In a Vase on Monday: British Flowers Week

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apothecary bottle, British Flowers week, in a vase on Monday, Lily, oriental lily, poppy seed head, Rose "Lark Ascending", Verbena bonariensis

Cathy is the host of this lovely weekly feature and those of us who take part or who read the posts know all about the exquisite selection home grown flowers can offer. With this in mind I would like to share my British bunch, grown and picked by me. Just as normal really!

The centrepiece to the bunch is an extraordinarily dark lily. I grow a number of lilies in a raised bed and just leave them to it. This year the lily beetle has found them and I had to strip the leaves as they were covered in a black gunk. The flower seems to be untouched so I think it’s fair to say I got away with that one.  

Interestingly, well to me anyway, is that the buds of such a dark colour lily are an orange tone. With this in mind I chose Rose Lark Ascending.

I cannot praise this (David Austin) rose enough, it’s a firm favourite. It picks up the orange lily bud in a soft tone of orange to which I have added a few sprigs of  vibrant purple Verbena bonariensis and some soft green grey poppy seed heads. 

All that was left was to decide on a vessel. It had to be the orange brown apothecary jar as the colours seem to work.

The weather here is full on Summer reaching a sultry 29 degrees today. Incredible and dare I say it, not very British. The flowers are though. 

Still life Saturday

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apothecary bottle, brown, Colour, letterpress, pods, seeds, still life Saturday

 

 

Pods, seeds and letterpress

The weather this last week has really taken any residual Summer colour or softness from the garden.  What is left is brown, rather like this arrangement.

I hope you find some colour in your day.

In a Vase on Monday: ethereal

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apothecary bottle, calamagrostis Karl Foerster, coreopsis moonshine, in a vase on Monday, Miscanthus sinensis, molinia Transparent, verbena bonariensis. sanguisorba candenensis

The garden has a number of different grasses and they are looking at their best presently. Using a few Calamagrostis Karl Foerster, Molinia Transparent and Miscanthus sinensis Flamingo I have added a stem of the creamy white,  gently scented, Sanguisorba candenensis. Then the rather promiscuous Verbena bonariensis, I have seedlings all over the garden and finally the delightful palest yellow of Coreopsis Moonshine.

I do not anticipate that they will last much beyond Monday but no matter. 

It is a vase for Monday, a meme hosted by Cathy at https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com

Have a good week.

In a vase on Monday: darker

Tags

Allium Purple Sensation, amandes ameres, Anthriscus sylvestris ravenswing, apothecary bottle, Aquilegia vulgaris, Astrantia 'Roma', Bistort officinalis, bitter almond, Geum "Mrs Bradshaw", in a vase on Monday, Meadow rue, Myrrhis odorata, Persicaria bistort, Sweet cicely, Thalictrum Elin

Early Summer blooms

Oh my it is Monday and I very nearly missed joining Cathy at https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com

Cathy’s meme to collect flowers from the garden to display in the house is a delight.  If you feel you might like to join in then be sure to post a link to her blog with your pictures.

flowers in an old apothcary jar

The dark astrantia is ‘Roma’ with ‘Black barlow’ aquilegia.  There is one Allium ‘Purple Sensation’ mixed amongst Geum ‘Mrs Bradshaw’ and Anthriscus sylvestris ‘Ravenswing’  Ravenswing is a must have in the garden for me as its foliage is dark browny black and deeply divided  with umbels of frothy cow parsley like flowers.  It is beginning to seed around and I am delighted.

Anthriscus Ravenswing

The other umbelifiyer I am enjoying at the moment is Myrrhis odorata or Sweet Cicely. Also resembling Cow Parsley, Cicely has fern like leaves and white flowers scented rather like aniseed.

Anthriscus sylvestris Ravenswing with backgound colour of astrantia Roma and Sparaxis elegans

There are pink fingers of Bisorta officinalis, rather like a persicaria and often referred to as Persicaria bisorta, this is an early flowering persicaria type in marshmallow pink.  There is also a sprig of Thalictrum Elin.  This is the sprig of tiny dark purple bobbles in the first picture.  The bobbles will and are about to open to a colour not unlike the Purple Sensation, and have leaves like an aquilegia.

A snap shot of the flowers in my garden

One final note the jar was for bitter almonds which I understand are the non cyanide containing almonds used for flavouring foods.  That’s good then.

Have a good week.

ps. I garden on heavy clay soil which is water logged in areas over Winter ( for those who are interested in such things, like me!)

In a vase on Monday: a bit of fluff

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apothecary bottle, camellia, clematis vitalba, Dwarf narcissi Tete-a-Tete, Grape hyacinth, in a vase on Monday, Muscari, Muscari armeniacum, old man's beard, pink primrose, Polyanthus Stella Champagne

I have raided the hedgerow today for a bit of so-called Old Man’s Beard,

 Clematis vitalba.  The wild clematis seed heads are in most hedges when you look for them.  It may have attractive seed heads but it is a devil to get rid of should it be over your side of the garden hedge.  It has a deep, strong root and grows like a triffid, strangling everything in its path (everything of the plant variety that is).

Old man’s beard

Anyway enough of that, the seed head is pretty and it has helped to fill out today’s vase.

Firstly I took one of the early camellia blooms, white with a rose pink tone (New Dawn? ).  To this I have added the fading flowers of Muscari, Grape Hyacinth.  Forced to grow indoors, no cruelty involved, the blooms have just begun to go over and are now waiting to be planted in the garden. Thanks Liz.

Muscari, Clematis Vitalba

There are a few tiny pale pink primroses and some Violas.  The Violas inject a stronger shade of colour, thanks to their dark purple petals and yellow and white face, thereby picking up the yellow of the yet to open Dwarf

Narcissi.

Camellia, Polyanthus ‘Stella Champagne’, Grape hyacinth and dwarf narcsissi

As these are such tiny flowers with even smaller stems I struggled to find a suitable vessel.  In the end I chose to use a piece of oasis wedged into the opening of an old apothecary bottle.  The original contents were labelled as Hydrarg. oxid. Rub.

It sounds as if the contents were originally some mix of mercury, quicksilver and oxygen? Does anyone happen to know what this could have been or what it would have been used for, I would be interested to know.  Anyway it is a nice enough bottle made prettier thanks to the addition of some early Spring flowers.

Take a look at Cathys blog page https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/category/gardens/in-a-vase-on-monday/ to see what other blooms have been used for today’s meme.

As I write this, the wind is whipping its self into a proper frenzy, storm Henry is doing its thing.

Hold onto your hats folks.