In a Vase on Monday: tulip mania

Tags

garden visit, Holland, in a vase on Monday, Keukenhof, the Netherlands, tulip Angelique, tulip Antraciet, Tulip Ballerina, tulip Brown Sugar, tulip La Belle Epoque, tulip Spring green, tulips

I fear I am having my own tulip mania thanks to my trip to Keukenhof last week.

It was my first visit and I was completely blown away by the beauty of the bulbs. The weather was warm which let’s face it, always helps.

Against a blue sky, the bulbs were beneath trees in full blossom which created a perfect haze of pink or in this case white. The warm air carried the heady scent of hyacinths which were planted in thousands.

I think I was expecting regimented rows of bulbs in blocks or bands of colour.

This was the case in some places but elsewhere the bulbs were planted in glorious colour combinations mixed with muscari or hyacinth or anemones.

Keukenhof plants about 7 million bulbs every year, admired by some 1.5million visitors, over the eight weeks that it is open. Mind blowing figures. Certainly it is a busy place to visit but its 32 hectare site copes well.

The bulbs are planted in nets as the soil is heavy clay and these are all lifted at the end of the show.

The lifted bulbs are sorted, the larger ones are kept for another year, the rest are disposed of. Mature trees cast shade once in leaf and the grass is reseeded each year for the show. The work that goes into this show is remarkable.

So this brings me to my vase. Tulips, a handful of tulips. They are pretty good in my garden this year.

I picked a selection to take to a friend.

Tulip Spring Green, Tulip Angelique, Tulip Ballerina, Tulip a La Belle Epoque, Tulip Brown Sugar, Tulip Antraciet

Joining Cathy with in a Vase on Monday. Should you like to join in add a link back to cathy’s blog and join in this popular Monday meme.

Have a great week. D.

Silent Sunday

Tags

botanical gardens Delft, Canna catching Autumn sun, Holland, Silent Sunday

52 Week Photo Challenge: deep

Tags

52 Week Photo Challenge, Colour, deep, Delft, Holland, Hollyhock, magenta, mexican pink, Netherlands, pink

Deep  adjective 

(0f a colour) strong and dark: 

I took this picture last weekend in Delft, Holland. I was walking to the botanical gardens, of course(!) alongside the canal. The houses were all very well cared for with no front garden, the inhabitants had window boxes or perhaps a large pot by their door and this house had a Hollyhock growing between the cobbles. The windows and doors were painted dark blues or grey/ black.

 I was struck initially by the eyecatching colour of this Hollyhock and then the contrast of it to the deep blue/ black paintwork. Its creamy white centre and the pollen sat upon the petal of deep pink. A deep shade of magenta, the depth of its petal colour changing from a sort of Mexican pink at its edge to a deep magenta at its middle. The colour seems all the more deep against the dark background. 

That is my look at the word deep for this weeks photo challenge. Sandra is one of the hosts for the photo challenge. Her lovely blog is https://daffodilwild.wordpress.com

Take a look at other entries on her page and for those of you who saw this as my Wordless Wednesday entry, sorry to be boring and repeat myself but it was too delicious a colour not to show again.

In a vase on Monday: a bunch of Dutch flowers

Tags

allium, Delft, grasses and chrysanthium, Holland, Hydrangea with roses, in a vase on Monday, mixed bunch of flowers, ready tied

I have had a weekend in Delft, Holland to celebrate my sister’s birthday. We stayed in her friends house and to thank her for showing us where to bike hire, for sharing her local area with us and booking us on a canal trip with bubbly, we got her a bouquet for her vase.

Ready tied, at 9 Euros I liked the hydrangea with grass seed heads.

A token gesture.

A bit of a cheat on my part this week. Still I think it was pretty enough to share with Cathy at https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com

Have a good week