Wordless Wednesday ~ Spring Glimmers

 

IAVOM ~ Late Winter Gems

 

A speedy pick and plonk from me for this week's 'In A Vase On Monday'. In my vase are :

• The soft lilac flowers of cardamine quinquefolia. This is a hardy perennial which starts working it's magic in January when the foliage starts to emerge before it flowers in February through to March. Almost as quickly as it appears the foliage fades and retreats under cover by early summer. My small pot of this plant has now produced a pool of colour which combines well with snowdrops and hellebores. Here is is last year growing in the garden along with galanthus 'Blonde Inge' :

•  A couple of stems of of the dainty white flowers of oemleria cerasformis also known as the Indian plum or Oregon plum. This shrub is new to me, purchased last year and still I'm ashamed to confess in its pot awaiting a decision as to where it will be planted. I was tempted after hearing a description of it during a Zoom presentation by the Galanthus Group of the Hardy Plant Society. The speaker described it as being winter flowering and delightfully scented. I panicked somewhat after my purchase when I read another description of the scent being like cat wee but I'm pleased to report that the aroma is most pleasing to my nose.

Thanks as ever to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for her steadfast hosting. Do visit her blog and see what other bloggers are sharing in their vases this Monday.

 I've been absent for a few weeks but hope to be posting more regularly. The incessant grey and wet weather affected my gardening mojo but I'm glad to say that it's back. The weather has definitely been drier and warmer of late with a couple of positively balmy sunny days thrown in recently for good measure. The first seeds have been sown and there are more to follow this week. Spring is definitely knocking!

 

Wordless Wednesday ~ Seedling

 

IAVOM ~ Stirrings

 

The garden is definitely stirring now and here in this week's Monday vase are :

• Galanthus 'Philippe André Meyer' - this has become one of my favourite snowdrops in the garden. It has a distinctictive marking, shape and clumps up very quickly.  If any of my UK snowdrop blogger friends would like a bulb just say so.
• Iris reticula 'Pauline' - I left it late to get my bulb order in this year and was sadly too late to obtain the irises on my wish list. I picked this one up from a local garden centre for no other reason that one of my first colleagues and oldest friends is a Pauline. She is growing in a pot under cover in the greenhouse. I prefer the lighter coloured irises but still she'a most attractive.
• Small cyclamen flowers - these have been in the garden for years and I imagine that they are cyclamen coum. They're planted in an old Belfast sink which was surplus to himself's workplace and was being thrown out. Alongside the cyclamens are snowdrops and ophiopogon or Mondo grass with its dark strappy grass like leaves.
• Finally a sprig of salix gracistyla 'Mount Aso', a bushy shrub bearing these lovely fuzzy pink catkins in winter.

As always thanks to Cathy who blogs over at 'Rambling In the Garden' and who gets us together every Monday to share our floral and foliage treasures. Do visit her blog if you haven't already.

The weather continues in a damp vein although we have so far been spared the excessive rainfall that has troubled some areas of the country. The main priority in any suitable dry intervals this week is to fill the green garden waste bin up in readiness for it's first collection early next week. There's still some space and there's plenty of suitable plant debris waiting to go in to it. I'm also looking forward to getting stuck into a new book arrival. More of that and gardening related podcasts soon.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Snowdrop Days

 

IAVOM ~ Gingerly

Any January gardening as well as other activities were severely curtailed after I sustained a nasty muscular strain in the area around my shoulder blade. Not only did it cause great pain but it greatly affected quality of sleep. I spent a fortnight or so wandering around like a zombie and barely functioning. Over the last few days I'm delighted to say that matters are definitely improving. I'm still moving around somewhat gingerly as I don't want to risk any sort of relapse. In the meantime though there have been definite signs of things being on the move and the garden is very slowly edging it's way to longer and warmer days. In my vase are a couple of hamamelis or witch hazel stems. An unknown variety sold to me in 2019 as 'Foxy Lady' which it is most certainly not. The nursery concerned apologised but couldn't replace it with the desired witch hazel. However on the plus side I received a full refund and was allowed to keep the shrub. 

Thanks as always to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for providing the platform for us to get together to share our vases each week.

My enforced idleness has had some bonuses, one of which was reading Mary Keane's 'Diary Of A Keen Gardener' which I can thoroughly recommend. It's available from various bookshops and online sources. I have also listened to gardening podcasts but more of that another time. 

I'm looking forward to doing more now including removing some of the tat from perennials when we next have a relatively mild dry day. Another task at the top of the list is to decide which tomato varieties to order. I no longer grow tomatoes from seed but order plug plants each year. My friend who puts in the order has just reminded me that we just have a few days to get the order in so I need to decide imminently. I will probably end up going for the same variety as last year but I may live dangerously. Looking forward to seeing what it's in other vases later on today and I hope that everyone is staying clear of winter viruses and muscle woes.

IAVOM ~ Suspended Animation

There's a reminder of last summer in today's vase. It seems a long time ago today after snow yesterday and a well below freezing minumum temperature last night. The sky is a beautiful blue, the sun's shining but it's bitterly cold out there. In my vase today are just a few stems of lagurus ovatus also known as bunny's tail grass. Its' a hardy annual grass which produces the softest to touch seedheads which look good in a vase as well as when they are dried.

Thanks as always to Cathy from 'Rambling In The Garden'  for gathering us together every Monday to share our vases.

With this current spell of wintry weather predicted to last a few days I think that gardening activities will be very minimal. I'm hoping that the extra layer of fleece and the small electric heater will give enough protection to over-wintering salvias and ranuculus as well as my potted snowdrops which were bought in at the very last moment. The seed box sort is nearly complete except the vegetable section so I will be able to get my seed order in. Maybe time to catch up on some garden related podcasts that I've been meaning to listen to 🤔 I hope that it's warmer in your neck of the woods this coming week and that you can get to spend some time in the garden. 

IAVOM - To Each Season

" At Christmas I no more desire a rose

Than wish a snow in May’s new-fangled shows,

But like of each thing that in season grows"

Although I agree with William Shakespeare's sentiment I felt obliged to rescue this bloom before winter could cruelly nip it in the bud. Just a solitary bloom from me this Monday - a stem of the David Austin rose 'Lady Of Shalott'. I picked the last remaining bud on Christmas Eve thinking that it would stand more likelihood of flowering in the warmth of the house. Here on the kitchen windowsill it has indeed opened and escaped two heavy frosts which might have well been enough to do it fatal injury. It's a rose that was given to me as a birthday present and which has slowly grown on me. Apologies for the poor quality of the photo but it has been a lights on all day scenario today.

Thanks to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' as always for her gracious hosting. Now that the pre-seasonal Christmas rush is over there has been time to get out and spend a bit of time in the garden. One or two tasks have been accomplished including bringing some of my potted snowdrops under cover. A last minute decision. Indoors I'm mid-way through sorting the seed box out which is always a most enjoyable task. The next few days are promising to be bitterly cold with possibly the first snow of the winter so there will no doubt be time to finish that task and then to order any seeds needed to fill the gaps. I've also got a new gardening book to read - hopefully more on that soon. I hope that you find some gardening enjoyment in your week whatever you're up to.

In A Vase On Monday ~ Towards The Sun

My vase this week is celebrating the fact that in the northern hemisphere we are now turning our faces to the sun again - the shortest day of the year is behind us! Although painfully slow at first I know that by the of January the days will be noticeably longer. I enjoyed spending some time outside in the garden yesterday where after taking my photo I had a litle walk around. It's amazing how plants can creep up on you and I noticed that I have some cyclamens in flower and a couple of hellebores too. They have joined a few snowdrops that are well ahead of themselves.

Going into my vase this week were :

• A couple of sprigs of  jasminium nudiflorum or winter flowering jasmine. It first started showing colour in November and as always this sight is so cheering.
• A couple of twigs of lonicera fragrantissima also known as winter flowering honeysuckle. The shrub came from a small plant that I purchased some time ago at one of our our hostess's Cathy's open garden plant sales. Again as with all plants that flower at this time of year it's a star. I had read about it but had never seen it on sale before that day so I'm delighted that it came home with me that day. 
•  A splash of seasonal red from the crabapple fruits of malus 'Sentinnel' which has thrived this year producing an enormous amount of fruit. In previous years the tree has dropped nearly all the fruit by now but this year it's still hanging on to a good number of precious red jewels.

My vase this week just had to be my sun vase.

Thanks as always to the lovely Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for getting us all together every Monday no matter what season it is to celebrate our flowers, foliage and fruit. Wishing you all the very best for the season ahead and for Christmas too! 

IAVOM - Floating My Boat

 

A single snip from me this week in the shape of a hellebore flower. This one was a present from himself to celebrate a rather big birthday last year and is a hellebore x hybridus (Ashwood Evolution Group) Yellow Double. The receptacle it's floating in came home with me last week after a trip to Chester for a haircut. The hairdresser just happens to be very close to a florist's shop which has a little room inside packed with vases and containers. This shop always pulls me in  by magic either before or after my hair appointments. As soon as I saw this one I had visions of a floating hellebore. 

Thanks to Cathy as always over at 'Rambling In The Garden', who encourages us to share our flowers and foliage every week and is also sharing some glorious spring mellow yellow this week. Do visit and see what she and other bloggers have in their vases this week.

Here after a 'False Spring' a couple of weekends ago we have had some quite chilly weather but it looks as if spring is going to well and truly arrive with the equinox on Thursday, with suitable weather to live up to the occasion. I sowed my first seeds on Saturday - the wouldn't be without sweet peas and 1 have three seed trays filled up with compost, lined up in the greenhouse, for me to sow more annuals this afternoon. 

Wishing you all a good week in the garden and a happy Saint Patrick's Day to anybody who celebrates. It's a special day for me as it's the anniversary of my first ever 'date' with himself 🍀

Wordless Wednesday ~ Blossom Time At Arley Hall

 

IAVOM ~ 'This Will Be The Last Time'

 
Well the last time until next year - that's a promise - no more snowdrops in my Monday vases! I wanted a chance to though to share my new snowdrop vase before the season ends. It only arrived in the last week. I'm not sure about the butterfly decoration - perhaps a bee might have been more seasonal. Today's gathering is a bit of a rushed smash and grab job which features :

• Galanthus - a trio consisting of galanthus nivalis, galanthus 'Trym' and one which I think could be 'Melanie Broughton' but in the absence of a label I can't be sure.
• The two twiggy bits are a winter flowering honeysuckle, which for the purposes of this photo is proving rather shy and a snippet of Abeliophyllum distichum or white forsythia. The latter is actually tinged with pink. Both are scented. The honeysuckle came to me via a plant stall at one of Cathy's open days so is particularly precious.

Thanks to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' as always for hosting. 

There are definite signs that spring is almost in the air and there is the promise of warmer temperatures both by day and night in the week to come. Time soon to swap my fleece for a T-shirt. Now that's living dangerously!

Musing In March ~ 'Green Rain'

"Into the scented woods we'll go 

And see the blackthorn swim in snow.

High above in the budding leaves, 

A brooding dove awakes and grieves;

The glades with mingled music stir,

And wildly laughs the woodpecker.

When blackthorn petals pearl the breeze

There are the twisted hawthorn trees

Thick-set with buds, as clear and pale

As golden water or green hail-

As if a storm of rain had stood

Enchanted in the thorny wood, 

And, hearing fairy voices call,

Hung poised, forgetting how to fall."

Poem by Mary Webb, 1881 - 1927.

Illustration - 'The Blackthorn Fairy' by Cicely Mary Barker, 1885- 1973.

I came across this poem only this last week and wondered why I had never discovered it before.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Pixie Hats

IAVOM ~ When Is A Vase Not A Vase?

 

I've bended the interpretation of the word 'vase' slightly this week and hope that Cathy forgives me. Mondays are a bit full for me at the moment and I should have put something together over the weekend. I should have done it on Saturday which was a glorious early glimpse of spring but only thought of doing it yesterday, which was a thoroughly grim windy and very wet day. Consequently nothing was achieved that involved venturing out, other than checking the greenhouse, emptying a few bits and pieces into the recycling bin and also treating my hotbin to some left over vegetable peelings.

It was a rush this morning to get ready to go out so I grabbed my pot of iris reticulata out of the greenhouse my contribution for today's 'In A Vase On Monday'. I'm not sure which variety it is but think that it's either 'Pauline or George'. I've come to the conclusion that I prefer paler iris flowers than the dark sultry ones but whatever colour they are they never flower long enough for me. Still they are beautiful whilst they last and well worth splashing out on.

I probably have a dozen or so pots of spring bulbs growing in the greenhouse and some are faring better than their outdoor counterparts, especially crocus 'Firefly' which has been positively flattened by the elements this weekend. The pot was a purchase some time ago from one of the 'PromArt' craft shows held monthly from April to September at Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria. I think that I might plant muscari in it this autumn. 

Thanks as always to Cathy who blogs over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for her steadfast weekly hosting - do pay her a visit if you've not already done so to see what delights she and other bloggers are sharing in their vases today. Make sure you have a pen and paper to hand!

IAVOM ~ Just A Few More 'Drops

 

It's a few of my special snowdrops in today's vase - some have lost their labels but they include 'Fieldgate Superb', the largest flower you can see in the above photo, 'Trumps', Wendy's Gold (yellow ovary and slow to increase for me) 'Green of Hearts', 'Aunt Agnes', 'Philippe Andre Meyer' and 'Lapwing' showing it's lovely markings and almost brushing the vase. The vase is a small stoneware pot purchased for a couple of pounds or so at The Malvern Spring Show a few years ago.

Thanks to our lovely hostess Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for hosting 💐 Do pay her a visit to share her offering today as well as contributions from fellow garden bloggers.

Well after a couple of seemingly never ending grey days with below average temperatures, the pendulum is set to swing towards a warmer, windier and generally wetter spell but with sunny spells too! All in all a most satisfactory state of affairs. I wheeled the green bin up the lane earlier this afternoon ready for the first collection of the year tomorrow. 'Charlotte' potatoes were chitted in egg boxes yesterday and are now occupying window space in the hall which is the coolest spot I can find in the house. Not a pretty sight but needs must. An exciting discovery yesterday afternoon when I spotted the first slightest purple whisps of crocus tommasinianus peeping out from the lawn. I had checked the day before and nothing was visible so it was magical to see evidence of their return yesterday. The days are now visibly lengthening and things are definitely on the move.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Bird On The Wing

IAVOM ~ "Just Another Manic Monday"

 

Well it certainly another Monday but no longer as in working years could it be described as manic. The song lyrics no longer ring true :

" It's just another manic Monday

I wish it was Sunday

'Cause that's my fun day

My "I don't have to run day"

It's just another manic Monday"

- sung by 'The Bangles'.

Now Monday is very much a fun day as we're invited to share our floral and foliage gatherings with fellow flower lovers. The year is still very much in it's infancy but there are definite signs of the lengthening days and of growth in the garden. In my vase this week are :

• Sarcoccoca - I like the delicate white flowers of this shrub as well as its scent. Here I grow a couple of varieties but neither live up to its common name of Christmas box, as they don't do much in the way of flower until the end of January. The flowers on this unknown variety seem to be sparser than usual this year and some of the foliage is yellowing. It lives in a big pot by the front door with a hardy cyclamen and a fern that has probably got too big over the years. Time I think for feeding and perhaps drastic action as far as the fern is concerned.
• A couple of fronds from a hardy fern, not the one already mentioned but another pot grown one. It's an evergreen fern by the name of polystichum polyblepharum or perhaps more easily remembered by it's common name of Japanese lace fern.
• Finally a few flowers from 'Trumps' one of my favourite special snowdrops. This one is easily recognisable and bulks up at an incredible speed. If only it could be remamed! Here is it in the garden just a few days ago :

Thanks as always to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for hosting. Do pay her a visit or even better join in with a vase of your own! 

It looks as if it's going to be a relatively warm and sunny day here, with the temperature nudging into double figures. I hope to have a potter about in the garden later on and see what's happening out there. 

IAVOM ~ 'Singing the Blues'

 It's back to kitchen windowsill joy again for this week's 'In A Vase On Monday' and another purchase from a certain German supermarket chain. Along with the hippeastrums (about to open a second spike of flowers) is a hyacinth bulb grown in a vase designed for the purpose. This has provided me with entertainment every morning after I have pulled up the kitchen blind. At first I was convinced that the bulb was in suspended animation and wasn't going to flower in my lifetime. However and very slowly there was growth, both of white roots and of green shoots emerging from the bulb, before the flower finally appeared. I was most excited on Friday to see a blush of colour on the flower buds and have been surprised just how quickly the buds have been opening. The photo was taken this morning. The window was cleaned just before Christmas, since when all our windows have been covered by sprinkles of dust maybe Saharan or maybe originating from somewhere closer to home. Himself is not amused and is gearing himself up for an action replay.

Thanks as always to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for providing us with a weekly get- together to share our vases.

Last week saw the snow and stubborn patches of black ice that had been adorning our garden finally melted giving way to a mix of sunshine and fog. The weekend was grey and bone chilling cold with the week ahead looking far from promising as far as the weather is concerned. More time inside than outside methinks. I have one or two more seed orders to make and if it does warm up just a smidgen I may repot some of the greenhouse hardy September sown annuals. The daily greenhouse snowdrops in pots collection continues to get a daily inspection along with a few pot grown iris reticulata, crocuses, fritillaria, muscari and little daffs. One or two pots might make their way into the kitchen windowsill so I can inspect them at close quarters. In other news this week it's been delightful to observe a couple of blue tits flying in and out of the nesting box that we can see from our dining room. Hopefully they will build their nest there. Spring can't be so far away!

IAVOM ~ Shining Out On These Dark Nights

 
The Chritsmas tree and all it's sparkle has been dismantled and sadly the decorations are now boxed off for another year. However I've still left some fairy lights twinkling albeit faintly (new batteries needed methinks) and there will be candlepower both flame and LED for a few weeks to come. Joining them on the hearth is a vase off supermarket daffodils which are just beginning to open. They moved from the cooler utility room to warmer climes late this afternoon. I rarely buy supermarket flowers these days but always treat myself to the odd shot of colour during these still short days and long nights.

Thanks as always to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for bringing some magical glow all year round in the form of 'In A Vase On Monday'. I'm looking forward to seeing what is in everyone's vases today. I'm not sure what there is out there in flower as the garden has been covered with white precipitation. The snow started late on Saturday evening and we woke up to a good covering of it on Sunday morning (The above photo was taken at 6.15am  yesterday morning) It did slowly but not completely evaporate during the day but then we had another covering of snow during the night. Today's sunshine bought about some drip and melt but there has been some further late afternoon wintry precipitation. There is still a weather warning for snow and ice for tonight, with the next few days predicted to be most chilly indeed. My gardening activities will therefore be of the indoors kind - planning, writing new labels for my greenhouse snowdrops (I'm replacing white labels with black labels), some garden magazine reading, ordering a few new dahlias as well as dreaming. What will you be up to?