Remember the statice from the other day? I also had leftovers from last week’s mums. They were still beautiful, but not enough for an arrangement on their own, so I put the two together in a crystal vase, practically doubling their lifespan (adding another week).

I’ve been trying to include statice in my garden “portfolio,” but so far haven’t been able to. Maybe next year.

It’s one of my favorite flowers. It lasts a long time in a vase, and can also be dried to last, well, forever, but that’s not my thing. When it comes to flower arrangements, the last thing I want is “forever.”

I rarely pick up roses from my garden for flower arrangements. I prefer to see them in nature and buy flowers from the market every Friday, a contradiction of sorts, I know.

This pair of pinks, though, was irresistible, now combined with my regular ikebana formula for which I keep a stash of dry branches and bamboo at hand.

This ginger flower was a pleasant surprise. I needed a flower to urgently replace a diseased rosebush that couldn’t be replaced by another rose, so the intense pink of this flower caught my attention.

I had never seen a ginger flower before. The sign on the shelf said “annual,” and I don’t plant annuals in my garden, except for the occasional spot of rapid color in the wildflower meadow.

But the vendor was still there, in person, arranging the plants on the shelf, and he assured me that the plant was, in fact, a perennial.

I bought it and planted it in the hole still freshly open from the extraction of the rose (more on that later). The next day, I could already see some new sprouting and the expansion of the plant following the rhizome below the surface. Two weeks later, I already have two or three big new flowers, and growing fast.

As for the ikebana version of a previous carnation arrangement with a new flower: Ikebanas always have three focal points, some color, some green, some dry branches, kind of a “recipe” for success:

• Shin (Heaven): The tallest, primary stem or branch, set at a slight angle to give height and tone.

• Soe (Humanity): The medium line, symbolizing people, which supports and complements the main stem.

• Tai / Hikae (Earth): The shortest element, positioned low and wide to ground the overall piece.

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  Check the beautiful plant on Home Depot with free delivery!

A classic ikebana with 1 carnation, 1 twig, 2 pieces of bamboo.