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. ❤
When I went out into the garden this morning, I could see evidence of the seasons changing. The past week has been a tad cooler, especially overnight; it rained all weekend, but today has reverted back to summer weather.
Regardless of the warmer day, the roses in particular have decided it’s time to prepare to bid summer farewell. New growth has slowed, the rose bushes are less lush than they have been, and some seem to have given up producing new buds. Others, however, are putting on a final display before going dormant for a short period.
Olivia Rose Austin
I still hold out hope for another vase or two of roses before winter arrives, but for today at least, my vases for Cathy’s regular Monday meme at Rambling in the Garden just had to be all about the roses, just in case the weather turns cooler again.
Another, more fully opened Olivia Rose Austin
My David Austin rose bush, Olivia Rose Austin, has grown some beauties during the past week, as has my Roald Dahl. The star of the garden this week, however, is Desdemona. She has several clusters of both open blooms and tiny buds, so I chose several to bring indoors. Desdemona has only been in my garden since last spring, yet she already seems very happy and has continually flowered right throughout the hottest months of the year.
Pale yellow Roald Dahl, named for the author.
Sadly, because the heat has affected some of the rose blooms, the petals will begin to drop within a couple of days. At least I have plenty of photos to look back on during winter, when my rose bushes are bare.
I wonder if these Roald Dahl rose buds will open, now they are indoors?Desdemona has become the unexpected ‘star’ rose of this summer’s garden.
The gerberas are still flowering, so I brought in all of the fully formed flowers to add to the pink vase. Last week, the gerberas reminded me of Happy Shining People – this week’s photo looks like Fireworks! ~~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAWuBSq8rLc
The pink roses vase is now in the formal lounge room at the front of the house. After gardening in the heat this morning, when I began to trim back a few leafless rose branches to get a head-start on winter pruning, it took a while for me to cool down again, even after several glasses of water and a shower. Once my body temp was back to normal, I enjoyed a cup of tea and read a chapter of a book while sitting beside the pink roses vase.
In another vase, I arranged the Roald Dahl roses with several stems on Society Garlic. They have such pretty flowers when clustered together in a vase.
Dainty Society Garlic flowers.
And the Roald Dahl roses vase is in the main thoroughfare of the house. If I don’t have a vase of flowers on this stand nowadays, it feels like there’s something missing from the room!
Roald Dahl roses with Society Garlic flowers for contrast.
My final, tiny vase, containing oddments of a Love Potion mauve rose and a couple of short stems of Roald Dahl and Lavender is beside my desk.
A small collection of flowers to brighten up my office.
Just a side-note – even using WordPress Reader to comment, I am noticing some of my comments are still not showing up! So if you see that I have “liked” your post, please check your spam comments to see if that is where my comment has gone. This ongoing commenting issue is extremely frustrating, to say the least. I only follow blogs that I enjoy reading, so being unable to communicate with my blogging friends at random times has become quite disheartening. So if you don’t mind persevering and searching for my wayward comments, I am hopeful that the problem will rectify itself in time. Fingers and toes crossed!
Meanwhile, don’t forget to visit Cathy to admire her Monday vase post; her garden in the UK is breaking out in beautiful springtime blooms! 🙂
In My World 