Contest

Last Sunday, while at Cantigny, we saw a group of very large pots with plant arrangements that reflect the school colors of the Big Ten Universities. It was interesting seeing the ideas the creators had. The one for the University of Illinois needed to have orange and blue as its colors, and, as everyone knows, it's difficult coming up with truly blue flowers. The arranger did a good job using some flowers that tended more towards the purple than the blue, but the effort was there. After a few minutes, I put it to Phil that WE should hold a contest to see who could come up with the best arrangement using blue and orange. Henry and/or Luke could be the judges. (I don't think Henry would hold anyone to the whole blue-orange restriction and may go with the one that was the cutest, in which case I'd put a stuffed animal in mine to sway him to chose mine. Luke, on the other hand has high standards and will make sure the rules are adhered to strictly, in which case I want truly blue flowers in my arrangement.) In anticipation of the big event, I started looking around for appropriate flowers and decided to take a stab at an arrangement, just to see how it looks. I found what I think are truly blue flowers, but they are very small and up on reedy stems, making them even harder to see and contrast with the other flowers. There was an amazingly ORANGE annual that, although I'm not fond of the shape, makes a real orange statement. I thought some orange-ish foliage might look good, so I got a cinnamon coleus for contrast. Then I threw in some blue-purple petunias, blue ageratums, and some little orange petunia-like flowers to fill out the lower level. This all went into the pot I got on sale at Jewel for $10. I think it is an 'ok' first attempt, but not exactly what I want to show for the contest. I have another $80 in bonus bucks at Knuppers, so I'll go back there and see what else looks good for a second attempt. I have an idea about using an orange rose as a central plant. Let's see if I can find one there. The question still remains about what to use for the blue color requirement.

Good news! The baby bunny is back, or at least it's still here. Luke saw a black cat carrying in its mouth an animal that looked a lot like a little rabbit a few days ago, and I dreaded to think it was the wee bunny that visited me in my garden. But today, it was back by the lilac bush watching me make my container arrangement. Hooray! Now I definitely have to think of a good name for it/him/her.