This morning, I had a plan. Having woken at 6:30am feeling much better than I did yesterday, I went straight outside, sprayed insect repellant on my arms and legs (does insect repellant exist in other countries, or is that an Australian thing?), and went out to pick some flowers for a vase for Cathy at Rambling in the Garden‘s weekly meme, In A Vase On Monday.
I beat those dratted mozzies – and the summer heat! Woo-hoo!
As usual, I dead-headed old flowers, pulled out any weeds I found, and collected an assortment of any pretty flowers I found. After breakfast, when I sorted through my collection, which awaited me in a plastic cup, I found I had enough flowers for two small vases. So I separated them by colour – yellows and mauves.
From the front windows of my house last week I had noticed plenty of colour on my miniature rose bushes. All three of these roses are from the same rose bush, aptly named ‘Chameleon”.
There are several different colours of Dianthus in bloom, but I only chose the white for this vase. Also, white alyssum adds a delicate touch and some greenery to the vase.
These tiny bell flowers, I believe, are called ‘Correa’, which is native to Australia. I know I have the name added to a photo from last year, somewhere, so I will edit the name if I am wrong. For now, I am going with Correa.
Update: Eliza noted in the comments that this plant is a Cuphea. I remembered where I had put the original label that came with the plant, and Eliza is spot on! This flower is in fact a Cuphea ‘Honeybells’. So thank you for the plant ID, Eliza. 🙂
And here’s a closer shot of the alyssum, just because I love seeing the detail of their tiny flowers!
This flower was a surprise find this morning. It is an Abelia ‘Francis Mason’, a new plant to me, which is planted in the new rockery garden opposite the house. I didn’t notice it was flowering until I went up into the rockery to pull out a weed I had noticed, and there it was, looking very pretty. I love the variegated foliage on this plant, which is what attracted me to the plant when I bought it last year.
And here is where the yellow flower vase will sit this week. 🙂
The mauve vase of flowers are arranged in a small vase that I had all but forgotten about until I saw it in my vase cupboard this morning, and it holds many treasured childhood memories. One of my sisters, who is thirteen years older than I am, loves gardening also. She may even be responsible for my early interest in gardening and flowers. When I was a child she would take me out into the garden to find flowers to bring indoors. We grew pansies, violets, fuchsias, snowdrops, poppies, all planted by Chris, who also cared for the garden when she lived at home. This vase is one we used to put some of our flowers into. There was an even smaller matching vase as well, but I think it must have been broken during one of my house moves in years gone by. As you can see, this vase has many imperfections, but it all adds to the character of the vase. For me, it’s the memories that count. ❤
In this vase I have two blooms of a miniature rose called ‘Love Potion’. The colour is more pink-ish than mauve, but I am happy with the combination of the flowers.
Beside a sprig of mauve coloured Alyssum is Society Garlic, which just keeps on flowering. Every week, I find more new blooms when I go to visit my roses. I have Society Garlic growing around most of my roses, as apparently the garlic odour is a deterrent to aphids.
This mauve flower is called ‘Mona Lavender’. You will notice actual Lavender in the vase next to it, which is a completely different type of plant. The word Lavender simply relates to the colour of the flowers. This plants is from the Plectranthus genus and will only grow in shade, or dappled, morning sunlight. It grows very well under my purple Tibouchina tree, which is right outside my front door.
Looking at the vase from another angle shows the detailed pattern on the Mona Lavender flowers behind two shades of Alyssum, along with my two Love Potion roses.
The flower adorned teddy ornament was a gift from my daughter when she was a child, and the pretty doily was made by my Mum, many years ago.
Now I am going to send my sister some photos of my mauve vase! She lives in Tasmania, many miles from where I live, so I don’t see her often. We often send each other gardening photos, so I am sure she will love to see my vase – and I hope she remembers it! ❤
In My World 
I am amazed at how many lovely flowers your garden offers you every day! It must be a delightful reward for all your hard work to have a seemingly endless supply of beauty to create your vases with. I love that ‘Love Potion’ rose and it does look great with the mauve and lavender colors. (Yup, we’ve definitely got insect repellent here.)
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Thank you, Barbara. 🙂
It amazes me how many flowers I find every week that have survived the heat! So I am very grateful for those I can bring indoors. 🙂
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You have such beautiful flowers in your garden 💚 I love both vases.
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Thank you, Cathy. 🙂
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You’re welcome 🙂
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Once again, your vases of flowers are beautiful! I would love to see your gardens in person. I love Abelia, but have never had one. Mosquitos and repellant – oh yes, we have both. I used to always cover myself in repellent when I went outside when I still lived in southern Oregon. And I’ve ordered a floribunda rose in a peachy color to be delivered in the spring, when I’ll plant it in front of our house.
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If some Very Clever Person could invent an instant zapper to send people on a fast trip across the world, I would love you to visit, Carol. ❤
I'm looking forward to seeing your new rose when it grows and is in flower. The colour sounds lovely, and similar to my Roald Dahl rose. 🙂
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I can’t choose a favorite between your 2 arrangements, Jo. They’re both absolutely lovely and well matched to their pretty china vases. The yellow/orange rose reminds me of ‘Joseph’s Coat’ and the Abelia reminds me of ‘Kaleidoscope’, both of which I have in my own garden.
We get mosquitoes but not in anything like the volume you do by the sound of it. I expect that’s because our climate is much drier on average that yours (although we’re plenty wet at the moment!). I do use insect repellent spray in the summer if I dare to do any work on my back slope when the dreaded fire ants are their most active.
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Thank you, Kris. I couldn’t choose a favourite between the two vases either! And I see what you mean about the Chameleon rose, it is like Joseph’s coat of many colours. 🙂
We recently heard that fire ants got into my state, New South Wales, but the area was cordoned off and as far as I know they were eradicated. They are supposedly extremely harmful if they bite! Have you heard such stories? I wondered if the media, as usual, over-exaggerated.
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I’ve been bitten by fire ants on at least 3 different occasions, once getting 3 dozen bites and on the other 2 occasions at least a dozen. Not only are their bites synchronized but the itch is more intense than any other insect bite I’ve experienced. Worse yet, the bites develop pus bubbles which take weeks or longer to clear up. Even with precautions (boots, gloves, long pants and sleeves, and insect repellent), I avoid spending time on my back slope when the weather gets warm and they become active. My husband sprayed at one point but, because the terrain is uneven and the property border with our neighbor in that area is covered with ivy, we’ve never been able to pinpoint the location of their nests.
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I’ve heard their bites are pretty ferocious! We had pamphlets dropped into all our letterboxes, warning us that they are deadly! I’m not sure if that’s an over-exaggeration though.
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Oh, wow – so many different wonderful flowers! Both arrangements are beautiful and full of joy, I’m sure your sister will enjoy seeing them as much as we do.
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Thank you, Tracy, and my sister did enjoy seeing the vase too, which she remembered. 🙂
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So beautiful! How wonderful have so much beauty growing right in your own garden. You do such a lovely job with the flower arranging too – you really have the touch for it.
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Thank you, Karma. 🙂
The vases always seem to come together quite well in the end, but I have flowers falling everywhere when I begin to arrange them! I am learning how to stabilise them in the vases better now, using more foliage.
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Those treasured vases are so wonderful. They bring back childhood memories for me too. And the flowers you chose are so stunning. Yes we have mosquitoes that inundate me during gardening season so we use repellent too.
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Thank you, Donna. 🙂
I think I will be using repellant more often in the next few weeks, just so as I can get some gardening done!
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Very pretty arrangements, Joanne. And I love your old-fashioned vases. I have a few from my childhood, too, which I used from my earliest memory. I’ve always loved picking flowers!
Your ‘correa’ is cigar plant or Cuphea. 🙂
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Thank you, Eliza! I knew if anyone would know if my identification was right or not, it would be you. And I have updated the post now as well. 🙂
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Wonderful vases. We have some similar plants and I have mosquitoes this winter, which is annoying. I use lemon eucalyptus repellent. We have Correa here and a lot of Mona Lavendar. No roses though I enjoyed seeing yours. I love Alyssum and Dianthus, too they are cool season annuals here.
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Oh I do hope the mozzies disappear by the time winter is here! I will be using a lot more repellent, I think.
What temperature range do you have in your cool season? The Dianthus and Alyssum has been in flower since spring, which is when I planted them. I can’t remember if they flower during winter here though.
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It’s raining again, so more mozzies here! Temps are 10-25C generally in winter.
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That sounds similar to our winter temps here.
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Oh my goodness, what bounty, Joanne. albeit on a compact scale – definitely worth your precautions against the mosquitos!! What lovely memories the vases generated for you too
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Thank you, Cathy. I have had my eye on these small flowers for a while, so it was good to see how pretty they looked in the vases I chose. ❤
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And they flower over the whole season, do they?
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You have such a lovely variety of flowers Joanne and both of your vases are simply gorgeous! I had to go back and look at everything again, and again! The vase itself with the pansies is so pretty – the memories attached to it are an added bonus. Hope you can beat the mosquitoes again soon for another foray through your summer garden. And yes, we do have insect repellant here too thank goodness! The smell is awful, but if it gets to bad we revert to it every summer too. 😃
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Oh, I go back and look at photos of flowers I see in blog posts several times too! It’s great to know you enjoyed my flowers enough to do the same here. ❤
As much as I hate the smell of the repellant too, plus it always makes me sneeze, I will definitely use it again to go into the garden during the cooler hours. 🙂
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I wonder where and when your vases were made? Each of your arrangements colour themed are pretty. We do have insect repellent here in the UK, but rarely have to use it. Sometimes in high summer around large areas of water, you can get midges, and sometimes there can be mosquitoes as well. I only get bitten once or twice a year.
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I wonder where my small vases were made too. The small imitation washbowl and dish came from my inlaws house, and although my mother-in-law apparently doesn’t have dementia, she doesn’t seem to remember anything she owned before she went into aged care. But the vase with the pansies on was my mother’s. I don’t know when she got it, but I always remember her having it in the house when I was young, and it was often used.
I think I should move to England to get away from the mozzies! 😉
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Such pretty flowers ❤️. They make me look forward to spring and summer.
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I am looking forward to spring and summer in the Northern Hemisphere too, so I can enjoy photos of the array of flowers my blogging friends are growing. 🙂
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