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! 🙂
As the last of the summer flowers begin to call it quits until spring, I collected flowers for today’s In a Vase on Monday, hosted each week by Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, that I may not see many of for the next few months, while the weather is cooler.
The Hydrangea shrubs look extremely healthy since the weather began to cool slightly; however, the flowers are looking just a tad battle-weary. They have been fighting the hot summer’s days for a while now, and are preparing to hibernate for winter. I still love their huge, showy blue blooms though, and picked nearly all the flowers that were left on the shrubs, bar a couple that may still grow larger.
The vase I chose for the Hydrangeas is one I had forgotten about! It lives in the guest bedroom, an old-style wash jug and basin with a dainty blue design. The design can just be seen in the first photo as a reflected image, so another day I will choose flowers to display in the vase that don’t insist on hiding the design!
The intricate detail of each flower, made up of several tiny, individual, flower-like sections is a wonder of nature, as far as I am concerned. Every year, I have to take at least one close-up of a flower.
On the wall in the guest bedroom, I have a canvas of a vase of hydrangeas, which can be seen on the wall behind the vase. The vase is sitting on top of a chest of drawers.
And here is a close-up of the picture. I really am a sucker for all things “Hydrangea” related.
As I have mentioned previously, the flowering season for the roses I adore is drawing to a close also, so I wanted to take full advantage of showing some more roses before they end.
This week, I have mainly David Austin’s ‘Roald Dahl’ roses in the vase, and as you can see, this photo shows some of the imperfections caused by summer heat and hungry insects.
David Austin’s ‘Jude the Obscure’ is also showing signs of heat affected petals. In spring, however, when the roses begin to bloom again and the weather isn’t quite as hot as in summer, the roses will look … well … just as pretty, but with less imperfections.
A cluster of Periwinkles growing beneath the shade of a Frangipani tree have recently started blooming, so I added a few stems to the vase, along with a pale pink salvia that has also just started to flower again.
In a tiny vase – a miniature wash jug and basin – I chose an assortment of miniature roses, mainly ‘Chameleon’, and one lilac ‘Love Potion’ which can be seen at the front of the vase.
The deep purple Tibouchina flower is from a recently planted shrub. Being such a young plant, I hadn’t expected it to flower so soon, so these beauties are a lovely surprise.
The daisies are beginning to flower again now. I have two plants of this gorgeous deep salmon-orange colour, and these two are the first on one of the plants. Before long, I will have enough daisies in bloom to fill a whole vase. 🙂 And on the right is a purple salvia.
As always, the tiny vase will spend the next few days beside my desk. Last week’s vases lasted until the end of the week – five whole days – which is a huge improvement on previous summer flowers, which started dropping after a couple of days. Now the weather is cooling, the flowers are much happier when they are brought indoors.
Also, since the weather has been slightly cooler, I have been spending more time in the garden. So if I temporarily go missing, as I have this past week, you know where I’ll be. 😉
Well, aren’t I glad arranged a brand new vase on Saturday morning as I had guests arriving in the afternoon – today is an absolute scorcher! Indoors is 28 degrees Celsius, outside is 34 degrees, yet our weather station in the kitchen – I love it as it keeps us up to date with actual details of the weather in our garden – says it “feels like” 40.3 degrees. I checked, and the conversion to Fahrenheit is 104.54F!
I am indoors today, adding my ‘In A Vase on Monday’ post, hosted by Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, with doors and windows closed and ceiling fans going in every room. We don’t have aircon. I always think that for the few days of unbearable heat we have here each year, I will survive without it; on days like today, I question my wisdom!
It was hot enough on Saturday morning as well, as evidenced by the scorched rose petals. I collected my vase of flowers in a hurry, while also deadheading as I went along; I also used the same vase as last week for the sake of speed – I had guests arriving soon – so hope I am forgiven for being boring. The roses I salvaged one or two of were Olivia Rose Austen, Souvenir de la Malmaison and Jude the Obscure. I feel dreadful about leaving my plants so badly unattended, but with this summer heat, I have no choice. 😦
I deadheaded far more Gerberas than I brought inside. A couple of red flowers had damaged stems, so they were placed right down low, beneath the foliage.
As you can see, some of the Gerberas are a tad frazzled, but the Verbena Polaris are loving the heat!
It was good to see that some Society Garlic ‘Tulbaghia’ flowers had survived, although most had fallen over and died in the heat. With flowers this pretty, I must plant some more when the weather cools.
For a greenery backdrop, I decided to try some sprigs off my Lilly Pilly tree. This variety may be Weeping Lilly Pilly ‘Waterhousea floribunda’, but as the flowers are not fully formed yet, I can’t be sure. I planted the tree around fifteen years ago, and can’t remember the details of its name. I do recall, however, that it was in a large pot near my back door, not looking healthy at all, so I decided to plant it in my (then) newly-built garden. It took off! And now it is a fully-fledged tree.
Previously, I have only added closeup shots of my vase and flowers, and from comments, I’ve realised that a full view is needed to add perspective of the size of the vase and flowers. So today, here is a full view of the vase in situ, in the living room at the front of the house. 🙂
When the larger vase was full, I had a few small stemmed leftovers, so I made up a smaller vase for the living room at the back of the house. My Lavender is beginning to bloom – doing a happy dance about that! – and I had a few sprigs of leftover Verbena and Lilly Pilly as well.
If we have too much rain it may upset the Lavender plants, so I am hoping it doesn’t get too wet before the season is over. From memory, this is French Lavender.
I think the Lavender and Verbena make a great team when together in a vase.
In the interests of providing perspective, here is the full view of the smaller vase. You might remember the miniature ornaments that featured in my Tiny Treasures post a couple of Mondays ago, seen here next to the vase.
I have just one more “vase” to add, and this one is from yesterday. My son, his wife and their two boys – featured modelling Christmas aprons I made late last year in this post – came to visit and swim in the pool. Later, when Masters Seven and Two (almost three) came back to the house, they presented me with four Frangipani flowers that they had picked for me.
I floated the flowers in some water immediately. 🙂
What Nana wouldn’t want to save as beautiful a memory as that? ❤
Thank you for getting me out in my hot garden, again, to choose flowers, Cathy! 🙂
Now the rain has passed and I can see the changing shadows each afternoon, I am reminded of the night shadows that creep across the valley just before sunset during autumn. It’s a beautiful time of year.
Late yesterday afternoon I took a few photos around the garden, and I love this deep red rose against the darkening backdrop of the garden. Red can be an “iffy” flower colour to photograph with the photo often looking over-exposed. The darkness of the day yesterday seems to have helped me achieve a true-to-colour photo this time.
I will keep an eye on this beautiful “Jude the Obscure” rose over the next couple of days as the petals unfold. It looks like the green grasshoppers I have seen on some of my plants this year may have enjoyed a tiny nibble of the pretty petals, but hopefully its just the outside petals that they munched on.
At the moment, I am having a run on university assignments. So far I have completed two recent tasks, with another due this Friday, and another due next week. My apologies (yet again!) for my tardiness in commenting. I’m at the half-way mark for this semester, then during semester 2 I will complete my final unit for the degree I am working on. 🙂
In My World 