In A Vase On Monday ~ Hiatus

Blogging is proving impossible at the moment. I've been away from home most of this month as my almost ninety two year old mother is rather poorly in hospital. Hence my silence here and also commenting on the blogs I regularly visit. I am unable to envisage when I might start posting regularly again but today I am making the most of a brief visit home. So here is my vase on a Monday where most of today's pickings have come from the allotment. In my vase is :

• A well blended into the background dahlia probably 'Arabian Night'.
• Tagetes patula 'Cinnabar'.
• The remains of the only glad that is still in flower. The others have come and gone in my absence.
• An unknown grass that would have set seed if I had not been ruthless. 
• A couple of danglies in the shape of amaranthus caudatus 'Viridis'.
• Scabious stellata 'Sternkugel' which I've not grown before. The flowers are a pretty enough though slightly wishy-washy shade of pale blue but then they morph into rather gorgeous papery seedheads. 

The vase is my latest find sometime in July from the charity shop that we regularly haunt when we visit our caravan. It has produced riches in the shape of new vases this year. We also have acquired a couple of new outdoor chairs and a little table but more on them another time. I hope to be back here again before too long. In the meantime will try to keep up with the blogs that I regularly visit, although I might be a silent visitor at times.

I am trying to be optimistic about my absence from home and have already made some plans and additions to the 2017 wish list, after reading this article on growing cut flowers by Louise Curley (aka Wellywoman) in August's copy of the 'The Garden' magazine.

Thanks as always to the lovely Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for the inspiration and for hosting so graciously each week. I can smell her latest vase from here!

Wordless Wednesday ~ The View From Here

In A Vase On Monday ~ Whirligig & Company

Nestling in today's 'In A Vase On Monday' are a trio of dahlias. From left to right are 'Orange Baby', a 'Bishop's Children' seedling and 'Cornel Brons'. To give you some idea of comparative size the circumference of 'Orange Baby' is about an inch. She is the brightest orange you can possibly imagine. The 'Bishop's Children' dahlia is from a batch sown in March. They were grown specifically for a plant sale at the beginning of July. Unfortunately the seedlings were the subject of a veritable slugfest and there were only a few that were presentable enough for the sale. Those in flower went on the day but the others came home with me. I've had one or two nice surprises since as the flowers have opened. I took this photo on Sunday evening knowing that I may not be able to find an opportunity today. It was quite breezy and all three dahlias were revolving in their vases. That and the shape of the' Bishop's Children' bought whirligigs to mind. The third of the trio 'Cornel Bronz' is new to me this year.

My vases are in the shape of school milk bottles bought on a recent holiday. I think that may be replicas rather than originals. They certainly seemed bigger when I drank from them as a child but then I was so much smaller.

A quick peek over at 'Rambling In The Garden' reveals that Cathy is very much in the pink this week. I'm sure that there will be all the colours of the rainbow in other vases this week. I'm looking forward to visiting them.