In a Vase on Monday – Emma and friends

Helloooooo!  How lovely to be back joining Cathy and co for In a Vase on Monday.

My excuse for not posting is a mix of the good (a lovely holiday walking round Lake Como and the mother in law’s 90th birthday celebrations in Lulworth Cove) but mostly the bad – far too much work (Zzzzzzz).

This week I popped into the garden before work and was inspired to create a quick vase as I spotted a number of pretty perfect blooms (despite the recent wet) on my ‘Lady Emma Hamilton’ rose.  This was planted in the veg patch with two other roses (Summer Song and Hot Chocolate) for cutting in late 2018, so this is its first year and Emma has definitely outperformed the other two.

To accompany her, I added some Zinnia ‘Queen Red Lime’

a couple of ‘Munstead Wood’ roses, a nameless Salvia and Dianthus ‘Green Wicky’ for foliage.

All were plonked into the circle of milk bottles vase which is a real favourite of mine as it requires very little in the way of arranging.

Whilst I do get fed up spending so much time ‘screen staring’ for work, I do enjoy joining in with this lovely meme.  Why don’t you pop over to Cathy’s blog, to  see what she and other IaVoMers have arranged this Monday?

In a vase on Monday – in a vase darkly!

I used these little vases for the first time here but that was back in April and feels a looong time ago!

As some of you know, I have a bit of a thing about colour matching and wanted to bring together the rather droughted (and hence short stemmed) ‘Black Knight’ sweet peas from the Veg Bed

with the matching coloured rose, ‘Munstead Wood’ from the Mid Century Bed.

I like the little glass vases – they make me think of a scientific experiment, with the blooms arranged as if for formal analysis.  (Or is that just me?  Perhaps A level Chemistry had more impact than I’d realised!) 

And to finish, in case you thought I’d given up, I’m still trying to have flowers on my desk at work each week.  This arrangement, last week, was particularly girly in a rather male environment.  But do you know what?  I just don’t care.  I’ve battled on for more than 35 years now and decided some while ago that the ‘boys’ were just going to have to take me as they found me, flowers and all!

With thanks to Cathy who hosts this lovely meme.

In a vase on Monday – still rosy!

Today’s very simple vase consists of just two different blooms – a rose and bud from Rosa ‘Munstead Wood’

and a few stems of Erysimum ‘Red Jep’

Some of you may remember I first saw ‘Red Jep’ at Hyde Hall but she’s now appearing all over the place.  I’ve taken a lot more cuttings, so hopefully I too can expand her presence!

The Munstead Wood rose is really very prickly.  Does anyone use one of ‘thorn strippers’?  Each time I pick this rose (and get pricked) I always think I must get one – interested to hear any feedback.

So just a quick vase and post while I wait for the OH to return from golf, in the hope that we might actually eat lunch together!

With thanks to Cathy who hosts this lovely meme.

In a vase on Monday – Sanguine set up!

Sorry for the absence – we’ve been away for 10 days, and the way it’s fallen with work I was last on the island on 23rd September!

The garden is in many areas looking rather ‘over’.  Sadly, the majority of the dahlias have finished and many of the annuals too, but there are still roses and Salvias and, extraordinarily, lots of new growth from self sown Cerinthe seedlings.

There is plenty of bright pink about, particularly from the flower carpet roses, but somehow that didn’t feel right for this time of year.  I was looking for something rather more autumnal, and struck on this fabulous dark burgundy.

We visited a number of wineries on our holiday in Spain, including those in the Rioja region, so perhaps that deep Rioja colour was still on my mind!

The main flower is the Rosa ‘Munstead Wood’.  It’s a gorgeous flower but certainly very prickly, so not that friendly for cutting.

The Dahlia here – mostly hanging out at the edges – is D. La Recoleta (this is photo from a previous vase as I forgot to take its photo!)

To this I added a single collapsed stem of Gladiolus Black Star

and then filled around with lovely new grey/green Cerinthe growth.

It’s lovely to be back creating a Monday vase and I’m looking forward to heading over to Cathy’s blog to see what everyone else has chosen for their vase this week.

In a vase on Monday – Moody loos

So I popped into the garden at lunch time to pick some blooms and it really looked like the end of the world.  The light was a deep orangey/black, apparently caused by Saharan sand whipped up by Hurricane Ophelia.  Weird!

This equally moody amalgamation consists solely of blooms from the mid century bed – Dahlia ‘La Recoleta’

Rosa ‘Munstead Wood’ (just seen bottom left) and Salvia.  Not sure which this one is, but it has a delicious blackcurrant scent to the leaves.

And why the title?  I think you can guess..

With thanks to Cathy who hosts all our vases, wherever we put them!

In a vase on Monday – three seasons in a day – and thwarted Thursday!

Let’s start with late spring, exemplified by sweet peas, together with the Panicum ‘Frosted Explosion.

Followed by summer, with Malope trifida ‘Alba’, Cosmos ‘Psyche White’ and Nicandra physalodes (Shoo-fly).

And autumn, with a mix of Dahlias, Salvias, Cosmos and late flushing roses (Pat Austin and Munstead Wood). 

The arrangements above were all created on Saturday, which sadly was too late for Thursday’s island birthday celebrations for the OH.  

We were having dinner in a local restaurant, with drinks at home first.  I’d hoped to arrange flowers for the house, and had even wondered about taking some little arrangements to the restaurant.

Sadly, thanks to a signal failure and swans on the line (yes really), my attempts to get back from London by early afternoon on Thursday were badly thwarted and I got through the door at around 6, with guests arriving at 6.30.

Obviously a sane woman would have forgotten the flowers and gone and got changed, but not yours truly.  No, I went running around the garden gathering a great armful of blooms and was still shoving them in a huge vase as the first guests arrived…

The result, photographed a day later, looks rather sad, but I promise it did look a little better on the night (and a little less flat in the middle).  

With thanks to Cathy who hosts all our Monday vases.

In a vase on Monday – in a box!

Home from London on Thursday evening for a quick turn around and then an early get away on Friday morning.  We were heading to Bath to celebrate the OH’s big birthday with family, staying in a lovely rental house in central Bath.

Like the silly sausage I am, as well as three cakes (long story), Friday dinner and food for breakfasts, I was determined to take some flowers, and so Thursday evening saw me wandering around the garden at 10pm with a torch (in the rain), picking blooms.

I got them picked and arranged in three small vases and photo’d them (above) ready for their travels.  What I of course then forgot to do was photo them again gracing the very lovely dining table, laid for 10.

This is a photo of the table from the Bath Holiday Rentals website.  You’ll just have to imagine the blooms in situ!

Nothing to do with blooms, but I just wanted to share, on Sunday, as a birthday treat, I took the OH and the two ‘kids’ ballooning.  I’ve never been before and we were blessed with the most glorious evening and fabulous views over Bath – including being able to spot the house we’d been staying in.

If you ever get the chance, do go, it was absolutely magical.

With thanks to Cathy who hosts this lovely meme.

End of month view – July 2017

After the glory of June’s excesses, already aspects of the garden at the end of July are looking a little tired.  However, conversely, areas reliant on annuals, such as the grass bed, are just getting going.

So the usual clockwise tour takes us past the new Silk Tree (Albizia julibrissin f rosea).  Still no blooms, but I’m delighted it’s making itself at home.  Please ignore the convolvulus leaf to the left.  (I promise it isn’t there now, but I made the executive decision to take the photos yesterday before the five hours of gardening, so please excuse the ‘fuzzyness’ shown in the photos – not least the unmown lawn!)

On to the troughs and sadly these are rather contradicting my statement about the annuals getting going.  I really need to rethink what I plant here as the metal troughs, especially during this balmy summer, are just too hot for many things.  The plan here was a combination of Cosmos ‘Antiquity’, which are just about getting there, combined with Lathyrus ‘Pink Cupid’ at the front, which Sarah Raven assured me would ‘tumble happily’. However, I don’t think having roasted roots really suits the poor sweet peas and consequently it’s barely peeping over the edge!

In the Veg Patch and it’s really more flowers than veg – both the amazing Agapanthus and the Sweet Peas.

The Swing Beds are a bit chaotic, but still showing quite a lot of colour – particularly the incredibly long flowering Diascia personata

The Grass Bed has filled out considerably in a month with plenty of Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Psyche White’, (and Salvia horminum ‘White Swan’ and Malope trifida ‘Alba’ out of shot) together with plenty of self sown grasses.

On the way round we pass this shallow metal dish which just goes to show some plants are happy with baked bottoms!

The Mid Century Bed now has rather mad spires of Gladioli ‘Black Star’

which are picking up on the spring planted Cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’ and the Rosa ‘Munstead Wood’.

Outside the greenhouse, the pots are still looking good with the Arctotis ‘Flame’ and Thunbergia ‘Africa Sunset’, joined by Catananche caerulea for contrast.

Into the greenhouse and looking left I can show off an astonishing array of Peppers – ‘Crystal Lemon’ and ‘Tequila’

There are tomatoes in the other direction

and what’s this?  Newly discovered on my return from London on Thursday, a wonderful new potting station made by my lovely neighbour Martin.  I can’t promise it’ll mean I’ll keep the floor clean, but it will definitely help!

Round the corner to the Bronze Bed, now full of colour,

not least from wonderful Dahlia ‘Happy Single Date.’

And to finish – a final flourish from the Wisteria – and another blue sky!

 

In a Vase on Monday – Dark

I love ‘In a Vase on Monday’ because it’s full of beauty, warmth and a sense of community, and, reading Cathy and Christina‘s posts this morning about their meeting (which sadly I missed as I was away) only reinforced how wonderful warm hearts and like minds are.  Sadly, this was something so brutally missing a week ago in Manchester.

Consequently I’m sharing flowers which, whilst deliberately dark, I hope convey both life and beauty, things we all need to pause to appreciate in these tricky, tricky times.

Wishing you all a peaceful, beautiful Monday.

Thanks Cathy.

In a vase on Monday -in my cups!

Today’s vase was actually put together on Saturday, to take to our lovely neighbours as they had invited us for supper.  The title relates to their reliable generosity with the drinks.  I  won’t elaborate further.  Hic.

The vase started with just ‘bruised’ flowers emanating from the Mid Century bed, but they looked almost too dark and so were enlivened with some brighter pink from the Flower Carpet roses.

The dahlia is ‘La Recoleta’

and, here again, but showing an older bloom with its centre exposed, joined by a single stem of Rosa ‘Munstead Wood’ and backed by some new growth of Cerinthe major purpurescens.

The Antirrhinums were grown from seed and are finally getting going.  This one is Antirrhinum majus nanum ‘Black Prince.’

Here’s the grass I mentioned in GBBD, which Nick identified as Pennisetum ‘Red Buttons,’

and lastly, the fabulously glossy seed pods of Dolichos lablab ‘Ruby Moon’ which I’m rather obsessed with!

With many thanks to Cathy who hosts IaVoM – and of course M and J for a fabulous evening!