Garden Photo of the Day

Vintage Wall Pockets Full of Flowers

Matching flowers to containers

wall pocket full of marigolds

Today we have some fun photos from Kathy Schreurs in Sheldon, Iowa.

I’m going to submit some photos taken last summer. They are not your typical GPOD, although every flower pictured did indeed come from my garden.

I love playing with freshly picked flowers from our borders, tucking them into my vintage vases and teapots, and dropping them off—sometimes rather randomly—at the doors of family, friends, and even casual acquaintances. (I wasn’t exactly the masked bandit, but I certainly was the masked gardener.) It was almost a daily occurrence through much of last summer. I also posted daily pictures on Facebook, and I like to believe that they were day brighteners for “flower friends.” The daily posts certainly lifted my own spirits.

Some days I played with the wall pockets that I collected in the 1980s. It became a challenge to see if I could find appropriate flowers to reflect their unique characteristics. Although they never left my house, it was another way of connecting with people during the COVID summer of 2020.

wall pocket vase with pink flowersSeptember 28: Why did I suddenly realize—the summer went by without peach pie? (Sedum, cosmos, zinnia, hydrangea)

vase with yellow daylily and rosesAugust 20: Does anyone know the science behind the one-day-only life span of a daylily? (Daylily and roses)

vase with pink flowers and dark foliageSeptember 4: The bunny ears took me by surprise! (‘Red Threads’ alternanthera, Persian shield, torenia, zinnia)

wall pocket full of marigoldsAugust 25: I wanted to pay homage to the marigolds protecting my husband’s vegetable garden. (Marigolds and zinnias)

butterfly wall pocket full of hydrangea bloomsAugust 14: What to do with a butterfly wall pocket? Maybe this. (Hydrangea)

unique vase full of flowersAugust 12: All because two birds fell in love. (‘Lemon Twist’, tansy, Diamond Frost, torenia)

garden vase full of white summer phloxJuly 28: This little wall pocket has been collecting dust in my garden shed. I wanted to freshen it up, but I didn’t have any thyme. (Summer phlox)

floral arrangement with pink and red flowersAugust 3: Monday Funday, aka Wall-Pocket Wacky (snapdragon, zinnias, dill)

pink sunpatiens in a vaseSeptember 13: In memory of cancans (coleus and sunpatiens)

small wall pocket with pink and white flowersAugust 11: Three or more of anything is a collection—or so I have read—but only if you have a purpose in gathering them together. Otherwise you have an accumulation. In the 1980s I had a collection of wall pockets. In the last 25 years, they’ve segued into an accumulation, some of them taking up space in my garden shed, others lost in a jumble of vases. Today I’m reclaiming them as a collection. (Snapdragon, zinnia, cosmos, hosta)

 

Have a garden you’d like to share?

Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!

To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.

If you want to send photos in separate emails to the GPOD email box that is just fine.

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Comments

  1. Carolyn3134 05/28/2021

    Absolutely lovely! You have given me the bug to look for wall pockets at garage sales! Your floral combinations are spot-on! And your sense of humor is first-rate!!

    1. shegardens 05/28/2021

      Thank you.

  2. Rebeccazone7 05/28/2021

    What a great creative idea. I loved every one of them.

    1. shegardens 05/28/2021

      I’m glad!

  3. gardendevas 05/28/2021

    Absolutely love these! Delightful, inspiring — well done indeed! As the others said, beautifully designed. Your gardens must be lush and lovely to provide this bounty — would be fun to see them as well.

    1. shegardens 05/28/2021

      If you enter my name in the search tool at the top of the page, you can get a peek.

  4. Joycelaubach 05/28/2021

    Absolutely charming! I am inspired. Funny that you called out a distinction between collections and accumulations, although if it gives you pleasure (or might), who cares?! :)

  5. Sunshine111 05/28/2021

    How delightful!!!

  6. btucker9675 05/28/2021

    What a nice way to end the week! And what a lovely thing you did to brighten peoples' lives during the "year of Covid"! Thanks for sharing the joy.

    1. shegardens 05/28/2021

      :)

  7. User avater
    simplesue 05/28/2021

    Awww those are sweet!

  8. User avater
    cynthia2020 05/28/2021

    Kathy - I enjoyed reading your gardening story and looking at your combinations and arrangements!

    1. shegardens 05/28/2021

      I appreciate everyone who took a minute to comment, even if I haven’t replied to each of you.
      And it was nice of Joesph, I thought, to go ahead and share my photos.

  9. User avater
    treasuresmom 05/28/2021

    Oh, my, Iove those.

  10. cheryl_c 05/28/2021

    Just now (4:30 pm CDT) getting a chance to sit down to look - and what a quirky and fun submission you have made! Thanks for sharing your wit, whimsy, and talent at designing tiny bouquets. I especially like your innovation with the butterfly one and your can-can.

    1. shegardens 05/28/2021

      I’m glad you enjoyed the wall pockets! They really were fun to put together.

  11. [email protected] 05/28/2021

    What a fun submission to GPOD. Not sure I have come across wall pockets, but you have opened my eyes to this clever new treasure to seek in my forays to thrift shops, vintage shops and all the fun places to lose myself for a few hours. Thanks for the share- you created some unique combos!

  12. darylsavage 05/28/2021

    This is the most creative post I have seen here in awhile. I agree, very fun and accessible, something I would enjoy doing. Thanks for sharing.

  13. branaxio 06/01/2021

    Probably not. I have no clue about what it was. I recollect where I was and what I was doing at that point, I review bunches of other stuff going on at that point, however, I just can't recall the tune. This is uncommon for me, I have a lovely dependable memory for melodies in any case.
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