Branching Out 2

Yes, I know I said I was content with the dogwood branches I found on the sidewalk and the cherry branches pruned from our tree; that I was over buying the curly willow...I really didn't need it, didn't have room for it, and then...and then...

I went to the DC Home & Garden Show at the armory on Saturday and what a sad event that was; with a motley crew of vendors pathetically trolling for attention. If they'd had crooks they'd have grabbed we few attendees by the necks.

One only needs so many pots and pans and the brass tree fountains made me want to pee.

The saving grace was a stand with, yes! Curly willow branches. And for only $12, versus (what was it?) around twice that at Eastern Market.



I was malingering about the stand when I remembered being in Old Town last Summer and noticing that one of the florists had taken a bunch of willow and planted it in soil in a fine tall ceramic pot and let it elegantly coil and twist beside the front door. And I remembered thinking that this was something I wanted to do this year...and if I didn't buy the damn things...

So I got a crappy home and garden show and a bunch of curly willow for the price of the willow alone.

It's out in the sun room/ solarium (I really do have to decide what to call my plant space), sitting in a tall skinny vase of water. The branches are already showing hints of green leaves that will soon pop forth in a dramatic flourish and send out a thicket of roots.

And this year I swear that I'll catch them before they begin to rot in the water -- which they will -- and get them quickly into some soil.

And then... then I'll have to figure out what to do with them, which will be a pleasurable torment. 

It has been such a fine year for branches, the blizzards made it so.

Adding to the debris in my home is this morning's acquisition, a broken branch of magnolia I found in front of a fine big old house just off Pennsylvania Avenue, a step or two into the street and the Capitol's in view. I say this to impress you with its pedigree.

I gathered it because I couldn't resist the big glossy leaves...and was at first thinking of buying just a handful of flowers--you just need a few when the leaves are like this-- and tucking it all in a vase.

But when I got home I remembered my mother's beautiful but leaky vase on top of the curio cabinet, and stuffed the leaves in there to dry. They should stay quite nicely for numerous months.

This is very bad feng shui, but perfectly fine wabi sabi.