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In a Vase on Monday: Easter Eggstravaganza
Like previous years, I lifted my large red egg-shaped vase off the shelf, dusted it down and decided the opening was too small for anything other than a few stems, so put it back again and looked elsewhere. I did at least, before I did so, discover with the help of Google Lens that it is a Dartington Glass vase, something I didn’t know before.
Sticking with a loosely Easter theme and seasonal chickens, I chose one of my pieces of Zeller Ceramics in the Cock and Hen design and stuffed it full of mostly ephemeral spring blooms: an unnamed pulmonaria, Cardamine pratensis, Tulipa ‘Little Beauty’, wood anemone A blanda, sunny Epimedium ‘Sulphureum’, light blue grape hyacinth Muscari ‘Baby’s Breath’, a double-headed white Fritillary meliagris, a random hellebore bloom, dark leaved honesty Lunaria annua ‘Chedglow’ and spring flowering clematis, C alpina ‘Constance’. Emphasising the theme, the jug is joined by a painted wooden egg and a small black chicken from Highland Pottery.
There seems to be an Easter feast of blooms in today’s vase and, here at least, the choice of material for Monday vases is increasing week by week, possibly exponentially. I know others may be emerging from winter more slowly, but we all know that spring comes eventually, followed quickly by summer as the seasons cycle round again. IAVOM is not always about stuffing a vase with blooms, more about experiencing the simple pleasure of even a single bloom or twig in a vase or jam jar, so do consider joining us either regularly or once in a while; you would be made very welcome.
Posted in Easter, Gardening, Gardens, In a Vase on Monday, seasonal interest, Spring
Tagged flowers in a vase
25 Comments
Six on Saturday: Spring Blossom
Easter or not, this has been a great weekend for gardening, both dry and mild (so far at least), albeit breezy, and my time has been well spent, working on the new ex-ivy border and potting up new pelargoniums for the Coop and re-potting young plants in the greenhouse. If it rains tomorrow, I am sure there will be tasks to be done in the greenhouse – and the contents of a new border to plan…
I was pleasantly surprised to spot pink buds on crab apple Malus ‘Evereste’ (above) when I looked out of the kitchen windows yesterday, although there are no obvious signs of blossom on the main apple trees yet, which is unusual, as early April seems to be the norm, coinciding with releasing the mason bees cocoons, which I have already done.
I would have to check back in my garden diary to see when bluebells start to appear in the garden, although it always seems to be much earlier than I think it’s going to be, but this year I saw the first hint of blue today (below). It didn’t take long for the snowdrops to become has-beens, their discrete blooms overshadowed by the plummy bells of fritillaries, their foliage submerged by the generous foliage of bluebells and wild garlic. Curiously, I noticed one clump of white fritillaries had mostly double-headed blooms.
Tulips continue to inject their colour around the garden, mostly in pots, but there are expanding clumps of species tulips in the borders, particularly my favourite, Tulipa ‘Little Beauty’.
On the recent end of month video tour, someone spotted that there were still hippeastrum flowering in the Coop, and indeed there are. They have been exceptional this year, flowering from the end of November and still doing so now. I have had four plants, all unnamed bulbs from Lidl, and all have had at least two flower spikes, which of course extends the flowering period, as does keeping them cool. The last of them was planted up in mid-December. I do prefer to know variety names, but I can tolerate their anonymity in the floriferous circumstances.
Thank you to Jim for hosting this weekly Six on Saturday meme, and please pop over to his blog to check out other contributions. I had meant to include my sixth on SoS last week, but forgot, so am more than happy to show off the first bud on my early sweet peas today instead. After trying out a different variety last year, I was relieved to track down the reliable Winter Sunshine series that I had grown for years, the original growers, Owl’s Acre, having sold the business.
Wordless Wednesday: More Cheers
Posted in Gardening, Gardens, seasonal interest, Spring, woodland
Tagged Rhododendron 'Cheers'
5 Comments
End of Month View: Marching Out
There are maps under The Garden tab above which show the layout of the garden and the usual route of the End of Month rambles. This month there was a very light frost and it has been much drier and sunnier than the last two months.
March weather: maximum 22°C, minimum 0°C, average 8°C. Frost on 1 day, rainfall 32mm over 13 days. Hours spent in the garden 25
Posted in End of Month View, Gardening, Gardens, seasonal interest, Spring
6 Comments
In a Vase on Monday: Good Timing
As I always use this ‘moon’ vase for my first tulips, it occurred to me as I was putting this vase together that it would be a good indicator of the timing of tulips which, I thought, were rather earlier than usual this year. Checking back on the blog, I can confidently say that for the last few years, my first tulip vase of the year appeared on the second Monday in April – so yes, the tulips are early this year.
The tulips we have today are from the pot I showed on Six on Saturday and the timer is, of course, to time their arrival. I think the tulips are ‘Pink Sound’ and although I cut about half of those blooming there are, fortunately, more buds to come – and more pots of tulips. You may not have tulips in your own garden yet, but if you would still like to join us on IAVOM with other material gleaned from your garden then please do so and leave links to and from this post.
Posted in bulbs, corms and tubers, Gardening, Gardens, In a Vase on Monday, seasonal interest, Spring
Tagged flowers in a vase
31 Comments
Six on Saturday: Tulips March On
Here, tulips have been teasing me for the last couple of weeks, with several buds showing a hint of colour, but I now feel justified in showing the pot above. with tulips from a pink mix (probably ‘Pink Sound’) underplanted with primula.
Mention on another blog recently prompted me to check the Coop Corner to see if there was any sign of my Sanguinaria canadensis, given to me by a friend some years ago – and yes, there was. It doesn’t really do much except surprise me and certainly hasn’t spread, but it’s still there!
Although another blogger had mentioned erythronium, but I didn’t think to check here, so the one below really did take me by surprise and I would probably have missed it under the now-lanky snowdrop foliage if I hadn’t been trimming old fern fronds in the vicinity. It is only the very ordinary yellow ‘Pagoda’ variety, and the fact it does keep reappearing should encourage me to plant more, and different varieties too…something to remember at bulb-ordering time.
Always taking me by surprise are the amelanchier in the garden, their blooms so transient it is easy to miss them. There are now two, the longer-established Amelanchier lamarkii and the more recent pale-pink bloomed A ‘Robin Hill’, and both look resplendent against a cloudless blue sky, which sadly there wasn’t when I took the photos:
I am pleased to have ticked off lots of jobs from my to-do list this week, removing bubblewrap from the Coop, feeding roses, hellebores, soft fruit and clematis and, last Sunday, erecting supports for the outdoor sweet peas and planting them out. Ironically, we had a light frost during the week, but the sweet peas had already been hardened off and they were fine. The terracotta pots behind the sweet peas contain lilies, all overwintered under cover but now moved outside and their compost refreshed…another job ticked off!
Having trimmed old foliage from most of the ferns today, I really ought to turn my attention to some of the borders, which I had intended to revamp in the off-season…too late for that now, but the main borders really do need some TLC, splitting established clumps and removing excessive allium seedlings, which are also having a party in the adjacent paving. Sadly, I may allow myself to be distracted by a new project as the space left by the removal of the ‘ivy tree’ is beckoning and plans have been made, albeit very rough plans. A low retaining wall will be needed to edge the sloping bank, and with a few ‘spare’ bricks I laid out a rough line today to allow for a slightly wider path than previously…a pile of bricks, a bag of mortar mix and I shall be as happy as Larry!
Thank you to Jim for allowing us to share some of the goings-on in our garden – why not have a look at his and others’ at Garden Ruminations?
Wordless Wednesday: a Constant Joy Each Spring
Posted in clematis, Gardening, Gardens, seasonal interest, Spring, Wordless Wednesday
Tagged Clematis alpina 'Constance'
7 Comments
In a Vase on Monday: All Things Bright
I have known all week there would be Anemone coronaria ‘Mr Fokker’ blooms in my vase today, but that was as far as any planning went, and I had no idea what, if anything, would be joining them and what type of vase I was going to create. The anemones had ridiculously long stems which I measured at 20″ or 52cms – is that normal? – so in theory there was the option of something very simple nd elegant using just the anemones.
In the end the stems were cut fairly short and joined by the first blooms on my young dwarf forsythia ‘Mikador’ and a stem of a dark pink bergenia which has lost its label but I think may be ‘Abendglut’. I am sure this is the first time I have seen it flower, but perhaps I have just not noticed it in other years, tucked under the apple trees. For added interest there are twirly twigs of Trachelospermum asiaticum and pretty leaves of Arachnoides aristata ‘Variegata’, one of the ferns I grow in the Coop. The p0ttery vase is one I brought back from my Mum’s and am undecided about keeping – it’s a useful shape but has a vague leafy pattern on one side which for me is a distraction. It will probably go to a charity shop. The prop is a torch, for added brightness of course.
Please join us with your own contribution of material gathered from your garden or nearby, and add links to and from this post.
Five Favourites for March
As promised, I have finally selected five favourites for March but, my goodness, it was a struggle, and won’t get any easier as the year progresses. I have to start with the gorgeous blue Anemone coronaria ‘Mr Fokker’, not just because he is such a handsome fellow, but because I am so thrilled to have actually got the corms to flower. This batch of corms was planted back in November I think, but I have another pot which I started off in January or February, so hopefully there will be another batch in due course.There are more buds coming in this pot, though, so I have those to look forward to now that the current three blooms have – spoiler alert – been cut for a vase on Monday.
Sticking with the blues, I am including the very ordinary and sometimes thuggish grape hyacinth, Muscari armeniacum, for its bright and cheerful blueness, and its amenability. This clump probably originated from a pack of bulbs bought to produce blooms for a posy for Younger Daughter’s wedding back in 2016.
Hellbores have continued to delight throughout March and picking a favourite from amongst them would be impossible, but I do have to admire the size of this clump of H ‘Double Aubergine White Edge’, darker than the photo suggests, which must easily have produced 30-40 stems of blooms, with a fecundity unseen in any any other hellebore I have. I had forgotten about the white edge, but it does indeed have one!
I have not forgotten fritillaries, F meliagris, which appear suddenly in March to take over the mantle of snowdrops which themselves quickly disappeared as temperatures rose. I love them for their suddenness but especially for their colour and their checkerboard pattern. The white ones, although not unattractive, are the poor relations in my book, their thin white petticoats no comparison for the rich robes of their compatriots.
My fifth favourite for Cathy of Words and Herbs’ monthly meme is Clumps. March is the month when emerging herbaceous perennials quickly grow into deliciously neat mounds, more evident in less-stuffed beds and borders, and promising abundance as the season progresses. Here we have Salvia verticillatum ‘Purple Rain’, herbaceous poppy Papaver orienatale, probably ‘Brilliant’, and Thalictrum ‘Black Stockings’, already pushing up flower spikes. I love them all! Thank you to Cathy for hosting the meme.
Rambling in the Garden 