In A Vase On Monday ~ Gifted

Himself absolutely refuses to take to the highways and byways on Bank Holiday Mondays. This goes back to the time when we were both working and set off on a Bank Holiday jaunt into Derbyshire to a plant fair. Going was fine but our return journey met with a huge traffic jam which resulted in an overheated engine. That was that in no uncertain terms, so since then my Bank Holiday outings have been strictly confined to trips to the allotment, which is where I spent a good part of today.

Having recently admired a vibrant splash of colour on my allotment neighbour's red geum I was delighted to be given a trio of these plants this morning. Two of the plants have remained at the allotment but the largest came home with me. To help the plant overcome the shock of being lifted, I decided to cut the flowers off. The geums came without a name but I suspect that they are geum 'Mrs J. Bradshaw', a hardy perennial which comes true from seed. The surplus flowers went into an old glass yoghurt pot and will probably stay outside to decorate the table. In other geum news I've finally got my paws on geum 'Totally Tangerine' after being smitten with it from glimpses on television, magazines and blogs. It's a plant that eluded me for ages and I was so pleased to come across it at local garden centre last weekend. It's joined my other geum the lovely 'Mai Tai' which I hope to feature in a future vase.

Thanks as always to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' and her regular weekly open invitation to share our vases on a Monday.

In A Vase On Monday ~ Spot The Snail

It's a scented vase this week composed of lily of the valley and some foliage in the shape of bronze fennel. The lily of the valley were a gift from my parent's garden. They started off as half a dozen or so 'pips' and have now spread the distance underneath our living room window. Flowering seems to vary from year to year and the plants that are furthest away from the wall are not as productive. It was difficult to do justice to my props, namely a Wills cigarette card depicting the flower and my little bronze coloured snail which normally lives indoors. The cigarette card is one of a set of fifty' Garden Flowers' cards. The snail came to me from my mother as does its companion an even smaller glass snail. 

Thanks as always to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' who is the inspiration behind in 'A Vase On Monday'.

Wordless Wednesday ~ 18th May 2016

In A Vase On Monday ~ In Safe Hands

For You

Please forgive this week's 'vase' - himself's hands have been pressed into action to cup the tulips, which would not oblige and sit nicely in a vase. The fact that the stems were of varying lengths probably had something to do with it. Some of my planting was rather late, resulting in some short and stumpy stems, so that the heads were only just above the rim of the vase I had in mind. I must plant earlier this year and yes get a new vase or two. The planned vase was also missing one component, namely tulip 'Apricot Beauty' which went over in the heat of the weekend.

So in my pop up 'vase' are tulips 'Graceland' - white with a faint edge of pink, the fabulous frothy and frilly white' Mount Tacoma', 'Malaika' also known as 'Bruine Wimpel' and the double 'La Belle Epoque'. I've not grown either 'La Belle Epoque' or 'Graceland' before and the jury is still out. The former has not lived up to my expectations after reading the catalogue bumph. The colouring has varied quite considerably and not all the flowers have turned out to be double. Maybe though I should try it again as I remember being disappointed with 'Malaika' when I first grew them but this year I've been most smitten. Has anybody else grown 'La Belle Epoque'? If so I would be interested to hear your verdict.

Tulips 'Malaika', 'Graceland' & 'Mount Tacoma'

Long term readers of this blog may recall that I really dislike tulip foliage. I get round this by growing them in florist's buckets. I'm lucky enough to have the room to shove them out of sight once the flowers are done and dusted. The buckets are purchased from the local Morrisons's supermarket which sells them in bundles. Each bundle contains at least 8 buckets but quite often more, all for the grand total of 99 pence. The plastic can be a bit brittle when it comes to drilling holes in the bottom but with careful handling they're ok. The buckets also come in most handy at the allotment.

Tulips 'Malaika', 'Graceland','Mount Tacoma' & 'La Belle Epoque'

On the subject of tulips if you've not already come across garden designer and Chelsea gold medalist Dan Pearson's new online magazine 'Dig Delve' do have a peek. The magazine is about "gardens, landscape, growing and making". You can find a recent most informative article about Dan's experience of growing tulips here. He has the space to try out a number of varieties. After reading it I surprised myself by adding some yellow tulips to my wish list for this year's bulb order.

Over at 'Rambling In The Garden', I see that our hostess Cathy has been foraging this week to produce a vase full of wild flowers, set against a backdrop of the seashore. Looking forward to catching up with other Monday vases later on in the day.

In A Vase On Monday ~ Bluebells & Ballerinas

As with most Bank Holidays there's been the usual blip of rain and wind but it brightened up enough this afternoon to permit some flower picking. This week's contribution to 'In A Vase On Monday' involved a stroll up the lane which leads to the main road. Growing along one side of the sloping bank are cow parsley and bluebells. The latter were already growing when we moved here and their characteristics seem to match those of the English bluebell. The bluebells have been evident for a while now but the cow parsley is only just beginning to open. In another week or so there will be some fabulous frothiness and much sneezing whenever I walk past.

Coming back into the garden I picked some late planted, therefore late flowering narcissus 'Tête-à-Tête', three stems of the scented 'Ballerina' tulip and some sprigs of geranium phaeum. The vase is an old favourite given to me by mother some years ago. As usual my flowers were unceremoniously plonked in the vase though I did faff around with them a bit when the vase came in.

Well I'm off now to sow some seeds in the greenhouse but look forward to some vase visiting later on tonight. Thanks as always to our hostess Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden', who gives us the opportunity to share vases from far and wide on Monday. It's a most gentle and civilised way to start the week.