In A Vase On Monday ~ Drop Dead Gorgeous

Regular visitors will know that I'm gripped by serious snowdrop fever at this time of year so I have picked a few of my specials to celebrate this week's 'In A Vase On Monday'. In my vase are 'Lady Beatrix Stanley', 'George Elwes', 'Diggory', 'John Gray' 'Cedric's Prolific' and an unknown 'drop that lost it label some time ago in the dim and distant past. Sharing the vase, which is an old  stoneware cream pot, is some ivy.

I will have a surplus of 'Lady Beatrix Stanley', one or two spares of 'George Elwes' and 'Diggory', which I would be more than happy to share later in the year with any U.K. reader. I would willingly send them further afield if I could but sadly postage charges or regulations regarding plant exports get in the way. Just let me know if you are interested either by emailing me directly (address in sidebar) or in the comments below. I will be splitting these bulbs later in the year, so could send you a dormant bulb which you can plant either in a pot or directly into the ground. They are all what you would call 'good doers' and easy to look after. 'Lady Beatrix Stanley' multiplies particularly vigorously and has been awarded the Award Of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society.

I wonder what other late winter delights will feature in other vases this week and am looking forward to having a peek later today. Thanks to our hostess Cathy over 'At Rambling In The Garden' who I know shares my snowdrop addiction or perhaps the word should be affliction.

January Musing ~ A Smorgasbord Of Delights

"Somebody needs to invent blinkers for humans. There are novels to write, tax receipts to collate, but where is the harm in standing at the glass for a little look? A light drizzle is usually falling; I am shoeless because I prefer to write in but not with bare feet. No sane person would step outside.
I step outside.

...... Unlike most British people with our nice calibrations of weather, our conversational grumbling ('wet enough for you?') and outrage at any climatic extreme, I don't pay attention to low temperatures. I feel them obviously : I'm not a rock. I just don't remember to do anything about them. So while others would stop to shoe themselves appropriately before walking over grit or bramble or several centimetres of snow, I persist in believe I'll be able to tread lightly towards the compost bin, like a fairy oe'r stepping stones.

'Where's your coat?' people ask. 'Aren't you freezing?'
'Yes' I tell them and we look at each other, perplexed.

Yet my plants are calling to me. From here I can see the garden table, which was bought for Mediterranean style meals in the sun, but mysteriously is covered in improvised plant crutches; broken teapots; ice-lolly-stick seedling markers, treats for compost worms; postmans' rubber bands for attaching things, a child's stolen kitten-patterned pencil; takeaway cups labelled MANGO I THINK and ??MISC DON'T THROW OUT; stiffened gloves; rusty spoons and. To a non-gardener, it looks like dismal rubbish. To me, it is a smorgasbord of delightful and necessary tasks. 

Addicts are ingenious. They lie, even to themselves. A gardener can always think of an excuse to wander outside.
'I'll just ...' we mumble. 'Give me a couple of moments'.

This is obviously nonsense. How could one do anything in a garden in two minutes? It's just one drink, one cigarette. A garden is a knotted rope along which small tasks and satisfaction are laid out at optimum intervals, as in a computer game, or a punishment devised on Mount Olympus to drive mortals mad. We try to resist; we fail. We always do.
'This won't take long', we lie".

Extract from ~ 'Rhapsody in Green' by Charlotte Mendelson.
Illustration ~ Lena Anderson.

In A Vase On Monday ~ 'Evergreen'

In my vase today is a stem of hippeastrum cybister 'Evergreen'. This was one of my purchases from Pheasant Acre Plants at the Great Dixter Autumn Plant Fair last October. It is the most expensive hippeastrum that I've ever purchased, but has been well worth every penny its seven pounds producing not one, not two but three stems of flowers which are a most subtle and beautiful shade of green. It was quite breezy this morning when I took the photo so I made an effort to stop the stem from gyrating about by lobbing some redundant so called luminous stones into the vase. They are redundant as they never glowed in the dark as they should have done. I was thinking of disposing of them completely but they came in handy today. My 'vase' was a seasonal caramelised red onion chutney jar in a former life. 

Thanks as always to our lovely hostess Cathy, over at 'Rambling In The Garden' who encourages us to share our vases every Monday.

In A Vase On Monday ~ Here We Go Again

If the contents today's 'In A Vase On Monday' look familiar that is because they are. Almost the same pickings graced my vase of a fortnight ago, the only addition being a few snowdrop flowers, from tall stately 'George Elwes' and elegant early flowering 'Fieldgate Prelude.

What happened was that I had left that vase of cornus 'Anny's Winter Orange', viburnum tinus 'Lisa Rose' and a stem of rosa 'The Fairy' in the greenhouse for some reason and never got my act together to bring it into the house. The upside is that I enjoyed seeing some welcome colour whenever I nipped in the greenhouse and the cooler conditions have obviously prolonged the flowering life of the roses and viburnum.

My vase today is a snowdrop mug which was purchased on a visit to the RHS Chatsworth Flower Show last June. The stall was the first one to catch my eyes from under the all enveloping hood which covered my head for most of the day. It was a full time occupation just concentrating on where you were walking on what was an extremely unseasonably cool, damp and most muddy underfoot day so I was delighted that I didn't just walk on by. Initially I had my heart set on a snowdrop jug but there were none to be had on the stall on the day. That's gone on to the wish list for one day in the future.

Thanks as always to the lovely Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' who today is enjoying some enticing seasonal scent in her trio of vases.

Wordless Wednesday ~ 'Trimmer'

In A Vase On Monday ~ Welcome In 2018

Yes I know it's Tuesday but my camera conspired against me and would not download the photos I took in yesterday morning's brilliant new year sunshine. In fact it was too bright really for taking photos. The plan was to pop out later for an action replay but by that time rain stopped play.

In my belated 'In A Vase On Monday' are stems of cornus 'Anny's Winter Orange' which is in its first winter with me (not as orange as I thought it might be but maybe that comes with age), some viburnum tinus 'Lisa Rose' and the last but one flowering stem of rosa 'The Fairy'. The latter is a stalwart having produced its clusters of small soft pink flowers since July. I think that this may have been the latest I've ever seen it bear flowers but then 2017 was a funny old year.

Thanks as always to the lovely Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for  hosting come rain or shine and enabling us to share our vases throughout each season of the year.