In A Vase On Monday ~ Anniversary Celebrations

It's certainly a red letter day today celebrating eleven years of 'In A Vase On Monday' a brilliant meme started by Cathy. I was slow to participate so my first vase which you can see below wasn't until April 2014. Unfortunately my imagination has been thwarted by domestic concerns over the last couple of days so my vase above doesn't reflect the eleven theme but I'm sure that Cathy will understand. The dominant colour of my vase is red and in it are ;

• Chrysanthemum 'Bigoudi Red' which is a deep red perennial hardy chrysanthemum Unfortunately I've allowed the plant to become rather leggy and must do better next year.
• A stem of one of Cathy's signature plants in the shape of persicaria 'Red Dragon' which I know she has shared with other bloggers as well as no doubt with other folk.
• A couple of berry carrying stems from the decidous shrub of symphoricapos or snowberry, a gift from my parent's garden. Unfortunately it has a thuggish suckering habit which I know Cathy has had problems with it too. Oh well the berries do look most pretty at this time of year. 
• Some stems from leucothoe also known by the intriguing name of dog hobble - a small evergreen shrub which occupies a pot near the front door kindly identified by Cathy over at 'Words and Herbs'. Now I need to try to work out which variety it is - the leading contender for that title is currently 'Scarletta'.

I have used my hearts shaped vase for such a special vase to reflect my affection for the blogging community spirit fostered by Cathy as we share our vases each week. I've also included eleven other vases posted over the years. At first I was going to include one for each year but then realised that I would only have ten so instead I've included a mix from over the years in no particular seasonal order. They include favourite flowers such as snowdrops, sweet peas, hardy geraniums and rudbeckia 'Sahara', as well as one or two photos remembering special occasions.

My Very First IAVOM 

My Cup Runneth Over

Of Course There Had To Be Some Snowdrops!

Summer Sizzle

Shimmer

Celebrating Easter

Sunshine

Sweet Peas - An Absolute Must Every Year

A Family Wedding

I Saw A Mouse

Celebrating A Graduation 

As always a ginormous thanks to the lovely Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for coming up with the inspiring thought of starting each week off with flowers to be shared with friends. My wish list has grown each year along with knowledge of plants we do not usually come across in the UK, lots of hints and tips as well as my expanding collection of vases. 

Now I'm off to cover the seedlings in the greenhouse - there's a chance that we may have snow overnight and temperatures are set to plummet as the week goes on reaching levels normally seen in January and February. I've managed to bring my potted snowdrops under cover just in the nick of time (you could say at the eleventh hour) and hopefully some of them might feature in Monday vases in the very near future. 

P.S. I've amended the second line of this post - thanks to Cathy for pointing out my chronological typo. 

IAVOM ~ The Doldrums

 

Of all the months in the year November has still to persuade me that it has any attractive features. The fact that the last weekend of October sees the clocks move forward plunging us into darkness before the afternoon is done does not help it to get off to a good start. I know the month is still in it's infancy but so far we have been plunged into greyness with little or no sign of the sun reappearing this coming week! My post title this week is a reference to both my annual November grouchiness as well as a reference to the weather conditions when sailing ships struggle to make any progress. Such grey weather comes hand in hand with very little or no wind. Away from the doom and gloom of November and on the plus side it has been dry, relatively mild and there has been an opportunity to do some gardening.

In my smallest of small vases this week brightening up November are :

• A single albeit slightly fading and bedraggled flower of the hardy geranium 'Rozanne' which is an absolute star in my book. It has been in flower since early summer and is only just petering out now. A couple of years ago she hung on to some flowers into the second week of December. The Royal Horticultural Society has deservedly given her a well deserved Award Of Garden Merit. As well as being long flowering, she is vigorous and so far has been pest free. The bees love her too!
• Some flowers from a dainty little hardy chrysanthemum name unknown. I admired her in a friend's garden and she kindly gave me a couple of cuttings last year. I looked forward to seeing her in flower last autumn but last year's flowers were all munched up by goodness knows what. This autumn though she is in flower and is making a nice little clump in a container. From a distance the flowers en masse look white but when looked at more closely they have a pale pink hues.
•  A little sprig of evergreen pittosporum tenuifolium 'Siver Ball' which is growing in a container.

As always a big thanks to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' who whatever the months provides us with the opportunity to share our vases. It is much appreciated. Do visit to see what Cathy and other participants have in their vases this week.