Autumn has arrived! However, the daytime weather seems to have not read the memo yet, and the humid, damp days continue. Nights are cooler though, which continues to affect the garden: the Frangipani tree branches look barer with each passing day and the rose bushes continue to lose foliage without much regrowth at all.

I started to collect a few stems from the garden as my contribution to Cathy’s In a Vase on Monday post yesterday, between showers of rain. The Verbena Polaris continues to bloom and is looking healthier now than it has all summer.

There is so much new growth on my Camellia shrub that I needed to trim a few branches which were beginning to encroach on a walkway … and kept a few for my vase. I also noticed buds beginning to form, so took care not to take any of those branches. The foliage is beautiful and glossy, but you will notice the telltale signs of insect nibbles and heat scorch on the leaves. Hopefully, this will end as the weather cools.

When I was hunted back indoors by a downpour of rain, I left the cuttings in a container of water on the kitchen bench. By the time rain – which developed into a storm – had stopped, the garden was in darkness.

This morning I cut a few stems of a Tibouchina shrub called ‘Peace Baby’. Every year after flowering finishes I cut the shrub back hard. It begins growing again almost immediately, which shows the hardiness of the plant.

I knew I had a rose bush in bloom that I haven’t brought in for a vase before. I think I have mentioned before that the blooms don’t last long in the summer heat, so there was only one stem suitable to bring indoors. It is slightly affected by heat, but has two pink buds beside the open flower. The buds probably won’t open, but they look very pretty just as they are.

When I added the David Austin ‘Heritage’ rose to my vase, it crossed my mind that I should follow Cathy’s example by adding a prop to give meaning to the vase. My own heritage, although I was born in Australia, is English, but I don’t have a Union Jack to display. Hmm, what would tie into my British heritage, I wondered?

Although I hadn’t planned on adding any Desdemona roses, there she was, as usual, waving her beautiful white blooms at me! It would have been rude not to bring her indoors too. 😉

The vase needed a little “something else”, so back outside I went and picked all the pink Gerberas I had in the garden. These are all new blooms since last week, which shows have fast they flower.

When I placed the vase where it will be on display in the family room this week and took a photo, I didn’t realise that I had inadvertently discovered a prop for my English heritage, albeit a sad mention … let me explain.

As you can see, I have turned the page of the calendar, which now shows the month of March – the first official month of autumn here in Australia. Usually, I would have cropped out the top shelf of the stand, which contains some of my recipe books, but look closely … there lies my heritage.

The world heard the sad news last week of the passing of Dave Myers, one half of the cooking duo The Hairy Bikers. I always enjoy watching Dave, along with Simon King, joking their way through the dishes they cook during their biking journeys. And both Dave and Si are from England, specifically the north of England, which is where my heritage lies. I will continue to enjoy watching reruns of episodes from The Hairy Bikers – the food they make, and their strong northern accents reminds me of my parents, who arrived in Australia with my three sisters several years before I was born. ❤

Not wishing to end on such a sad note, I will now share the tiny vase of flowers I picked to sit beside my desk in my office. You will notice in the photo above, just one tiny Brachyscome ‘Mauve Bliss’. There are three in the vase, but the others are lost beneath the Gazanias!

To add context to the size of the flowers, the vase is only 6.5cm. tall, and the roses are miniatures. The peachy coloured rose bush has the most flowers in bloom just now and I really love this gentle shade of peachy colour.

When I dead-headed the Love Potion rose, I found there was only one flower suitable for a vase this week.

And the purple Salvia adds a touch of background interest.

So they are my two vases for this first week of autumn’s contribution to In a Vase on Monday. Don’t forget to visit Cathy, and other Monday vase contributors during this week to admire the new flowers that are springing out of the ground and adorning branches in the Northern Hemisphere. 🙂