In a Vase, on Monday – Cats

Chris Mousseau

So, a friend gave me a pot of Nepeta a few years ago. Great, I thought, catmint, not catnip. It’ll form a nice mound of dusky green foliage with pretty mauve flowers. It’s done that, and more. The mound grew very large, so I moved it (no runners at least, unlike other mints); a small piece of root attached to a single leafy stalk broke off so I planted it it elsewhere, not really thinking it would survive. But it did and is now larger than the original mound. So I cut a few stalks off on Saturday, added them to a vase I was starting to put together for today, and brought it indoors, onto a high cabinet top where no cat has gone before. Then: crash. splatter. splinter. My fat old orange boy must have scented it, traced it and found the strength to jump way high to play with it. Knocking over my new blue swung vase.

crash…splatter…splinter
The culprit is the innocent looking guy on the left.

Still…I wanted to use the Nepeta in a vase. the small flower is so appealing – it has such a similar shade, with similar markings, when you look closely, as this Siberian Iris.

The replacement vase is an amethyst Hyacinth jar – similar in shade to the Allium Purple Sensation that’s now putting on a show. I added the very last daffodil, Narcissus poeticus, and a sprig of Ranunculus – common tall buttercup. Looking at it now I should have added two or three more buttercup stems, I think.

If you’d like to see a few more vases of flowers cut from gardens today checkout Cathy’s site – Rambling in the Garden.

20 Comments

  2. A lovely combination in that amethyst colored vase. I’m sure your Orange Kitty was startled & didn’t know it would break. Fortunately he didn’t walk near the shards.

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  3. The wide-eyed look on the face of the culpit’s companion is priceless. I really like the combination of purple and yellow, although it surprises me to think of you still having buttercups; ours are long gone, or seem so. I laughed at a couple of articles that said catnip is more aromatic than catmint. In this case, it seemed like the distinction didn’t make a bit of difference to a certain orange fellow.

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  5. Oh gosh, having been in that situation before–with cats and broken glass vases–I understand. Lovely blooms in your post! I have some mounds of Calamintha nepeta, as well, and they really fill in their area. And it’s nice that they bloom from now through the first frost.

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  6. I have experienced the effect of nepeta on cats and it’s not worth growing it here because of the unwanted feline visitors we have. What a shame about your vase, but it’s good to see that shade of hyacinth vase as I have not seen on like it before. I really like the soft purple mix of blooms in it, and you are right that the nepeta would work well with the others

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  8. I’m sorry, but not entirely surprised, that you lost your vase. I adore Nepeta but can’t grow it, not because it isn’t happy in my climate, but because the neighborhood cats show up and immediately eat it to the ground. I suppose I could put up a sturdy wire cage but that rather wrecks the effect.

    https://krispgarden.blogspot.com/

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    1. It was a surprise to me both because I didn’t think the cats could jump that high and also because it hadn’t attracted any attention in the garden…of course, the coyotes take care of most outdoor cats pretty effectively, from what I hear.

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