In A Vase On Monday ~ Drip

It's soggy and grey out there this morning and either rain and/or leaves have been showering down with some gusto. The willow in the background is slowly shedding it's leaves but there is a silver lining in that some of them fall on the other side of the wall so we do not have to clear them up. The next few days promise to continue in the same vein weather wise with another named storm forecast for the middle of the week. Still a few tenacious flowers are clinging on and one or two are positively thriving including dahlias and the stalwart hardy geranium that is 'Rozanne', who so well deserves her award of winner of the RHS Plant of the Centenary at the 2013 Chelsea Flower Show.

In my vase this week are :

• A single stem of dahlia 'Molly Raven' whose praises I've sung  loudly before now.
• A stem of antirrhinum 'Madame Butterfly Watermelon'. This was grown from seed back in March and has not really thrived. It seems to be producing more flowering stems now that we're reaching the end of the season than it did in the summer. However it might be more floriferous next year if it comes through the winter.
• A couple of sprigs of pittosporum 'Silver Ball'. This was new to me earlier this year and the plan is to keep it in a pot and to try to keep it in trim. Apparently it's a plant that lives up to it's name forming a ball like shape.

Thanks as always to our hostess Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for her gentle encouragement to pick a few flowers and share them whatever the weather is up to.

Here there might be a long enough break in the clouds for me to get outside to top up that green waste bin - tomorrow sees the penultimate collection of the year and there is still a little space inviting me to fill it to the brim. In the greenhouse there are some hardy annuals that are ready to be potted on so that will be the next job. A garden visit with a friend is on the cards tomorrow weather permitting. I hope that you all enjoy your garden activities this week.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Still Shining

Wordless Wednesday ~ Webbed Wonder

 

IAVOM ~ Clinging On

 The mercury has really dropped over the last week or so. Gone are the balmy days we were enjoying and although so far we have escaped that first frost the temperature has dropped to just above 4 degrees centigrade for the last two nights in the greenhouse - the doors have been closed overnight. We've also had some significant rain. There are still though pockets of summery resistance. In my vase this week are :

• More of the cosmos that has not lived up to the label of 'Fizzy Purple' but is still going strong. Funnily enough though there has been the odd flowers that looks as if they are almost living up to their name and one of them has made it's way into this vase.
• The very last solitary flower from 'Misty Lavender' larkspur. No signs of life yet from my autumn sowings of this beautiful hardy annual despite the seed packet's sojourn in the freezer prior to sowing so it's looking like a second sowing in March.
• Some stems of self seeded briza maxima also known as Greater quaking grass presumably because of the way it shivers and shakes in any wind. I've decided that I should never need to sow this again as seedlings pop up in all sorts of places!
• The final occupant in this Monday's vase is perilla frutescens var. purpurescens also known as shiso  and Chinese basil. It's an hardy annual herb which is a member of the mint family. The leaves are edible and can be used in stir fry dishes and salads. I first came across it in a Vietnamese restaurant in Frankfurt a few years ago where I asked what it was. It has a most unusual taste which I can't quite make my mind up about. Apparently the flowers are edible too although I've never tried them. It makes for a good foliage container plant. I've grown it from seed before but this year bought as a young plant in the spring from the excellent Hampshire based 'Pepperpot Herbs'.

Thanks as always to our excellent hostess Cathy who blogs over at 'Rambling In The Garden' and who gently encourages to share our vases each and every week of the year.

In A Vase On Monday ~ Blush

 

A quick pick and plonk from me this week with just a couple of cuttings. In my vase are :

• Some stems of the late flowering hardy tuberous begonia grandis subsp. evansiana. Despite its delicate appearance this is a toughie flowering from late summer until the early frosts. The stems are attractively suffused with red. Not only do the plants produce small bulbils they also self-seed but never enough to be a nuisance. The seedlings are easily recognised and in my experience fall close to the parent. There is also a white flowering version which is my favourite of the two. These plants appears extremely late in the day and I have often fretted in the spring that I've lost them so patience is absolutely essential.
• Some leaves from my bushy salvia officinalis or sage plant which looked most bedraggled and sad in the spring but has grown with vigour despite the wet summer. I like the texture of the silvery gray leaves but I don't think that I've ever used it in a vase before now. 

I picked and photographed yesterday when the weather was obliging but left the vase in the greenhouse overnight. On going into the greenhouse this morning I noticed gleams of either snail or slug slime on the sage leaves! I either bought a mollusc in with me or there is already one at lose in the greenhouse which must have been drawn to the aroma of the sage. An inspection revealed zilch but I think it calls for a torchlight patrol this evening as there were trays of seedlings in the vicinity.

The vase is another of a recent purchase of three ribbed bud vases. Cathy asked me last week if the vases were different and yes they are both in size and shape. This is taller then the one I used last week with a narrower neck. I daresay that the third vase will feature at some point in the future.

Many thanks as always to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden', who this week has a dramatic display of beautiful white flowers to share with us. Here the sun has made an appearance and after a diversion filled tour around rural Cheshire, I'm more than ready for a breath of fresh air in the garden but will be vase visiting later today.

In A Vase On Monday ~ Shades Of Autumn

Picked yesterday in short break after a most soggy saturating Saturday and in anticipation of today's forecast rainclouds are :

• Rudbeckia 'Sahara' - a half-hardy perennial which is now a must have on my seed growing list each spring. It produces a veritable lucky dip of colours and either single or double flowers. Invariably there are some colours that I like more than others and these flowers are my favourites this year.
• Some spikes of forgotten identity persicaria - it's quite a tall one and flowers for a good long spell.
• Dahlia - 'Copper Boy' - not fully open yet and I wonder if they will still oblige off the plant and in water.
• A single shy picking from our next door neighbour's fuschia. I think that it may be the from the hardy variety 'Mrs Popple'. Whatever it is it has produced a splash of colour in late summer/early autumn for many years, which we are also able to enjoy as it's part of a boundary hedge. 

The vase is a new - one from a trio of grooved bud vases purchased only last week when I enjoyed an appetising lunch and a garden walkabout in the company of an old and dear friend. We visited Abbeywood Gardens in Delamere, Cheshire where we found it hard to believe that we didn't come across another soul in the gardens apart from one of the gardeners! It was a breezy day with a slight chill in the air but dry at the time of our visit. Apparently though it had been very busy in the morning so we were just obviously lucky with our timing. On the way out we popped in into the gift shop where I couldn't resist temptation. 

Thanks to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for hosting and inviting us to share our Monday vases each week. I'm looking forward to seeing what's in other blogger's vases today and will certainly have pen and paper to hand as I do.

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.