In a vase on Monday – Kitchen sink!

The colour theme of this vase was supposed to be simply orange, with some contrasting purple from the Asters.  However, with the original pickings looking far too mean, I broadened the remit.

One thing led to another, and I’ve ended up with a rather random selection of the original planned Pat Austin roses (already looking a little floppy by the time I took the photo) Euphorbia characias ‘Wulfenii’ and Asters,  then being joined by Zinnias, both ‘Benary Giant Lime’ and ‘Queen Red Lime,’

a single stem of Antirrhinum ‘Orange Wonder,’ seed heads from Arum italicum pictum,

Dahlia ‘Happy Single Date’ and Rosa ‘Jubilee Celebration’

I think it was Constance Spry who said when flower arranging you should ‘allow room for the butterflies’ – I think it’s fair to say by the time I’d finished cramming, there was probably only space for a Small Blue!

Why don’t you pop over to Cathy’s blog to see what others have picked for their vases this Monday?

In a vase on Monday – Orange overload!

Finally some time this weekend to fiddle with flowers!

I spent a lovely hour making a few arrangements including the kitchen one above.  Sedum heads were joined by an exuberant mix of  Dahlias ‘Zundert Mystery Fox’ and ‘Happy Single Date’

as well as Rosa ‘Pat Austin’.

More Dahlias was plonked in the relatively new small glass trough – ‘Roxy’ and ‘Hillcrest Royal’ together with Cosmos ‘Rubenza’

And lastly, a trio of sherbet pink blooms for the long oak table.

These contained a random mix of bits and pieces to accompany the Rosa ‘Jubilee Celebration’ including a few odd sweet peas (‘Prince Edward’ the dark one below), Antirrhinum ‘Orange Wonder’, Panicum ‘Frosted Explosion’, Diascia personata

together with mint leaves and even a peachy Pelargonium.

As ever I’m joining Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who hosts the IaVoM meme.  Why don’t you pop over to see who else has been fiddling with flowers today?

In a vase on Monday – When two worlds collide

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?

The Cutting Garden – September 2015

In my Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day post for August I mentioned how I couldn’t tell the difference between my two Cutting Garden pale sunflowers, Helianthus cuc Italian White and Helianthus Vanilla Ice.  Well I can now – the one above, H. cuc Italian White, is now about 7ft tall, a good 2ft taller than Vanilla Ice. They’re both still going strong and highly recommended, but I think I prefer the taller variety for cutting.

Below the Salvia horminum ‘Oxford Blue’, is also still flowering profusely.  The stems are getting even longer and it’s a brilliant, long lasting cut flower.

This is one of the few Ten Weeks Stocks still flowering.  As I mentioned last month I don’t think I’d grow these again.  They never seem to have more than a couple of flowers blooming on the stem at any one time, and although they smell gorgeous, the flowers look rather mean and a bit tatty.  I think I’ll keep looking for alternative varieties as there must be better ones and I adore the scent of stocks.

I have already planted some more Matthiola Incana seed for next year, but if anyone knows of other stock seed worth growing I’d love to know.

The two Cosmos varieties, C. Double Click Snow Puff and C. Double Click Cranberries are starting to look rather exhausted, but they have been pumping out blooms for months so I’m not complaining.  Interestingly the two different varieties I have at home, Cosmos Purity and Cosmos Dazzler, both single, are both still flowering well.  Do you think making double flowers is more exhausting?

Meanwhile the Antirrhinum, A. Orange Wonder, seems to have gone rather more pink as it’s aged, very strange!  There are still plenty of flowers coming and, as with the Salvias, the stems are lengthening, making them even better for cutting – and there’s very little rust which was definitely a problem last year. 

The Zinnias are also still producing well, with Z. Giant Scarlet, 

Z. Giant Wine

and favourite Z. Raspberry Cordial.

I’m also still supplementing these Cutting Garden blooms with various flowers from the garden, including dahlias, dianthus, molucella.  However, there’s no doubt the Cutting Garden is starting to look a little autumnal and I can’t help but wonder how many blooms I’ll still have to share by next month.

In a vase on Monday – just peachy!

After the success of last week’s peachy vase I was inspired to go bigger and here it is.

The vase has more of the Zinnia Raspberry Cordial,

Antirrhinum Orange Wonder,  Dianthus Green Trick, as well as green heads of Sedum Autumn Joy.

These have been joined by first pickings of Scabious Fata Morgana.  This is growing in the Bronze Bed and has turned out less peachy than I was expecting, but does seem to be getting rather more orange as the flower heads age.

But the new flower I’m most excited about is this Dahlia – Dahlia Happy Single Date.  Such a lovely colour.  What with my Raspberry Cordials and my Happy Single Dates I feel plenty more peachy vases to come!

With many thanks to Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who hosts all the lovely Monday vases.  Why don’t you ramble over and see what everyone’s found for their vases this week?

In a vase on Monday – raspberry cordial debut

Further to Saturday’s rather rushed GBBD, here is last Monday’s vase bringing together some of the Cutting Garden blooms featured there.

I just love the extraordinary salmon pink colour of large Zinnia at the front.  This is Zinnia Raspberry Cordial which I fell in love with last September at West Dean (see below).

Whereas all my other ‘Benary’ Zinnias came from Chilterns, I managed to find these seeds for sale at Plants of Distinction.  I haven’t got too many Raspberry Cordial blooms yet, but there are plenty more to come at the Cutting Garden, and I also have plants planted in the Grass Bed.  It’s not often I’m so determined to seek out a particular variety, but I’m really chuffed I did.

To fill out the arrangement I also added some Zinnia Benary Giant Scarlet and my peachy Antirrhinum Orange Wonder.  The Antirrhinums in this vase were a bit ‘kinky’ as they hadn’t been staked, but I really like the way they’ve curving at the front of the mug.

And for green, I have yet more heads of Dianthus Green Trick.  These ones are currently growing in a big pot near my front steps.  I really must take more cuttings as I love the freshness of the colour and how long lasting they are in the vase.

With thanks to Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for hosting everyone’s IaVoM.

End of month view – June 2015

I’m joining Helen at the Patient Gardener to share my June End of Month view.

As some of you know, I opened my garden on Sunday for the local hospice as part of a group opening, and I have to say when I got back from work on Thursday I was devastated to see how exhausted everything looked.  Despite some watering and tidying there were definitely areas that were past their best, but the show must go on and I actually got lots of lovely comments (and over 150 visitors!)

All the photos, apart from the one above, were taken in Monday’s bright sunshine, and I’ve struggled a bit with the light levels.  The one above however, was taken during the opening, and you can see it was a lot greyer.  Luckily (for the visitors, not for the garden!) we missed all the rain bar a few drops.

The Swing Beds were definitely struggling, and even the roses which had looked so lovely the weekend before, were going off a little.  There are Dahlias and Cosmos and Dianthus carthusianorum (grown from seed) amongst other things still to come here, so I hope I can keep it going.

The Grass Bed has a very limited palette of plants, just the grasses (Stipa tenuissima), looking lovely at this time of year, the self seeded Cerinthe, Allium ‘Hair’ (which has been very badly ‘rusted’ this year), the Verbascum chaixxi Album I grew from seed and the Catananche caerulea, which are new and I just love.  However, around all this is much bare soil, following the disposal of all the dead forget me nots, but I’m not sure what else to add.  I still have various seedlings kicking around, so perhaps I’ll pop some of them in.  

Above is the new Mid Century Bed which is really starting to fill out.  The Ranunculus are still going strong and have now been joined by the first of my new roses to flower, Rosa Munstead Wood, just gorgeous.  I’ve also planted some annuals here including Centaurea cyanus Black Boy, Daucus carota Black Knight, Molucella and Malope.  The Centaurea are just starting to flower, but hopefully the rest will have appeared by next month’s EOMV.

In the other new bed, the Bronze Bed, some combinations have worked, including this one of Calendula Sunset Buff, Achillea Terracotta and Nasturtium Caribbean Crush.

But in common with the Swing Beds, the overall look is a bit exhausted.  However, this picture does show clearly why I wanted the new bed as you can see just how shaded the Oak bed is, in comparison, across the lawn.

In the veg beds, the beans and peas are all rushing up their poles, we’re having the best Raspberry crop ever

and the Diving Lady has again got somewhere to swim

The raised cutting beds are still looking rather empty apart from plants that overwintered.

But the barrow, which has been a bit of a mess for quite a while, had a good tidy up in honour of the opening, and is looking rather pretty again.

The barrow sits to the right of the greenhouse and this year I’ve added some more orangey plants here too.  Firstly the Antirrhinum Orange Wonder, which I’d originally grown for the Bronze Bed but decided there was more room here

and also the Lathyrus Belinensis, grown in pots either side of the greenhouse door.  These have been really slow to get going but are now starting to look more settled.  They don’t grow as tall as ‘normal’ sweet peas, and nor do they have the same fragrance, but I love their bicoloured flowers and how they work with both the brick and the pot.  I just need them to fill out!

And to finish, the one bed looking untouched by the recent heat – the Shady Bed looking cool and calm.  

With thanks to Helen for hosting this meme.

The Cutting Garden(s) – May 2015

So finally I can join Julie, at Peonies and Posies‘ party to talk about the cutting garden.

As last year, my cutting beds are spread about a bit which isn’t ideal, but I’m still very fortunate to have space for cutting blooms.  Again I’ve been allowed to use some space in my neighbours’ walled garden, however this time I have had two different areas allocated.  The first, shown above, is an area that used to be inhabited by chickens, but sadly they were dispatched by a fox earlier in the year and haven’t been replaced.  I’m glad to say there is another area with (live!) chickens just above, so I’m not without company.

The bright green in the photo above is some (I assume) self sown lettuces that I didn’t feel I had the rights to dig up and discard!

As well as (let’s call it) the Chicken Bed there is also a smaller area next to one of the walls.

Whilst the Chicken Bed slopes to the south and is sunny, if rather stony and sandy, the Wall Bed is to the east of the wall and loses the sun relatively early on.  However the soil here seems richer; I think there’s been manure added (you’d think the chicken area would be rich with chicken poo, but it doesn’t seem so).

If you look closely, you can see I have now planted both areas out and I’m interested to see how they fare comparatively.  I haven’t planted any sunflowers in the wall bed as I didn’t think they’d be happy, but I have planted some seedlings in common across the two.

So, seedlings planted so far include Antirrhinum majus Orange Wonder, Centaurea cyanus Black Boy, Cosmos Click Cranberries, Cosmos Dazzler, Cosmos Double Click Snow Puff, Helianthus deb ssp cuc Italian White, Helianthus deb Vanilla Ice, Helianthus Ruby Eclipse (thanks Cathy!), Salvia horminum ‘Oxford Blue’, Stocks Ruby Punch, Ten Weeks Mixed Stocks.  In addition I’ve planted a couple of Dahlia Roxy plants I had spare.

I’ve also got multiple different Zinnia seedlings ready to go in the Chicken Bed in a week or so, as well as plenty of sweet peas that I don’t have space for at home (largely because of my new wider spacing strategy).

As well as the two beds at J&A’s, I’ve also got the two raised beds I used for the first time last year.  The photo below shows them in August last year.

Both the Antirrhinums (front left) A. Liberty Crimson and the Euphorbia oblongata behind have overwintered and are looking good.   I’ve planted out some shorter seedlings here,  including Molucella laevis and Calendula.

Whilst I still seem to be up to my neck in seedlings, I’m already regretting some omissions of plants grown last including Amaranthus viridis and Rudbeckia Cherry Brandy.  I also don’t think I’ve got nearly enough foliage and fillers (I seem to recall Sarah Raven suggests you should have a similar quantity of flowers and foliage, well I’ve failed there!)

However, there are two bigger issues, firstly will I have any blooms to speak of for my daughter’s 18th on the 19th June?  And, conversely, later in the year once the cutting garden is in full production, what on earth am I going to do with all the blooms I will have?

Something I never confessed at the time, was that last year, when I wasn’t working, I sold flowers twice a week at the local post office (mostly small bouquets in tin cans, see below).  The trouble is, whilst I could still attempt to sell blooms, what I’m concerned about is that if I’m not there to pick them mid week will they all go to seed and stop flowering?

With many thanks to Julie at Peonies and Posies, (who has a completely glorious cutting garden) for hosting this meme.  Do go and take a peek.