Like the OC&K, which I learned to appreciate, they bring a welcome dose of color - and this time of the year we need that badly.

I repeated the brown and red color scheme below the mantle with ribbon and a swag. All the cones and greenery were scavenged on walks around the neighborhood. Winter winds never fail to deliver free branches.

A pair of Tillandsia and a glitter star complete the picture.

Next week I'm challenging myself to do a cut flower arrangement or two. If you're inspired to join the challenge send me a photo (spiky plants at gmail dot com) of your poinsettia creation by Christmas Eve, everyone is welcome to participate!

Oh and the winner of the challenge will receive one of these vintage sticker/bookmarks...as well as the admiration of the millions thousands hundreds dozens of people who read this blog!

All material © 2009-2015 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.