Today is a red letter day in the Monday vase- filling community. It is the fourth anniversary of Cathy’s popular meme, ‘In a Vase on Monday’. To celebrate she asks us to arrange our flowers in something that is not a vase at all. I am looking forward to seeing how inventive everyone is.
So my flowers today are sitting in a Victorian chamber pot.
I hope it is not lèse-majesté and disrespectful to the queen of the vases to celebrate her 4th anniversary with a potty. Cathy likes to use props to set off her arrangements and make a pleasing tableau, but I think even her ingenuity would fail here. I can’t think of a single prop that wouldn’t introduce a scatological note and lower the tone of this lovely meme. So no props just a pottyful of flowers. It doesn’t seem quite nice to have it on the dining room table but never mind. I am hosting my book club tomorrow, I will see if anyone notices that there is a potty on the table.
The frost has blackened the dahlias and the roses hang like Farrrer’s ‘withered moths’, but there are still plenty of other blooms. To match the pattern on the po I have used pink, white and mauve flowers. The foliage consists of lovely silvery eucalyptus leaves and a few stems of Pittospermum tenufolium ‘Irene Patterson’ which has beautiful evergreen, white- marbled leaves. Also the silver-leaved Convolvulus cneorum has still got a few blooms. You can just see it in the centre of the photo above.
I have used the lovely little stars of Solanum laxum ‘Creche ar Pape’ in previous vases; it just goes on and on blooming copiously. I used a few sprigs of a starry white aster; Symphiotrichum ericoides ‘Snow Flurry’. Some of my salvias have collapsed in the frost but deep purple Salvia ‘Amistad’ seems quite unaffected. I have taken cuttings but I hope it will survive the winter it is such a lovely big plant now.
For pinks I have used Nicotiana ‘Whisper Deep pink’ which is gorgeous. Gaura lindheimeri has been blooming for ages and is quite unscathed by the frost. The pink Chrysanthemum ‘Suffolk Pink’ was found in a Suffolk garden. The red penstemon clashes a bit, but one is glad of any colour in November.
The grass is Pennisetum allopecuroides‘Hameln’ and the white berries are snow berries, Symphoricarpos albus, but I wouldn’t recommend this invasive plant to anyone, it is the Devils’ Spawn and impossible to eradicate.
Happy Fourth Anniversary to Cathy at Ramblinginthegarden. Do go and see what curious containers everyone else has put their flowers in today. You’ll find that there is not a vase to be seen.
Chloris
The Blooming Garden 
What a beautiful potty! I am more amazed at how much colourful material you have found to put in it though, despite frosts. The silvery pittospermum and Solanum are pretty highlights, and the sunshine in your photos makes everything glow. Is it really November in your part of the world?!
It looks as if I was just admiring your creative arrangement as you wrote this. Thank you Cathy. It is beautifully sunny today but absolutely freezing. Only 5 degrees with a bitter wind.
Wow, what a pot(ty) full! That’s fabulously abundant for November, Chloris.
(Also, only just realised I’d somehow managed to ‘unfollow’ you – don’t know how it happened but delighted I’m back now!)
Thank you Jen and I’m delighted to have you back. I have found the same problem with WordPress, now and then it drops blogs from the reader.
I can hardly believe that glory of flowers you still have flowering in November. There’s barely a bloom in sight here – everything is either frosted or rain-sodden – my gaura is just brown. What a nice solanum and nicotiana! I went off nicotiana because people seemed to stop selling them in separate colours. Just checked the floranova website, sadly no ‘Whisper Purple’! I don’t think your book club will recognise the potty – it almost passes for a very pretty soup tureen.
The nicotine is Nicotiana ‘Whisper Deep Pink’. It is a tall growing one and I love it. I think it is a cross between N.mutabilis and N.sanderae. A friend gave it to me.
We have had frosts but I still have quite a few blooms to enjoy. I suspect they won’t be around for long.
Ahh … with the mutabilis in there it could be really nice I imagine. My husband fell in love with that when I grew it a few years ago (he said they looked almost luminous in the evening light). I’ll maybe try it next year
Far from being ‘lèse-majesté’, it is a fitting tribute to someone has who one under her bed and uses it every night (the plainest one in our ‘collection’!). I too can hardly believe how much you have found to crammed into your vase – oops! potty – and am in awe at some of the things still flowering. I really would like to grow nicotiana but have never had any success and like Cathy I don’t want them in mixed colours so I might need to investigate further. I am sure your Book Club people will be equally thrilled at your chamber pot and its contents: what books will you be talking about this time?
I am glad you are not offended by a tribute in a potty. A friend gave me this tall growing Nicotiana ‘Whisper Deep Pink’ and I love it. I will see if there are any seeds on it, there may not be because it was very late to bloom.
The book this month is ‘ The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society’. Have you read it?
Oh I love this potty arrangement….as who would know it is a potty….not me…..and wow look at your blooms filling it!
You are right it is too pretty to be a potty. From now on I shall call it a large sugar bowl or a tureen as Peter the Outlaw Gardener suggested.
It is indeed a joy to see so much floral colour in November. The potty is colourful, too!
Yes, despite the frosts I am lucky to have some blooms left to enjoy. I must make the most of it while it lasts.
You certainly have a rich palette of colors, textures and plant materials in this beautiful arrangement. The repurposed container looks rather reputable in its current setting. Hope you have a great book club meeting. Which book will you discuss?
Susie, ‘repurposed container’ is such a lovely euphemism. I shall be using it again for flowers as I am pleased with how good they look in it. But never again will it be called a potty. From now on it is a ‘repurposed container’.
We are discussing ‘The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society’. Have you read it?
Ha! Such a fancy object deserves a little respect! Our book club read that book several years ago and everyone enjoyed it immensely. Hope you have a good discussion.
The profusion of gorgeous blooms (a flush of color?) is impressive. That’s certainly a beautiful chamber pot. Do you suppose you could convince your guests that it’s a really large sugar bowl or soup tureen? Waste not, want not…
tee hee
Well trust you to come up with something like that. I think a sugar bowl is stretching it a bit but maybe I can get away with saying it is a soup tureen. Thank you for the suggestion. I hope you are not suggesting that I should really use it as a soup turren?
I love the flowers and colors in this splendid arrangement, Chloris, and what a pretty chamberp– er, soup tureen! It alludes to the fact that the best flowers are grown with a bit of manure – well-composted, of course! 😉
Thank you Eliza.Yes, let’s call it a soup tureen. I prefer not to think about its previous use.
Would it be disrespectful to say that my favorite part is the eucalyptus foliage? I know you put a lot of work into this, but I really do like the foliage; and the pittosporum too. I like nice foliage, and I like when people use less than typical foliage.
Well I share your enthusiasm for foliage. I am particularly keen on Pittosporum ‘Irene Patterson’. I am not so keen on yellow variegation but I love the white marbled effect of these leaves.
Yes, yellow can look sickly.
Well, Cathy surprised me with her remarkably pretty shaving cup and now you’ve upped the ante with an equally beautiful chamber pot. I’ve had little exposure to either shaving cups or chamber pots (other than perhaps literary references) but what I know of them wouldn’t have encompassed the lovely pieces the 2 of you managed to come up with. And your garden remains bountiful it appears!
Well it seems bathroom accessories are all the rage at the moment in the Monday vase filling world. Did you see somebody has filled a lavatory with flowers? I’m looking at my toothbrush mug with new eyes.
Yes I still have some flowers left. I do aim to have blooms every month of the year.
What a riot of colourful blooms you have found in your garden today and I wonder what the original owner of the potty would have thought if they could see it on your dining room table filled with flowers!
Hello Julie, how lovely to hear from you. I hope the original owner was in the far distant past and that it hasn’t been used for the last 100 years for its original purpose. It is great for flowers. I shall be filling it with flowers again next summer
What an amazing quantity of flowers you still have in your gardens in November! I’m hard-pressed to find even one bloom outdoors after two weeks of hard frosts. So glad I can still enjoy your lovely flowers — Thanks for sharing the beautiful arrangement. Best, -Beth
We have had a few frosts and many flowers have suffered but still there seems to be quite a bit left relatively unscathed. Not for long though.
I expect you are enjoying your beautiful garden room, what a wonderful place to spend the winter.
What a fabulous po and arrangement Chloris and thanks for introducing me to a new word in scatological. I had to get my dictionary out for that one. It still looks like high summer in your neck of the woods.
I love words, I am glad I have introduced you to a new one. Yes there is quite a bit of colour considering it is the middle of November.
Your arrangement Chloris reminds me what a useful shrub Pittospermum tenufolium ‘Irene Patterson’ is. We lost ours during the very cold winter. A very colourful pot!
Thank you Brian. I love Irene Patterson. I read that we are going to have a cold La Nina winter. I hope mine will survive.
I would think such a pretty chamberpot deserves to have flowers in it some time or other! 😉 I do love your selection of flowers – dainty and exuberant. Do you grow the eucalyptus as annuals or winter them in the greenhouse? Or perhaps they’re just hardy enough?
Yes and now I have seen how pretty it looks with flowers in it I shall use it again. The eucalyptus is a huge tree. This variety is hardy. The leaves are useful all year round and it has beautiful bark.
Your beautiful arrangement of flowers and foliage from your garden will be much talked about and admired at your book club, Chloris. It’s pleasing that there’s still so much colour from the blooms and berries in the garden. Thank you for visiting my blog and leaving an interesting comment – much appreciated – and I shall add you to my blog reader.
Thank you Linda and thanks for visiting. It is nice to come across somebody from my home town.
Wow, what a fine collection of flowers, etc, you have there! Really generous and colourful and that’s a great ‘vase’. You’ll have to use the chamber pot again – it works brilliantly!
Thank you Sam, I am quite surprise how much colour there still is in November, specially as we have had frosts.
I usually use the potty for pot plants but I think it is great for flowers so I probably will use it again. I don’t know why I never thought of it before.
That truly is a mighty fine potty! What a range of beautiful flowers you still have. Your potty would have come in handy here over the last few months! Yes indeedy!xxx
It is a pretty potty. It cost me £2.99 on Ebay! Don’t tell anyone.
Glad to hear that you have thrown away your crutches and don’t need potties any more.
Liz, I love this one, despite its former life as a potty it is a lovely container. I would love to have one in the Blue Willow pattern. I will keep looking – the flowers are amazing, considering the month. I must try some of the Pennisetum, it grows here and looks wonderful in the potty.
Thank you Amy, I’m glad you approve of my potty. I have never seen a willow pattern potty, I’ll look out for one. I find this one useful as a cache -pot for plants, I have never arranged flowers in it before. Pennisetum seems to find its way into all my arrangements lately.
You are an inspiration to us all, Chloris, with the glorious range of beautiful flowers and foliage still available from your garden. I am sure I am not alone among your readers to immediately try coming up with a non-scatalogical potty-related prop. Totally failed.
I’m impressed that you found so much to enhance your potty in November. The colours go so well and the silver foliage is pretty with the pink. Beautifully arranged.
I have to say that I had high expectations of your vase and was not disappointed! Nice humour and a fantastic haul of flowers. I am impressed that your tobacco flowers are still looking so lovely. Mine were burnt off by cold winds last week.
Love it! Very pretty chamber pot and very very pretty contents. 🙂
What a lively and lovely post, Chloris. That non-vase vase is beautifully arranged, and this non-florist appreciates how you picked up the colours in the container.
So that’s what a Victorian chamber pot looks like? It’s really quite decorative.