IAVOM ~ Resurrection Special

 

We don't often have traditional Sunday roast dinners these days but when we do there is usually enough left over meat and vegetables to concoct what is known in this household as a resurrection special on the Monday. Todays vase is a such a resurrection special existing of some flowers from my last vase as well as some new additions.

Out have gone one dahlia 'Copperboy' (only to be replaced by another stem of the same), dahlia 'Matilda' and cosmos 'White Purity'. The persicaria and ammi visnaga have remained but now have a limited vase occupancy as both are messily shedding. The newcomers are a couple of stems of the half hardy annual panicum 'Sparkling Fountain' and a couple of stems from the shrub symphoricarpos or snowberry. The white berries are now morphing into a delicious pink shade. The latter is one of the banes of my life so the least said about it the better. Joining them are also a couple of flowers of rudbeckia hirta 'Sahara, one of my favourites. These have not performed as well as usual maybe not enjoying the drier summer. I must admit that apart from watering them after they were planted for a month or so I wasn't diligent enough with the watering can. 

With a nod to Halloween three little ceramic pumpkins have gathered for a convention. The vase in the shape of an old pickle jar is also is the same as last week. Apologies for the slightly blurry and tipsy photo - it was windy and I was in a hurry to get a photo before the light faded yesterday. The earlier descent of darkness takes some adjusting to!

Thanks as always to the lovely Cathy who blogs over at  'Rambling In The Garden' for her steadfast hosting each week. This week she is trying to spook us all with a most seasonal vase. Do have a peek if you dare! Happy Halloween.

IAVOM ~ Matilda & Friends

 

This week's flowers for 'In A Vase On Monday' were uncomfortably soggy when picked this morning, after yet another prolonged deluge yesterday. At least we escaped the dramatic thunderstorms that affected other parts of the country. I may well return to the vase before it gets dark when it has dripped dried for a while and have a bit of a faff as I crammed too much in. Most of the flowers have featured in vases this year such as ammi visnaga, a nameless still going strong persicaria as well as dahlia 'Copper Boy'. There is also a stem of geum 'Totally Tangerine' from which I was able to pick a stem for a vase on 22nd March! The folaige doesn't do it for me but for staying power it's a star looking good in the company of thalictrum and polemonium in the spring, red astrantias and a hardy geranium in the summer and dahlias come autumn.

Two flowers that haven't been in vases this year are firstly the white cosmos 'Purity'. I didn't sow this favourite in the spring but a seedling appeared in the paving close to where it grew last year. I was amazed to see it sprouting so left it to its own devices and it has gone on to flower. There is also a new to me this year dahlia 'Waltzing Matilda', which was grown in a large pot alongside annual purple swan river daisies. I would like to say that Matilda waltzed all summer long but sadly she stuttered and limped her way through producing odd flowers at intermittent intervals. The flowers themselves though are large and most appealing. I have read much in the way of praise of 'Matilda' both in print and online so will persist. I will be removing her from the pot soon, will overwinter the tuber and will try her in a different spot in the ground next year. Has anybody else grown 'Matilda' this year? Would love to know what you thought of her if you did.

Thanks to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for providing us with the opportunity to share vases every week. Here we have a week of more above average temperatures predicted and some dry weather on the cards. Greenhouse sorting and cleaning is on the cards in readiness for sowing next spring. Hope that you all have a good week ahead.

Wordless Wednesday ~ 'Wonderwall'

IAVOM ~ Of Honeysuckle, Conkers and A Treasure Trove.

 

Just one floral offering in today's Monday vase in the shape of single stem of leycesteria formosa, also known by the common names of Himalayan honeysuckle or pheasant berry. It's quite plain for most of the year but lights up in autumn with its dangling claret flowers tipped with white. It is an easy going shrub which just gets on with things and is recommended for shady gardens and woodland areas. This is a seedling child of my original plant. As well as the berries self-seeding it can be propagated by softwood cuttings. At the base of the vase a few conkers that have recently fallen from the horse chestnut at the top of the lane and were quickly picked up to thwart any squirrels with devious ideas.

The vase is new and an unexpected purchase. Plans for himself to drop me directly outside the hairdresser's salon in Chester for a recent appointment were quickly changed when my hairdresser texted me before 8.00am on the day of my appointment. He imparted the information to say that the road where the salon is was going to be closed to traffic for a few hours because a military parade was taking place later that morning. We decided to park at a Park & Ride facility and then make our way in.  I had my hair cut, himself saw the parade and then we made our way back to the car but firstly a pit stop. Not far from the hairdressers is a florist which sells huge houseplants at eye-watering prices but I had espied a display of glass vases in the window at affordable to me prices. I persuaded himself to let me have a quick browse in the shop on our return to the catch a bus and emerged clutching a couple of green glass vases. I discovered that there was a small room at the back of the shop crammed with a rainbow of vases of all sorts of shapes and sizes. A veritable treasure trove. I will be returning! 

As always thanks to our Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for her stalwart hosting every Monday which is much appreciated by fellow bloggers. 

October Musing - Fall

"This is the time of year where everything drops into the earth. In the spring there is an upward movement all around one, with a lift in plants and trees. Now it is the time of weight, when seed pod and berry, fruit and leaf fall and return to the earth. It is truly the fall, a lovelier word for this season than autumn. The horse chestnut has cast down its shining fruit, warm of colour as it breaks from its tight fitting, kid-lined case case, on the soggy ground all around lie these lumpy, horned shells. The winds blow down pears and we find them, yellow and brown surrounding the trees at their base .....

How it rains these days . In the grass by the hedges, large shiny slugs appear, black as liquorice and beautiful of shape as they stretch themselves out. They heave like ships on a rough sea in their passage across the grasses. The garden is sodden and the trees drip, their autumn colours deepened and burnished. But roses and violas still bloom, and carnations are in bursting bust. Michaelmas daisies are untouched by frost, and the cosmos still shows pink among its seedling heads. We gather bowls of bright-coloured flowers for the house .....

Autumn is not the sad time it is supposed to be. Darkness falls at five o'clock and the garden is cold and wet, but it is a season of planning and expectation. It is now that we plant our bulbs, in itself an act of faith. How then can autumn be called dull and hopeless? Even the fallen leaf is food for future years of foliage and fruit, and promises next summer an added colour to the flowers."

Extracts from the October chapter of 'Four Hedges' by Clare Leighton. 

Illustration. of 'The Acorn Fairy' by Cicely Mary Barker.

Himself and I visited a local pharmacy a fortnight ago for the first of two seasonal vaccinations. We parked just outside where on getting out we noticed that the ground was littered with fallen acorns. We both hoped that nobody had parked nearer to the tree otherwise they and their vehicle might have been in danger. 

Earlier today I was delighted to discover that some of the Flower Fairy paintings by Cicely Mary Barker will be exhibited at a local art gallery next year! I'm looking forward to seeing the fairies in the flesh.

IAVOM ~ 'Metal Guru'

 

Just dahlias in this week's 'In A Vase On Monday'. They are 'Copper Boy' which has been full of flowers since summer. There are still a good number in bud which I'm keeping my fingers crossed will win the race to flower before the first frosts. They have long stems, last well once cut but the one fault seems to be that the long stems flop rather drunkenly and snap off in heavy rain and wind. We have had a lot of inclement weather recently including last night and this morning so I cut these flowers yesterday before they came casualities. I made the mistake of bringing them into the kitchen to put into the vase only to then have to pursue three earwigs along the worktop. I will have to remember not to do that again! A change from the usual perch for Monday vases. I noticed that himself had left a terracotta pot which contained one of this year's tomato plants out to drain, after he considerately started to wash them out them out for me. I'm not sure why he stopped after one pot and will have to investigate.

The vase which has appeared here before is an Emma Bridgewater product and was purchased a few years ago via eBay. 

Thanks as always to our steadfast hostess Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' who has featured some lovely autumn joy in her vase this week.

IAVOM - Glow

 
Perhaps this week's vase photo should have been taken elsewhere other than its usual perch as it seems in danger of being lost in a sea of green but at least it was lighter out there than inside. In my vase this week are :

• Dahlia 'Molly Raven' - I have grown one or two new to me dahlias this year and this is my favourite. In fact I'm slightly bewitched by her and think that she might be one of the most attractive dahlias I've come across. She has the most delicious inner eye of deep colour and subtle apricot lines on the petals which slowly fade to a more overall pink. She is quite prolific as far as flowers go. The foliage is relatively dark and so are the stems. The former is a plus in my books as I think that the darker leaved dahlias don't usually hold the same appeal for molluscs. The flowers hold their heads up nicely to attention and they once cut last well in a vase. 
• Panicum capillare 'Sparkling Fountain' - a half- hardy annual, all grown from my own saved seed.
• Orlaya visnaga - another half-hardy annual which was given to me by a friend in a seedling swap earlier this summer. It's still in full flush and will keep going until the first frosts. 

Thanks as always to our lovely hostess Cathy who blogs over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for hosting.  Here it is a pleasant calm and mild October afternoon. I'm off outside to make the most of the calm before the predicted storm by topping up my green garden waste bin before collection tomorrow morning. I will be vase hopping later.