Wordless Wednesday ~ Abbeywood Gardens, Cheshire

 

IAVOM ~ Slip Sliding Into Autumn

 

It's Monday and time for a vase of flowers to kick-start not only a new week but a new season too whichever hemisphere you live in. In my vase this week are :

• A stem from dahlia 'Molly Raven' - a dahlia bred by the plantswoman Sarah Raven and named after her daughter. I planted this last year and although she came through the winter in the ground she hasn't done as well this year. I intended to add to her numbers but the tubers were all sold out by the time I thought to look. I will have to make sure that I'm off the mark for next year.  I think that Sarah Raven is the only stockist of this so supplies must be limited.
• A couple of danglies in the shape of leycesteria formosa aka the Himalayan honeysuckle. This is an easy going deciduous shrub which is partial to shady woodland areas. It is now in the process of forming berries which contain extremely sticky seed. It's a fairly insignificant plant for most of the time but comes into colour at the back end of the year and has continued to show colour into November some years.

• Some of the impostor 'Purple Fizz' cosmos that I grew from seed in spring. Not what they claimed to be on the seed packet but still pleasing enough once I got over my initial disappointment.
• Hiding behind the cosmos is some pickings from aster (now called something else which doesn't trip of my tongue easily) 'Little Carlow'. This was the main flower in Cathy's vase last Monday. This hardy perennial has clouds of most pretty small lavender-blue flowers from late summer well into October.
• Some spikes of linaria purpurea - these flower on and off for some considerable time and the bees like them. The only drawback is that I've never managed to cull them before some seed has escaped and then it seems that I'm forever extracting many emerging seedlings. The pink version linaria 'Canon Went' is restrained in comparison.

Thanks as always to Cathy who blogs over at 'Rambling In The Garden' and who kindly invites fellow bloggers to share their vases each Monday be it autumn, winter, spring or summer. This week as autumn begins we are promised some extremely wet and windy weather especially in the middle of the week. Part of my bulb order should be arriving this week but I'm not sure how much planting I will be able to achieve. Still it will be most exciting to open the box and dream of the spring and summer flowers that will emerge from those bulbs next year. 

In A Vase On Monday ~ 'Summer Days Drifting Away'

 

There is some heat in my vase this week in contrast to the cooler and wet day that it is out there. Spreading some sunshine are :

• Dahlia 'Copper Boy' planted in 2022 - these remained in the ground and came through the prolonged bitterly cold spell that we had last December to make for much larger plants this year. They were very well mulched before the temperature plummeted. Their only fault is that the stems are on the droopy side possibly because of the size of the flower. It's a big 'un.
• Helianthus annus' Claret' - or another case of a flower not reading the seed packet. My friend who I passed some seedlings on to inherited the real deep wine-red deal rather than the striped marmalade version that I ended up with. Still until recent years my sunflowers were invariably nobbled by molluscs well before they could grow to adulthood so I'm happy with any flowers whatever the colour. 
• Rudbeckia 'Sahara' - a now favourite half-hardy perennial. This year's batch of seed has produced a mix of colours with both single and double forms. I have a soft spot for the singles. I sowed the seed in early March on the heated sand bench in the greenhouse making sure they were under cover on cold nights. Previously I've sown them in a heated propagator in early February but I don't think on balance that they gain that much from an earlier start.

The vase is an old Keiller marmalade jar which was an eBay purchase.

Thanks as always to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for her impeccable hosting. Here the imminent arrival of the autumn equinox is being ushered in with a spell of predicted wild and wet windy weather this week. I was able to spend a few hours this weekend pottering about outside and have culled the tomato plants, taken salvia and lemon verbena cuttings, filled that green waste bin to the very brim and have sown more hardy annuals. I think that the next couple of days will be hunkering in days but I've resigned myself to that and have just been cheered by the sight of the first signs of germination from some pansy seedlings sown just nine days ago. Now to pick some apples before the wind brings them down!

'In The Pink' ~ Part 2

 

Another variation on a theme of this week in my vase this Monday - well mainly pink with a hint of burgundy creeping in. The occupants are :

• Cosmos - I purchased the seed in good faith as 'Fizzy Purple', the seed packet's blurb promising large purple coloured flowers. Something went amiss along the way as the flowers have varied in colour and not a single one was purple. These flowers are from the most attractive to me plant. 
• Astrantia major 'Burgundy Manor' - a hardy perennial with both dark flowers and dark stems. This is it's second flush of flowers. I cut off the first batch before they went to seed. 
• More of the achillea 'Summer Berries' - a long flowering perennial sown in the spring of 2020.
• Aster divaricatus also known as the white wood aster - a late flowering perennial. I bought my original plant from the sales area in the garden at Powis Castle in north Wales many moons ago. It's a most unassuming plant that just gently gets on with it's own business.

A big thank you as always to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' who generously gathers us together weekly to share our vases. Here we have the week that we have dreamed of since June - blue skies, sunshine, soaring temperatures and not a drop of rain in sight. Bliss, although I may be uttering those words "It's too hot!" before long. Happy gardening.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Sneezewort

 

IAVOM ~ Pleasings

 Its' a typical soggy Bank Holiday Monday here so I've quickly whizzed around (well as much as I'm able to whizz around these days) and picked a few flowers that are pleasing me at the moment. They are :

• Orlaya visnaga - I think that this is 'Green Mist' but can't be sure without locating the seed packet. They were sown last Sepember and spent the winter in the greenhouse before being planted out in the spring. The plants have not done so well this year with the foliage becoming most anaemic in appearance. They were planted in the same border as last year but maybe the cold spring didn't do them any favours. I've pulled a couple of plants out but luckily some were able to hide behind other plants so the foliage wasn't as noticeable. I shall be sowing another batch next month.
• Larkspur 'Misty Lavender' - another hardy annual also sown last September but alas to no avail. A further spring sowing was made after the seed packet had a spell in the freezer and this time the germination rate was most satisfactory, with surplus seedlings to give to friends. I love the colour of this larkspur and it is a must again for next year.
• Some phlox drummondii' 'Cherry Caramel' - I sowed this half hardy annual in March. The flowers vary slightly in colour and it has rather a floppy habit but that can be forgiven.
• Achillea millefolium 'Summer Berries' - a hardy perennial grown from seed which produces a range of colours. This paler shade hit the right note so has been retained.
• Finally a sprig of clematis jouiniana x 'Praecox' - which can be grown as a climber of a scrambler, a bee and butterfly magnet but a clematis that dies absolutely disgracefully.

Thanks as always to our excellent hostess Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden', who enables us to share our vases whether it be a high day or a holiday. Here I'm keeping an eye on the weather - there are signs of it possibly brightening up so some of the gardening jobs on the list might be ticked off later. On the other hand if it doesn't I will be checking through my seed box to make sure that I've got all the seeds that I intend to sow in September. Not so long now until the start of a new year 😂

Wordless Wednesday ~ Holker Hall, Cumbria , August 2023

 

IAVOM ~ 'In The Pink'

 

It's mainly pink in my vase this week which these days is a colour that I'm not as fond of as I once was. I'm not sure why - maybe it's like food tastes changing inexplicably over the years. There are still some pinks about though and in my vase week are :

• Antirrhinum' Madame Butterfly Watermelon' - grown from seed sown in March and not quite the deep dusky pink I thought that she might be. Still the colour might deepen with age.
• A sprig of hydrangea paniculata' Little Blossom' with initially white flowers which develop pink tinges. This is a relatively new plant to me.
• A couple of sprays of seed grown achillea 'Summer Berries'. I sowed this perennial in September 2020 and is now well established. It is most easy going and flowers over a long spell. I sowed some more this spring. 
• A bit of a dark leaved physocarpus probably 'Diablo'.
• A sprig or two of pittisporum 'Bannow Bay' - this has a different coat according to the season - variegated light green with a cream edge, before changing through late summer to autumn into a mottled green and burgundy effect. I think that it has reached this point now. It then moves to a deeper burgundy after frost. It's winter coat is my favourite.

Thank to our hostess Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for hosting each week so that we can enjoy vases from fellow bloggers each week of the year.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Wollerton Old Hall, Shropshire, August 2023.

 

IAVOM ~ 'Here Comes The Rain Again'

 We travelled home today after a quick trip to Shropshire where we woke up this morning to some heavy rain. As we headed west the rain eased for a while but then came down in buckets and more buckets. It has only just stopped now. This was the only dry flower I could come up with and that's because it's been under cover in the kitchen for a week. Even then a teardrop of rain landed on it when I whizzed it out for a quick photo. I don't know how I did it but I accidentally decapitated two buds of dahlia 'Molly Raven' last Monday. I bought them into the house where one of them has gone on to open. I planted this dahlia in the garden last year and she surprised me by coming through the cold winter. I think that a very thick application of mulch before the first penetrating heavy frosts did the trick.

The reason for our trip was to meet up with the lovely Cathy from 'Rambling In The Garden' and her equally lovely partner 'The Golfer'. We visited the garden at Wollerton Old Hall, lunched before making our way round the garden chatting about plants whilst the menfolk chatted about non plant related matters, made purchases from the plant sales area and rounded up the day with coffee and cake and a quick plant exchange in the field which serves as a car park. An most excellent way to while a way a Sunday afternoon and one where the rain held off. Thanks to Cathy as always for her impeccable hosting skills each and every week. I'm looking forward to seeing what's in other vases this Monday.