Australia · David Austin roses · from my garden · garden flowers · rain · roses · seasons · subtropical weather · summer · vine plants

In A Vase On Monday

Joanne

When I went into the garden this morning at 8:30 am to choose flowers for my contribution to Cathy’s meme In a Vase on Monday at Rambling in the Garden, I didn’t have any plan other than to pick roses and hydrangeas.

Armed with only secateurs and a plastic container of water to put the cut flowers in, I went straight to the main rose garden, dead-headed the old roses, and chose the best of what was available of the Olivia Rose Austin and Desdemona – both David Austin roses – and one lonely red rosebud whose name I cannot remember.

Desdemona at the front, and pale pink Olivia Rose behind.
The lonely red rosebud is now among friends.
Beautiful pale pink Olivia.

As usual, a random weed here and there distracted me, so they had to be pulled out. The gerberas have consistently flowered since … when? Late winter, perhaps. The more I dead-head the gerberas, the healthier the new flowers look, and currently, apart from being a tad bedraggled by the overnight rain, they look beautiful.

Gerberas always remind me of Shining, Happy People!

Now I have the Shining, Happy People song by REM in my head! So here’s the link, if you need to listen to it, like I just had to. 😉

Next, I went into the arbour garden, named for obvious reasons – there’s an arbour there, with a Pierre de Ronsard rose growing on either side. It’s a fairly new garden which I worked on just before The Hill Project, and I have read that it takes three to four years for the roses to cover and arbour. I will add photos of the garden soon. 🙂

There are two other roses growing in the arbour garden as well, a Jude the Obscure and a Roald Dahl. The Roald Dahl in particular needed some attention, but I did cut a couple of the roses to bring inside.

Peachy orange bloom of the David Austin rose, Roald Dahl.

Once in the arbour garden, I spent more time than I planned on doing – I couldn’t find a Gordonia tree I had planted nearly a year ago! It took some clearing of a Baby Sun Rose ground cover, which has really taken off, to find the tree. The ground cover had grown over it! The tree was bought as a tube stock plant, and was minute when I put it in the ground. The last time I checked on it, it was beginning to become established, growing healthy new leaves, so I knew it was in there somewhere. Needless to say, I removed the Baby Sun Rose, to give my Gordonia a chance to grow. I can plant more Baby Sun Rose, which is easy to strike from a cutting, when the tree is bigger.

Between pulling weeds, dead-heading spent blooms and choosing flowers, time got away on me. When it started to rain, I ran indoors feeling hot, sweaty and wet, and discovered I had spent three glorious hours in the garden. 🙂 After a shower, when I arranged the flowers, I found I had enough for three vases!

And here are the Hydrangeas ~~

Hydrangea flowers from two different plants.

Somehow, one of my Hydrangea bushes has ended up growing green flowers this year. I wonder why that is, when in previous years the flowers have been blue?

Faithful lavender always looks beautiful and smells divine!

Four Hydrangea blooms filled the vase, leaving just enough room to add a few stems of beautiful lavender.

Where’s the vase??

As you can see, the vase is almost lost beneath the showy Hydrangeas.

A few miniature roses among a Roald Dahl and Olivia Rose Austin.

A couple of roses had short stems, so they went into a tiny, plain white jug, which was another find when we cleaned out my inlaw’s house before they went into aged care. I also added some miniature roses, three Chameleon and a Love Potion rose. The purple sprays behind are ‘Walker’s Low’ Catmint, which grows in abundance around my garden and keeps the bees very happy.

With the flowers arranged, I chose three different places to display them – the Rose and Gerbera vase is in the main living area ~~

And the vase of Hydrangeas and Lavender is on the mantlepiece ~~

The final, tiny vase I decided to put in my office ~~

When my son-in-law replaced my computer recently, he suggested I move the tower and speakers, which previously lived on my desk, to a built-in shelf under the desk to free up some space. Now, I just have a set of red, metal drawers on the desk, which holds printer ink and paper – and is the perfect place for a small vase of flowers. So I thought it might be fun to add a photo of my office work area. 🙂

And from my desk, this is my view of the flowers, turned towards me ~

As always, thank you Cathy for inspiring my creativity with flowers! 🙂

Update: A Tuesday edit ~ here’s an additional photo for Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, who featured yellow/mustard coloured daffodils and narcissi in her vase this week. Cathy accompanied her vase with a tin of Coleman’s mustard, established 1814. I haven’t seen Coleman’s mustard here in Australia, but we do have Keen’s mustard. So for Cathy, here’s an additional photo, taken today ~

Next time I visit the supermarket, Cathy, I’ll see if we have Coleman’s here. 🙂

Published by Joanne

29 thoughts on “In A Vase On Monday”

  1. Beautiful arrangements, Joanne. I particularly love the hydrangeas. I’ve had blue hydrangeas that have turned pink, I’m assuming because the soil wasn’t acidic enough, but never seen one turn green.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  3. So lovely that you share your blooms at this time of year when we have nothing but snow and grey rain. Your flowers are beautiful! I especially love that little white vase full of blossoms in your office.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  4. Beautiful, as always! I am so anxious to get out and clean up our patio, get it in order so when planting time finally arrives, I’ll be ready. But first, it needs to dry out and after a few mornings of waking up to a dusting of snow, today it’s raining. And the rain is forecast to continue. My February cabin fever is doomed to continue for awhile longer.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  5. You’ve no shortage of roses, Jo! Isn’t it funny how easily you can be distracted every time you walk into the garden? I’m particularly envious of your Gerberas. Much as I appreciate all your arrangements this week, my favorite is one with the Hydrangeas in the perfectly coordinated blue and white vase.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you, Kris. 🙂
      The blue and white vase is new and I am loving using it. I had been waiting for the hydrangeas to look pretty – they had been a tad scorched by our hot days – so I could put some into this vase. When I bought it I had hydrangeas in mind, it looked perfect for them!

      Like

      Reply

  6. Beautiful arrangements, I especially love the Olivia rose. Hydrangeas are definitely a star of the show. I love when REM went on Sesame Street and performed Happy Furry Monsters (my kids were little, I don’t normally watch Sesame Street lol). ~https://tzgarden.blogspot.com/

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Tracy, I saw that episode on Sesame Street! It must have been aired in Australia when my youngest was still little. 🙂
      The Olivia rose is so lovely, I bought a second plant last year. ❤

      Like

      Reply

    1. Sweet solitude it is. ❤ I can't walk past my roses without pausing for a smell, lol. Desdemona has the strongest scent out of the roses I have in my garden. I have plenty of room to plant more, and I see they are now available for pre-ordering, for delivery in July. So exciting! I haven't decided yet what I will order – there are so many I want to buy. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  10. I loved reading about how you got distracted while looking for vase material! The Gerberas are really lovely. And you have so many pretty roses too, but that hydrangea is the highlight for me this week Joanne. The lavender goes perfectly with it. The mustard tin is remarkably similar to Coleman’s – we can’t get it in Germany so I always bring some back with me from the UK! Happy gardening Joanne!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. When the weather is cool enough to get stuck into the gardening again, if I tell you every time I lose track of time out there, I’d be telling you the same thing every post! 🙂 The hydrangeas seem to be everyone’s favourite, and when my daughter visited today, she commented on them too. ❤
      And I have looked up Coleman's mustard online, and apparently it is sold in Australia! I am putting it on my shopping list, so I hope they do have it when I go shopping. It's good that you can go back to the UK easily enough to stock up on your favourite things that are not available in Germany. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  11. It’s always a pleasure to walk through your morning garden with you, Joanne. How refreshing to spend three hours tending to so many lovely flowers and then to arrange the ones brought in so creatively. Your vases are like sunrises — no two are ever the same. 🌹

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  12. Thank you for another beautiful look at your gorgeous flowers! It must smell divine when you walk outside. I’ve just returned back to the cold north after a wonderfully warm visit to Florida and Mexico, and your flowers help bring me back to that weather.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. You’re back, Karma! I have been checking your blog to see if you had returned yet. 🙂
      I believe Florida has a similar climate to ours here, plus they have palm trees like us too.
      Looking forward to reading about your holiday. 🙂

      Like

      Reply

I'd love to hear your thoughts...