IAVOM ~ Something Borrowed

 

We returned home late afternoon yesterday after a relaxing holiday in Scotland to a most soggy garden, so for this Monday I'm cheating slightly, by using a photo taken on our travels. You won't be surprised to hear that we managed to fit in some garden visiting during our break including a trip to the National Trust for Scotland Threave Garden, near Castle Douglas in Dumfries and Galloway. This garden was a joy to visit with one of the most well maintained walled kitchen gardens that you could wish to visit as well as a jam packed recreation of their original Victorian greenhouse. This vase is what greeted me when I visited the Ladies' room. I'm not sure of the exact contents but it included astillbes, sanguisorba, alliums and what I think is veronicrastum.  As always a special vote of thanks to Cathy over at' 'Rambling In The Garden' for orchestrating our weekly get togethers on Mondays to so that we can share our pickings. Her post features instant sunshine this week, something that we have been sadly deprived of for the last month. Once again it's pouring down so those gardening jobs will just have to wait a while longer including picking the first of the tomatoes. Fortunately I picked some French climbing beans in a dry interlude this morning so no prizes for guessing what will be on the menu tonight.

IAVOM ~ 'Crying Over You'

 Another Monday has rolled around and this week I'm sharing my first and  

a most cherished vase of sweet peas on 'In A Vase On Monday'. Alas there will be no copious bunches of sweet peas this year to adorn the kitchen windowsill or to pass on to friends - the first time this will have happened in years 😢 It's a happening that has caused some me some grief as sweet peas along with their scent are my all time favourite summer annual flower.  I sowed them in the greenhouse at the start of what turned out to be a bitterly cold March. They were planted out in late April looking positively jaundiced, limped through May, survived the drought and heat of June and have finally flowered in this so far wettest of Julys. The flowers include the usual suspects 'Matucana', 'Erewhon', 'Gwendoline', 'Eclipse' and the new to me 'Black Night'. I have decided that this year I will be edging my bets and will also sow a just in case batch in the autumn.

Thanks as always to the lovely Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for hosting. Do visit and see what flowers and foliage she and other bloggers have in their vases this week.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Arley Hall, Cheshire, July 2023

 

IAVOM ~ "A Space Of Flowers"

It's Monday and time to pick some flowers for a vase. These were picked yesterday as the  weather forecast predicted rain for today and it was spot on. In my little vase this week are :

• Rosa 'the Lady Of Shalott' - this is a new one for me arriving in January as a bare root rose - a birthday present from a friend. She is planted in a big container, although possibly not big enough, which I can see from the kitchen window. I wasn't quite sure when I saw the initial flushes of orange red buds but she opens orange and the petals soften as they age. She is most lovely indeed and has a reputation for enjoying rude good health.  The rose specialist David Austin catalogue describes the scent as a "pleasant, warm Tea fragrance, with hints of spiced apple and cloves" but sadly my nose can't pick that up.
• One of the last flowers of the annual orlaya grandiflora. The flowers do not last that long. I sowed in September and March and intended to sow again in May but forgot so sadly that's it for this year.
• A sprig of the half- hardy annual phlox drummondii grandiflora 'Cherry Caramel' sown in March.
• A bit of leafiness from a physocarpus - I think this one is 'Diablo'.

My vase is a little Victorian ink bottle and the post title is a phrase from Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem ' The Lady Of Shalott'.

Thanks as always to Cathy who blogs over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for hosting. Do visit her if you haven't already and enjoy the flowers in her vase and those contributed by fellow bloggers. Here a rainy afternoon beckons and so far a cool and wet July has been the opposite of our extremely hot and dry June.

Hopefully though there must still be some more summer weather on the cards. For once there is no last minute fill it until brimming room in the green garden waste bin due to be emptied tomorrow. The torrential rain and wind on Saturday evening was so violent that it toppled the bin completely over.  Amazingly the contacts remained intact!