I tried a couple of different containers for this week’s IAVOM offering before settling on this one and immediately knew it would work well as the blooms splayed out perfectly, seemingly complementing the curves of the vase itself.
I would like to dedicate the whole vase to all my blogging friends as among the perfect pinks are no less than four varieties grown from seed supplied by other bloggers: lychnis from Sandra at Wild Daffodil, Malope triffida ‘Vulcan’ and Cosmos ‘Click Cranberries’ from Elizabeth of Silver Scrappers and Godetia ‘Crown Mix’ from Karen at Karengimson. Numerous packages of seeds and plants criss-cross the country and beyond as bloggers generously give or exchange from amongst their gardens’ bounty, or gift little surprises designed to gladden any gardener’s heart: bless them all!
Joining these four pink pretties are the one of the zinnias (Cactus Mixed) I avoided cutting last week, Dahlia ‘Purple Gem’, Dahlia ‘Happy Single Juliet’, Antirrhinum ‘Overture Rose’ and Admiral’s Purple’, a stem of a just-purchased car boot alstroemeria that broke off when I tried to extract it from the pot, perennial sweet pea Lathyrus latifolius ‘Red Pearl’, Sedum ‘Thunderhead’ with a hint of pink on leaves and emerging flowers and blooms from one of my newly establishing scented leaved pelargoniums, ‘Pink Capricorn’. The leaves of this variety smell of lemon rose although the blooms are unscented.
The richer and darker pinks of the posy are perfectly picked out by the Caithness Glass perfume bottle, rounding off this pleasing vase for a new week. I am sure we will see many more pleasing vases from other bloggers over the course of the day: to join us all you need to do is find material from your garden (or anywhere else that you feel is still in the spirit of the meme) to pop into a vase or other container and share with us by leaving links to and from this post. Look forward to hearing from you!
In its metal tub, the latter in particular will have suffered from the hot summer – and knowing how well other roses did when moved to the shrub border from other containers I am not sure why I then put these roses into containers in the first place! After our second group visit this week these roses will therefore be on the move, the first two to the shrub border and to an as yet undetermined location for Sweet Dreams. There are currently trailing fuschias in the largest tub with Harlow Carr but I will need to find summer occupants for the others and plan accordingly for next summer.
Also not working is the concept of multiple seed plugs, like the Trixi ‘Crazy Cocktail’ plugs I trialled in the conical baskets hanging above the bold borders. Described as ‘Deep purple Calibrachoa is perfectly contrasted with zingy yellow Bidens, combined with bright rose-red clusters of Verbena for a psychedelic effect’: brilliant in theory, but in practice the bidens dominated the baskets, largely to the exclusion of the verbena and calibrachoa, and I shall create my own combinations next year instead.
Nearly forget to mention (so this is added later) the grasses added to the rose garden – around the edges Uncinia rubra from my own divided plants is not yest established and in the two central beds the 10 small Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’ plants added are still, well small, or smaller than small – the one shown here is bigger than most! Hopefully the others are still alive and will establish better once the weather is cooler and damper. Also unsuccessful was using rainbow chard in the borders as the straggly plants made no significant impact and won’t be used ornamentally next year.
I featured the cutting beds a little while ago and indeed they just keep getting better and better – but they are not the only blooms in the garden, although undoubtedly they host the highest concentration of floriferousness. Admittedly there are fewer ‘gaps’ than earlier in the year but there are still areas to work on in due course.
Phlox is now adding colour to the main herbaceous borders, with another pot of lilies and several astrantia still hanging on too:
Annabelle is a bundle of blooms…
…and the later clematis are absolute stars in the July garden this year, here Prince George and Mary Rose:
Purpurea Plena Elegans and Princess Kate:
Alba Luxurians, Venosa Violacea, Gravetye Beauty on the rose arbour:
Rosalyn and Avant Garde on their own posts:
And not forgetting the added colour from pots and troughs: scented pelargonium and Tumbelina petunias outside the sitooterie, more petunias on the paved area and in baskets at the front of the house, with pots of New Guinea impatiens and frothy lilac lobelia outside the front door:
Already I am hatching plans for summer colour for next year – more use of these impatiens but in single colours, definitely more of this lilac lobelia, perhaps individual pots for the pelargoniums and something different in the window boxes, more pots of annuals to pop into spaces in the borders and definitely more pots of lilies, greater use of herbaceous clematis – the list goes on, but needs to be written down whilst it is still fresh in my mind! In the meantime I am thoroughly enjoying the blooms in our mid-July garden!
I could probably have come up with a butterfly themed title for today’s IAVOM, as the sweet peas (mostly Heirloom Mix) hovering amongst the single head of Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’ look remarkably like butterflies; but no, patience was needed to resist cutting from the cutting beds, as you might have read in yesterday’s post, so Patience it is.
I knew I wanted a fairly ‘low’ container with a large neck for these blooms but tried several before I remembered this bowl which usually has some very elderly pot pourri in it – perhaps I can replace it with some fresher contents once Monday’s arrangement is past its best! The blooms are supported in the bowl in a frog ‘cage’ (not a caged frog!), hence the need for a wide necked vase. I love the green glaze with its slightly graduated shades on this bowl, one I picked up from some antique fair or car boot sale probably.
Seeing what other bloggers can find in their gardens or forage nearby to pop into their Monday vases is always exciting and eagerly anticipated: what will it be this week? Please do share yours with us if you can by leaving the usual links to and from this post.
Next, just LOOK at these wonderful zinnias (‘Cactus Flowered’) – how I want to cut these for a vase! But no, I must patiently restrain my zinnia zeal as I want to show off these beds to my group visitors in the next week or two. I have had little success with zinnias before now but there is nothing wrong with this year’s attempt – HURRAH! They are shown here alongside Briza maxima, Antirrhinum ‘Overture Rose’ and Amaranthus viridis:
Behind them are first-time-of-sowing Leonotis leonara in both orange and white versions, just budding up, Calendula ‘Indian Prince’ and 4 different types of cosmos:
Next are various dahlias with Zinnia ‘Summer Bouquet’, Aster ‘Strawberry Crush’ and Antirrhinum ‘Admiral’s Purple’ to come:
More dahlias, bupleurium and Malope triffida ‘Vulcan’, with Antirrhinum ‘Royal Bride just creeping into the picture:
More dahlias, with sweet peas behind and Amaranthus caudatus in front, Godetia ‘Crown Mix’ not quite visible:
MORE dahlias and sweet peas:
And yet more dahlias, more sweet peas and Rudbeckia ‘Irish Eyes’ in the foreground, with Aster ‘Star Violet not quite in bloom – and a glimpse of the sunflowers:
And just LOOK at those sunflowers…! Italian White, Earth Walker, Ruby Eclipse and Vanilla Ice – all just lapping up that sunshine! Hold me back, hold those secateurs!!
