The "In a Vase Monday" challenge is motivation to bring something indoors from our own gardens and make an arrangement, a little luxury I always intend to do more often. 

Winter vases from one's own yard may seem hard, but one's choices need be no more complicated than prunings from winter snow storm damage, and maybe a little forcing indoors (easy in February).

The backdrop for my photo is the stacked oak rounds from our recent tree loss (much story to this giant here and here).  Why is firewood stacked neatly so satisfying?

In front of these oak rounds, I placed moss from the fallen tree, and stems from another fallen limb in our yard--that of a lilac. I placed the stems in water and brought them in the warm house, which forces the leaf buds to open. They did so within a week.

Flower buds can also be forced this way. In this case, flower buds had not developed yet, only leaf buds. My vase today is simply about the vertical pattern of the stems and the green buds. The bud sheaths are red as well, which picks up on some of the colors in the vase. It is all a happy accident.

The star is my daughter's ceramic vase. She gave it to me for Christmas this year and I am infatuated with it--especially the patterns and glaze. I had not known until I arranged this little composition, how sweet it looks with moss.

Find more vase inspiration on a February day, in this week's Rambling In the Garden blog and its commenters who share as well.

Story and photography by Alyse Lansing, © 2017, all rights reserved.