My regular blogging practice has gone by the wayside since the weather cooled. When it isn’t raining, I can be found in the garden, trimming plants, pulling out weeds, but rarely watering the garden. We have had plenty of rain lately and the garden is, if anything, over-watered.
Today I spent all day in the garden again, so took the opportunity while pruning to collect a few flowers to add to a vase for Cathy’s In a Vase on Monday.
One of my once blue flowering Hydrangea bushes has blooms at the moment which are speckled, and quite pink! I had to include these in today’s vase as they are so unusual.
An old faithful flower, the Gerberas, continues to flower, even through the rain and dropping temperatures. They really are the happiest flowers in my garden. 🙂
In the past, I have called these pretty white flowers “fluffballs”, but when I consulted the identifier app on my mobile phone I discovered they are officially called Spiraea cantoniensis ‘Double White May’, or May Bush for short, which is a much easier name to remember. I needed to trim the May Bush as the branches were growing over the driveway and hitting cars driving in and out.
And my lavender needed trimming as well – some of the branches are attempting to take over their neighbours in the garden.
Considering the plunging temperatures of late, I am surprised to see the amount of growth in the garden still. I keep expecting flowers to stop blooming and new greenery to stop growing, but the opposite is happening. I think the garden is enjoying the cooler days as much as I am. 🙂
Once again, thank you to Cathy for hosting In a Vase on Monday. 🙂
There has been a few dry days recently, with temperature reaching the low to mid twenties – my garden is so happy, and so am I! The garden is a bit of a mess in some areas with weeds overtaking any available soil space, so the first chore I have is weeding.
For my contribution to Cathy at Rambling in the Garden’s Monday vase, I picked any flowers that looked like they had survived the wet weather, and thrived since their petals dried.
Recently, another Cathy, this one at Words and Herbs, displayed her vase on a crocheted pansy doily. It reminded me of one my mother made, many years ago. I took my doily out today and I can see the main pattern is not the same as Cathy’s, but the edge is decorated by pansies. My Mum told me she didn’t have the patience to crochet the pansies, so I made those and she completed the rest. So to show Cathy my version on the doily I am adding it as today’s prop. 🙂
A few daisies are beginning to bloom again, and this week I found a single Souvenir de la Malmaison rose that was in rather good condition to add to my vase.
The red rose bush (with a forgotten name) also had a very blousy single red rose.
And I picked a few Olivia Rose Austin roses to add to the vase as well.
The man of the house complained that all the roses droop over the sides of the vase! I rather like the informality of roses with a drooping habit myself.
I feel certain that the couple of Verbena Polaris I picked are the last for this season, although I think I may have said that a couple of times recently, lol. They just keep on booming. 🙂
Likewise, I keep thinking I have seen the end of my Gerberas for a while, yet here they are again!
Although I hadn’t expected to add a second prop to my post today, Bowie had other ideas … see him there, lurking behind the flowers?
He quickly got the drift when I shooed him away. I thought he might knock over the vase – he’s a big kitty-cat!
I highly recommend a visit to both Cathy’s blogs to admire their spring flowers. So many plants are in bloom now in the Northern Hemisphere and I so enjoy seeing the varieties of plants and flowers that flourish in cooler climates. I am behind on catching up with everyone myself! But slowly, I am beginning to make my way around to each of my friends to see what they have been doing, while I have been taking advantage of the cooler weather here in Australia and catching up on chores around the house and garden. 🙂
During the past week I had often thought there would be no hope of salvaging enough floral matter – or anything worthy of display – to contribute to Cathy at Rambling in the Garden’s In a Vase on Monday this week.
The rain has been constant, every single day, and I have watched my garden from the window during constant battering’s of torrential rain accompanied by strong wind gusts.
Yesterday afternoon, however, there was a break in the rain. I dashed out into the garden to take photos of a couple of plants that didn’t look too bad to share today, thinking today’s contribution would be a post entitled something along the lines of “what could have been”, if only the weather had been kinder.
But low-and-behold, today we have sun! After having 57 ml. of rain yesterday, and around 95% to 100% humidity every day for the past week, today the humidity has dropped down into the fifty-percent range, but the day is warm, reaching 27 degrees Celsius.
I waited until the middle of the day before collecting any flowers to give the petals an opportunity to dry out a bit. I know that isn’t the recommended practice, but after the sodden mess some of the plants were in yesterday, I thought it best to wait. I had noticed yesterday that the lavender and salvias weren’t looking too much the worse for wear after the week that was, so snipped a couple for a vase. They are “old” favourites, and always look pretty in a vase.
As I paused to admire the Aloe “Pink Fairy”, which has just begun to flower – and survived the deluge of rain very well – it occurred to me that they might look pretty with the lavender and salvias. That’s my “new” addition to the vase.
Don’t they look lovely? I don’t think the little buds have fully opened, considering the tiny bell shaped flowers at the lower part of the stem and the closed buds above, so it will be interesting to see if they open now they are indoors.
The last Hydrangea flower on one of my bushes looked too lonely to be left alone, so it had to join the vase as well. Surprisingly, I have two “new” hydrangea buds on this plant, so will keep watching them to see if they fully develop at this time of year.
I remembered when Cathy displayed her vase last week, she noted that daylight savings had just begun in the U.K, so added an old watch as a prop. Here in Australia, we turned back our clocks this weekend just gone and are now on regular Eastern Standard Time time again, so this week, my prop is my Grandfather’s fob watch. He passed away in 1946, in England. In 1951, when my parents emigrated to Australia, Dad brought his father’s watch with him. Now, the watch belongs to me, and although it no longer works it is a possession I treasure as it was once owned by my Grandfather, who I never met.
So in acknowledgement of the end of daylight savings, I am adding my Grandfather’s “old” fob watch.
Thank you for the inspiration to add my “old” fob watch to this week’s vase post, Cathy. And as always, thank you for hosting In a Vase on Monday. ❤
Our family Easter celebrations began two weeks ago this year. My eldest son and his wife are in Bali for the long weekend, while youngest son, his wife and their two boys are in Adelaide, so we had a “whole family” get together two weeks ago for Easter. This weekend I had my two daughters and their families here. So what with one things and another, it has been a busy time.
During the past two weeks also, we have had rain nearly every day, not huge in quantity, but enough to prevent me from doing any gardening. How frustrating! Yesterday, however, when the sun shone for the first time in days, I got all my washing done. I also put my empty “bunny” vase in place last night, ready to add flowers today for my contribution to Cathy’s regular Monday event, In a Vase on Monday.
And what did I awaken to this morning? You guessed it, more rain!
Between showers, I collected a few pretties to add to my vase, although my lovely Gerberas, which I had thought were finished for the season, are a tad bedraggled again. The weight of the raindrops tends to make their delicate petals flop downwards.
Raindrops on roses – (and whiskers on kittens – sorry, I had to say it!) – on the other hand always look so beautiful. This lovely rose is a long stemmed ‘Olivia Rose Austin’; all the other roses on the bush were short stemmed, so wouldn’t suit my bunny vase.
There were a few red roses, but I only chose this one as it is fully opened. I am surprised by how many rose buds are still on all of my rose bushes, given the time of year and the number of rainy days we have had.
The Tibouchina flowers look rather stunning with raindrops on their petals as well. They are slightly weighted down by the moisture, but being stronger petals they seem to cope. I should also mention that the green foliage in the background is a few stems of Port Wine Magnolia. It isn’t in flower just now, but the foliage acted as an ideal vase filler, to hold the flower stems in place.
Being Easter, I had to add a prop of Easter eggs with my vases. The little ones all know where Nana’s stash is, and know that a simple “please” when they visit will have me sharing their “special treats”.
I read today that in the USA, there are no chocolate Easter eggs; also, there isn’t a four day long weekend over Easter, which is what we have here in Australia. So perhaps in the comments you can let me know how Easter is celebrated in other countries? 🙂
When I turned the calendar page to April today, I was surprised also to see a picture on the calendar of cows. That’s not very Easter-ish, but I do love cows. The calendar has an Australian country scene for each month, so that might be something that might interest some of you. This stand in the main living area, where I keep my recipe books – well, some of them – has become my favourite place to display my vase of flowers each week.
I have a row of various coloured Impatiens in my front garden and they have survived the hottest summer days, and now the cooler autumn days very well indeed. When we have a fine day again I will take a photo of them in the garden, as they really do look lovely.
This small vase of Impatiens sits beside me as I write. They have been indoors for about five hours now and I have noticed that the petals, now dried, look much more lively than in this photo.
It is rather late though, so I won’t take another photo. Today was another busy day, complete with visitors – who raided Nana’s Easter egg stash while here 😉 – and I am about to call it a night. I am dreadfully behind in replying to your lovely comments and also visiting everyone’s blogs, but this week I expect life to return to the usual schedule for a while.
Thank you once again, Cathy, for hosting In a Vase on Monday. ❤
There were times this morning when I thought I may have to forego my contribution to Cathy’s In A Vase On Monday this week. We have had several days of rain, and I know from past experience that with the amount of rain we’ve had, flowers need time to dry out. They look rather droopy and frazzled otherwise.
This is the scene I was met with when I reached the pink Gerberas. With heads laden with raindrops and drooping towards the ground, they otherwise looked okay … ish! I thought I’d pick them all, and see how they faired when taken inside the house and left to dry out for the day.
A very lovely Jude the Obscure rose tempted me; however, with that amount of water on her petals, I know that Jude would not be any happier indoors.
Likewise, Desdemona appears fresh and beautiful now the weather has cooled slightly, but she needs to dry before she can visit a vase indoors.
By later this afternoon, the Gerberas were beginning to dry off. Their petals are not as perfect as I have seen them in the past, but given their appearance this morning, they look much happier now.
Even the back off the Gerbera flowers are rather attractive!
Today, I gained a new appreciation for IAVOM contributors who manage to arrange a single species of flowers in a vase successfully. Who knew how difficult it would be!
When the pink Gerberas flopped to the side of the “vases” I knew I needed more flowers to hold them in place, so dashed outside again to grab a few red flowers.
A great advantage of Gerberas, however, is how photogenic these beauties are, when photographed individually. ❤
So my contribution this week to In a Vase on Monday, albeit late in the day – and using imperfect flowers – was once again an enjoyable challenge! 🙂
In My World 