Wordless Wednesday ~ Holker Hall, Cumbria ~ August 2025.

 

IAVOM ~ 'In The Pink'

 

Mondays seem to come round very quickly and it's time to celebrate the start of the week with a vase of flowers joining in with the 'In A Vase On Monday'. In my vase this week are :

• Flowers of what maybe 'Madame Julia Correvon' but I honestly don't know. Maybe Cathy our Clematis Queen might have some ideas. This is the second lot of flowers it has thrown out this summer.
• A sprig of astrantia 'Cerise Button'. This is a new to me astrantia which I fell for on a visit to the fabulous Holehird Gardens in Cumbria at the beginning of July this year. I was hoping to track it down at a nursery but was most surprised to see it for sale at a local garden centre last week. The flowers on my plant aren't either as big or as deep pink as the plant I saw in the garden (see photo below) but I will give it time to establish and confirm whether I've got the correct plant.
• Some foliage from pittisporum 'Silver Ball'

Thanks as always are due to the lovely Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for her most excellent hosting. 

It's a Bank Holiday today and unusually warm and sunny - this looks like the end of what has been another long dry spell with rain predicated to arrive overnight and then feature daily for the next week or so! What a relief that will be especially to our farmers. I'm off out when I've posted this to collect some poppy seedheads before the change in weather - if anybody reading this would like some papaver orientale  'Lauren's Grape' seeds just let me know. I'm collecting some for the seeds and will dry the others for future use in a vase.

IAVOM ~ 'Set Fire To The Rain'

 

It's another dahlia on my rusty old grey table this Monday. This is dahlia 'Purple Flame' which is more of a deep rich pink to my eyes. This is the first time I've grown this variety and I have fallen in love with it. Unfortunately I was sent a rather puny specimen so have not had enough of the striking flowers. I hope that it successfully overwinters and bulks up next year but I will also purchase another. It's been a funny old year here for dahlias amongst other things. Not one of the dahlias planted in the garden came through and the one that I planted hasn't flourished at all. Dahlias in pots have done better but the flowers have still struggled and are perhaps not as abundant as usual in their flowering. Mind you it's been a funny old year for a lot of things. Today I was actually delighted to see a dull and cloudy sky when I opened the blinds and we've not seen the sun all day. Hopefully this extremely long hot and dry summer is on the way out. My thoughts are now turning to spring.

Thanks to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for her excellent hosting skills. Thanks also to those of you who expressed concern in your comments to my last post. Fortunately we escaped with no serious damage from Storm Floris. As for the on the blink internet connection it was eventually sorted by a BT Openreach engineer. We now have an amazingly much faster connection but found that after his visit that our phone landline isn't working. Not a major issue but one that needs following up very soon.

I may prick out some lunaria and hersperis seeds later but maybe not as there are lot of biting creatures about at the moment. I watched two bats flit about very close to the house last night so maybe there will be fewer creatures about today. I've been leaving this task until the weather cooled down a bit. I also need to get some thoughts together as to what bulbs to order for spring flowering. As usual I've left it until late. Have you ordered your spring bulbs yet? Please tell me that I'm not alone.

IAVOM - Blowin' In The Wind

 

I took this photo last weekend intending to post last Monday but time completely ran away with me that day so here a week later is my 'In A Vase On Monday'. It was quite breezy at the time and the contents of the vase swirled about and where not as I had originally placed them. In my vase are :

• A flower of dahlia 'Melissa Anna Marjike' - it's a new one to me. you can't see it but it has the bonus of having dark foliage. I like it.
• A couple of stems of what I think is physocarpus 'Diablo'.
• Some daucus carrota 'Dara' - a hardy annual which was sown in the greenhouse last September. it has dusky pink and/or burgundy flowers and is always most obliging.
• Thalictrum delavayi 'Splendide White'- it's a tall late delicate and airy flowering summer perennial which needs some support - in this case my plant is very conveniently supported by it's next door neighbour a rose. There is a lavender toned version of this thalictrum too which is on my wish list.

A short post today as we've been having intermittent problems with our internet connection over the last few days so I want to  hit publish as soon as possible. Many thanks to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' as always for hosting. I hope to check in other vases later internet connection permitting but in the meantime domestic chores call. Although the rain has stopped and the sun is out we have a named storm today so it's been much too windy out there this afternoon to do anything in the garden. Oddly enough Storm Floris is the U.K's first named storm since January which goes to show just how gentle our late winter/ early spring weather was. I nipped out before and saw that there is quite a bit of debris and leaves waiting to be brushed up but that can wait until tomorrow. At least the green bin is filled and ready to roll in the morning. I hope that the weather is more clement wherever you are.