If Cathy, at Rambling in the Garden, who hosts ‘In a vase on Monday’, wasn’t already using the epithet ‘The Golfer’ for her husband, I would definitely have used it for mine. He joined the local ‘Shanklin and Sandown’ golf club shortly after we moved to the island and this Saturday became their captain.
A week earlier he had (casually) asked if I could produce some flowers for his ‘Captain’s Drive in’ event on Sunday, when he hosted as captain for the first time, and ran a charity competition, to be followed by cream teas at the clubhouse. Whilst my initial reaction was ‘no’, I looked around the garden and realised there were still hundreds of blooms. What I couldn’t quite picture was how they would work together, and then I realised, they didn’t have to.
There were to be ten tables of ten, so I splashed out on some cute spherical jam jars from Nutleys and set about making two matching arrangements for each table, twenty in all.
It all seemed like quite a good idea, until many hours later on Saturday….
So here they are, Cosmos Purity and Ammi,
Rosa Snow Goose and Zinnia Giant Lime
Helianthus Italian White and hebe
Rosa Jubilee Celebration, Cerinthe and Antirrhinum Orange wonder
Rosa Pink Flower Carpet, Antirrhinum and Honeysuckle
Dahlia Happy Single Date, Scabious Fata Morgana and mint
Zinnia Raspberry Cordial, seedheads of Iris unguicularis and Photinia leaves
Zinnia Giant Wine and Antirrhinum Liberty Crimson
Cosmos Double Click Cranberries and Dahlia Downham Royal.
and lastly Salvia Horminum ‘Oxford Blue’, Aster frikartii ‘Monch’ and Linum
And of course what happened? They’ve already signed me up for New Year’s Eve.
Oh Captain, my Captain, what have you started?
Duver Diary 
Wow!!! What a wonderful array of flower arrangements – congratulations!!! They are all so beautiful – no wonder you have been asked for an encore.
Thanks WD!
Gosh – I am so impressed; both that you have so many flowers but also that you have so many flowers that match each other in colour. Lovely arrangements.
Hi Annette – think I’ve been lucky this year. I don’t think I had nearly as many blooms this time last year as the summer was so much hotter and drier.
Take a bow….how about raffling them off at the end to earn more for your club, or favourite charity. A really beautiful assortment of flowers, very artfully put together.
Thank you Noelle. And thanks for the suggestion!
My goodness Jen – that was a task and a half, but as you say you clearly had enough flowers to go wild with them. They are all so lovely – great combinations, every one of them and it’s no wonder they met with approval. You do realise it won’t be quite as easy come New Year’s Eve though, don’t you?! Look forward to seeing the December versions 🙂
Hi Cathy And first off thanks for providing a medium where I can share them!
I think the audience at IaVoM is a much more appreciative one than at the golf club, where many of them were more interested in the rugby than anything else!
And yes, I know New Year will be much harder. The lady captain has said they’ll pay for me to buy flowers, but as all of us Monday gals know, that’s not the way we like to do it!
You are most welcome, Jen. So you are going to stick with your own material in December? Hurrah!
What a beautiful collection! I’m not at all surprised that you received another assignment – you signed your own fate there. I love that time Zinnia.
Thanks Kris.
A rainbow of flowers how lovely. You’ll be commissioned for weddings next. Don’t worry about New Year’s Eve. You can always use foliage and dried flowers and lots of gold and silver.
Thanks Homeslip. And good tip about the gold and silver. Now where are all those Allium seed heads?
Jen, my jaw just dropped when I opened this post! What a gorgeous rainbow array of vases you provided! Whew, I’m speechless! Of course, they’d sign you up for a repeat! Well done!
Thank you so much Eliza
I have to say when the jam jars arrived through the post (on Saturday morning!!) I was worried they were too small, but in the end they worked out fine. Quite a relief I can tell you…
You did have a wonderful array of flowers in your garden! I love all the colors of your rainbow, especially the peach #6, the red #8, fabulous Liberty Crimson, and the purple #10. Your golfer must be so happy, Jen.
Thanks Hannah. I love your numbering!
The funny thing is that when I was preparing them I got in in a knot with the numbers and thought I was done when I’d completed 10. And then I realised I had 10 more (and so 5 more colourways) to come up with!
Wow. What a talented sister I have! They all looked wonderful and I am also amazed that you have soooo many blooms still in the garden. What an awesome lady you are. Hope tea was up to the standard of the flowers! Love and hugs your proud sister xx
Shucks sis. xx
Fabulous, that just shows what’s possible. But New Year!?!? The garden won’t be so abundant then, will it? Good luck.
Hi Christina, no indeed re New Year. As I said to Cathy above, they’ve offered to give me money to buy flowers, but that’s not the way we like to go, is it?
What will you have flowering at New Year? Could I pop over?
I doubt I will have any more flowers than you at new year. That will be too early even for forced tulips. You might be able to force some crocus.
Goodness Jen, you have a real flair for growing and arranging cut flowers. If you weren’ t such a busy London career girl, you could make a career out of this, you would be in great demand.
Thanks Chloris.
Well we can all dream, but not sure it would pay the bills quite so well!
These are all so beautiful Jen. Masterfully presented. That Zinnia Giant Lime is interesting.
Thanks PBM. I had a few of the lime plants, but they weren’t very prolific so I didn’t have many blooms to cut. Just as well I had a few for Sunday though, as I was running out of alternative colour options!
They are all really gorgeous! I love the way you separated the colours. New Year will be a challenge and I shall look forward to seeing those vases too!
Thanks Cathy. I’m starting to worry about New Year already…
What a fantastic idea and you have so many flowers still it is quite incredible.
Thanks FD. Yes, I’m so lucky there were still plenty – and fun to share them!
Wow what a beautiful display! It’s a lovely idea to have a rainbow of colour in individual jars. I also liked the lime Zinnia. I haven’t really seen Zinnias I liked much before this week when you and Eliza have shown some interesting ones.
First seeing all these blooms still growing in your garden was a wonderful sight and then to read all these incredible arrangements were at a cream tea is just amazing….you do have a gift for arranging so I am not surprised to read they want you to do more……really gorgeous vases all!
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