Wordless Wednesday ~ Stokesay Castle, Shropshire ~ July 2022.

 

IAVOM ~ 'Cool For The Summer'

 
This week is was a case of picking flowers yesterday morning as we are in the grip of a heatwave today and tomorrow - dire and record breaking temperatures are forecast for most of the U.K. and we are been advised to stay in during the heat of the day with blinds or curtains closed. Even though I was out early yesterday to snip and take pictures my photos till looked bleached, so I was out even earlier this morning wield a watering can followed by a case of take two. I have a couple of vases this week. In the first are: 

• Achillea 'Summer Berries' - these perennials were sown in September 2020, produced a few flowers last summer but have made substantial growth this year. They seem quite easy going although probably need some help not to flop ungainly. I had hoped for some of the other colours suggested in the mix so will sow some more this September to see what transpires.
• A few sweet pea flowers - these were sown at the start of March. 
• A couple of sprays of daucus carrota - sown last September and now an annual sowing. 
• My first picking of consolida ajacis or larkspur 'Misty Grey'. I sowed some seed at the end of  September to overwinter in the greenhouse but they completely failed to germinate. A second sowing was made in March after firstly confining the seed packet in our freezer for a fortnight's holiday. After somewhat erratic germination I eventually ended up with well over a dozen plants. I was able to give some to a friend who had been drooling over them in a catalogue but didn't order seeds. I hope that the plants will stand up to being frazzled for a couple of days as I do have a soft spot for them. 

My second vase this week is a jug of sweet peas. We were away last week for a few well timed as it turns out days in Shropshire, when the sun was shining most of the time but most pleasantly so. Before leaving I stripped off all the flowers from the sweet pea wigwam and have been rewarded by being able to snip industrial quantities of them since returning home. 

Thanks to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for her impeccable hosting each Monday. There will be no gardening activities today but a gentle flurry of domestics followed perhaps by a leisurely read this afternoon with a glass of something cool to hand and then a spot of vase visiting. Cooking is also off the agenda - himself has been informed.

IAVOM - Sweet Pea Love

 
Summer wouldn't be summer for me without sweet peas to pick and bring into the house. They usually sit in a vase or an old jam jar on the kitchen windowsill where they are a welcome diversion from washing the dishes or other sink based chores. Apart from the array of colour their scent is for me one of my absolute favourites. In her book 'Scent Magic: Notes from a Gardener' describing the joy of sweet pea flowers after a ten month wait the author Isobel Bannerman writes : "Sun -warmed water, soap suds, marshmallows; treats of all kinds come to mind on sniffing sweet peas. The first lathyrus odoratus flower of the year is like the return of a great friend, usually alone and fragile, who has made it to your doorstep. A couple of days later you might be able to pick six and proudly put them on the kitchen table. A week later, the house is filled with them in every sort of vessel, like paint pots, like a flower show. The wait, the patience, the frost fingers grappling with hazel, mania about mice, all becomes worthwhile".

I held on until the start of March to sow my sweet peas and they are only really just getting into gear now. I find that if I sow them any earlier that the germination rate is not particularly good. This year's planting is restricted to one wigwam and has met with some setbacks. My assistant gardener was in charge of planting and early tending and in his eagerness was responsible for some accidental damage to stems and also uprooted one variety. I resisted the urge to say much about these unfortunate incidents 🤐  In my vase are 'Erewhon', 'Black Knight', 'Matucana', a solitary stem of 'Gwendoline', 'Eclipse' and a new to me variety with the unfortunate name of 'Piggy Sue'. 

The weather here seems to have forgotten that is summer. It seems to have been cool and windy for days with a good amount of rain thrown into the mix but there are signs in the forecast that there is better weather to come on the horizon. A big thank you to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for her steadfast hosting. As always I'm looking forward to seeing vases from other 'In A Vase On Monday' participants.

P.S. I was puzzled by expressions of concern for my personal safety in comments responding to my last post. The drop below my usual vase perch is only 10 feet and not 30! I was obviously not thinking clearly when my fingers hit the keyboard. I do apologise and must go back and amend that alarming figure. I still think that the vase not be the same if it went over the edge. 

IaVOM ~ Shades Of Summer

It's just as well that the weekend's unseasonable strong winds have dropped enough to risk balancing a vase on the normal 'In A Vase On Monday' perch (thirty foot so drop into a stream behind) as otherwise it would have been a perilousbusiness. After some needed heavy rain this morning the skies are more benign so I have been out with the secateurs. In this weeks's vase are shades of green, red and pink. The occupants are as follows :

• Red astrantias - given by where it's planted this is either 'Ruby Wedding' or 'Hadspen Blood'. The red astrantias are never as prolific in the garden for me but they are so beautiful. Elsewhere in the garden I have more reds in the shape of more recent purchases of 'Gill Richardson' and 'Burgundy Manor' which I think are more striking and perhaps more vigorous. 
• Some sprays of the delicate pink perennial linaria 'Canon Went, which although a self-seeder does so with considerate restraint unlike it's sibling linaria purpurea. Whether purple or pink the bees and other pollinators appreciate these flowers.
• A stem of dianthus 'Sooty', with the deepest of red flowers which as well as being scented has attractive dark foliage. I sowed this biennial last summer and hopefully it will last more than one season. 
  
  
  
• Dianthus 'Green Trick' - I grew this short lived perennial few years ago at the allotment where it eventually petered out. I bought this one as a plug plant earlier this year and will try to remember to take some cuttings in late summer to establish plants for next year. This variety doesn't have the normal dianthus scent. 
• Some foliage in the shape of rosa glauca. This has one flush of small single pink flowers but it's the grey leaves that are the star feature.
•  A couple of stems of mathiasella bupleuroides 'Green Dream' which is a perennial. This is one plant that I have to check on the spelling every time I mention it. The green bracts slowly turn a soft pink as they age. As well as cutting fresh it dries well. 

A big thanks to Cathy from 'Rambling In The Garden' for hosting. As always I'm most curious to see what is in other participant's vases this Momday.

Wordless Wednesday ~Through The Garden Gate

 

IAVOM ~ Spring's Last Hurrah

 

With the summer solstice tomorrow, I realised that this would be my last spring vase of the year although it does seem that summer is already well and truly established especially after last week's warm spell. The pick and plonk in my vase this week are :

• 'Bathsheba' roses - these were a gift from himself. Planted as dormant roses from David Austin either in December 2020 or January 2021 they have come on well. I love their shape and colour but have been disappointed by their scent and their tendency to fade rather disgracefully. There are six of them so they are hard to ignore when they go over.
• In the same area as the roses are three clematis 'Etoile Violette'. We were initially supplied with the wrong clematis by the clematis specialist but when I queried the order I received profuse apologies and a very speedy replacement so full marks to Thorncroft Clematis for customer service. Once again my naked eye sees the colour as being a darker shade than my phone does. Time to dig out my camera methinks and make a serious attempt to get to grips with all the confusing array of buttons and dials. 

• Astrantia flowers - unknown vaiety, these are in for a serious cull soon as there are just too many of them. 
• Some stems of the hardy annual orlaya grandiflora sown last September. Sadly my more recent sowing has resulted in the grand total of two plants. I shall cherish them.

The vase is a well used one and was given to me by mother.

Thanks as always to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for her evergreen encouragement and for providing the space for us to share our blooms each and every Monday. I will not have much time to spend in the garden today as I'm out for what may be a long lunch with a dear friend. However we are starting off with a bit of a plant swap and I'm sure that we will be talking of matters green in depth at some point during the proceedings. Wishing everyone a week filled with flowers.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Gresgarth Hall, Lancashire - June 2022

 

IAVOM ~ 'Here Comes The Rain Again'

A quick pick and plonk from me this week after waiting for the raindrops that have saturated the garden to evaporate and before any more might fall. The pickings are :

• A trio of roses - 'Desdemona', 'New Dawn' and 'Luisa's Daughter'. 'Desdemona' is new to me this year, bought after seeing it on a display at an RHS show and also seeing it and smelling it at close quarters growing in a friend's garden. The buds are the most softest of pinks before maturing to white and it is apparently repeat flowering. Apart from it's appearance the name called out to me as 'Desdemona' was a childhood nickname for me coined by my father along with 'Gertie'. Names which infuriated me at the time but now fond memories. The pink 'New Dawn' is an old stalwart and was probably the first rose we planted in this garden. It has been threatened with beheading a good few times but has always escaped and so far is having a good year. She continues to flower on and off for a good few months. Sadly her scent is light. The last rose is the creamy' Luisa's Daughter' which my sister had named and gave to me as a birthday present not long after my mother died. She starts to flower in May, her flowers change colour several times- pink tinges, cream, pale yellow before ending up white. Her scent is lemony.
• Some astrantia flowers - variety long forgotten.
• Some geranium pratense' Mrs Kendall Clarke' - the flowers of which are a softer colour to the eye or well to my eyes anyway than my photo suggests. She is rather floppy so needs support and is due for relocation in the future as she is obscuring another occupant of the border. 

Hopefully it should be warmer and drier tomorrow and might offer an opportunity to get on with a myriad of jobs that should have really been done yesterday or the day before or even the week before. Are you up to date with all that you want to do?

Thanks to the ever perennial Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for hosting all our Monday vases. It is much appreciated 💐

IAVOM ~ Not What It Says On The Label

Well it's not quite summer yet despite the Summer mug from my collection of 'Flower Fairies' mugs. That little fairy would be clinging on to that rose for stem for dear life if she was out there today and perhaps wishing that she had a coat and shoes to prevent damage to her feet from the thorns. It is cool, breezy and the day so far has been interspersed with several showers one of which was quite vigorous. I was going to use a bone china cup for today's flowers but thought that it might not withstand the elements so out came this more substantial mug. In my vase this Monday are :

• Stems of rosa 'Blush Noisette' - planted as a bare root rose in 2009, this is a relatively short growing climbing rose which produces clusters of deliciously scented small flowers. Sadly it has received some damage in the last week as a result of some drastic tree surgery taking place in close proximity but nothing that it won't recover from. It usually has a repeat show later in the year. 
• Some orlaya grandilfora flowers - this is a delicate lacy flowered hardy annual which has the bonus of attractive ferny foilage too. Seeds were sown in September and the young plants were sheltered in a mainly unheated greenhouse overwinter before being hardened off. I have sown another batch at the beginning of May hopefully for more flowers in late summer/early autumn.
• Finally a couple of sprigs from the deciduous shrub physocarpus opulifolius - I'm really not sure which one although probably 'Diablo'.

As always thanks for Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for enabling us to get together each and every Monday for some floral fun and frolics. 

More May Musing - On Buttercups

" I remember once walking out hand in hand with a boy I knew, and it was summer, and suddenly before us was a field of gold. Gold as far as you could see. We knew we’d be rich forever. We filled our pockets and our hair. We were rolled in gold. We ran through the field laughing and our legs and feet were coated in yellow dust, so that we were like golden statues or golden gods ...  It was only a field of buttercups, but we were young.’

- Jeanette Winterson

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