greentapestry : In A Vase On Monday ~ Summer In A Nutshell

Monday 26 June 2017

In A Vase On Monday ~ Summer In A Nutshell


"Here are sweet peas, on tip-toe for a flight:
With wings of gentle flush o'er delicate white
And taper fingers catching at all things
To bind them all about with tiny rings"
~ John Keats, 1795-1821 

This is the vase of flowers that I look forward to most each year - the very first vaseful of sweet peas.  My summer would not be complete without them. The flowers have been opening in tantalising dribs and drabs over the last couple couple of weeks and now finally there are enough of them to cut to fill a vase. Such vases usually sit on the kitchen windowsill and I hope there will be many more of them to follow.

This year's sweet peas were spread over two sowings both in rootrainers in a cold greenhouse. The first batch was sown on 14th February and the second at the beginning of March (unable to find label with exact date but will update this post when and if I do). The plants raised from the February sowing have turned out to be the stronger although the germination rate was less than fifty per cent. I have since read an article which recommends not watering any early sowings of sweet peas until they have germinated and must remember that for next year. I think that some of those early sowing seeds rotted away. I've never sown sweet peas in February before so have nothing to compare against. The March sowings all germinated but the plants are not as vigorous.

Once hardened off the plants were planted on wigwams at the allotment with two plants to each bamboo cane. They all got a dollop of manure and some chopped up comfrey leaves when planting. I must start to feed them soon. This year's varieties include 'Matucana', 'Midnight', 'Gwendoline', 'Ewewhon', 'Eclipse', Mollie Rilestone (not in this vase), 'Noel Sutton' and 'Ballerina Blue'.


Thanks as always to our lovely hostess Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for encouraging us to share our vases each Monday. I had the pleasure of seeing Cathy's magical garden last week and came away wishing that I could take it away with me. Looking forward to seeing what is in everyone else's vases today.

10 comments:

  1. You can't beat a jug of sweet peas on a summer's day! Beautiful.

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  2. Gorgeous! I love the color combination of the vase and flowers..

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  3. Interesting to to hear your comparison of different sowings - and about the no watering...I wonder if anyone else has come across that as I certainly haven't. I will not be able to produce a vase with these shades in as I have very few blues and mauves in my mixes, and I only have mixes this year apart from the Purple Pimpernel that I have been saving seed from for about 4 years now. I do have all my little sweet pea pots from the Sunday opening in the house, but they don't have the same impact as your lovely jug! I am so pleased you liked the garden Anna :)

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  4. Love the blues and the violets, and combined with the sage green of the vase, just perfect!

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  5. Just gorgeous and indeed something to look forward to, so far I only have one or two flowers. I love the colours I've tried germinating in a bag of slightly damp compost or on kitchen paper and that does give better results. I think it's trial and error.

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  6. A perfect summer vase Anna. :)

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  7. I noticed my first three sweet pea flowers today :-)

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  8. Sweet peas are such a delight and I love the celadon vase. :)

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  9. My early sweet peas have almost gone over due I think to the hot weather, even though I have fed, watered and watered. They are in large pots on the patio, fortunately the second batch is looking good.

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All your comments are much appreciated and treasured. I wil try to reply to everyone who leaves a comment, but it may take me a few days, especially when I start spending more time in the garden and at the lottie. I know that you will understand :) I am sure that I will also visit your blog if I have not already done so. If you have any specific questions I will either reply to them here or you can email me at : thegreentapestry@gmail.com

Namasté

- Anna.