In A Vase On Monday - Last Roses

Hello Everyone,

It's been a moment or two since I last joined in with Cathy's meme, In A Vase On Monday but it's also a long time since I spent any time in my poor neglected garden.

Not that there's many flowers in bloom now we're in October. These roses are probably the last of the year, although there's still a few hopeful buds on some of the bushes. 

The cream rose at the back is 'Patricia Kent', next to it is 'L'aiment' and the two to the front are 'Simply the Best'. There's a couple of sprigs of Viburnum 'Eve Price' tucked amongst the roses and foliage which consists of frothy fennel, pineapple sage, berried cotoneaster and a sprig from this little tree, 'Amelanchier Lamarckii

It was only planted a couple of years ago so it's still got a lot of growing to do. You can see how small it is compared with the old rowan growing behind it. The rowans have done incredibly well this year, so much so the branches are drooping with clusters of berries, said to be the sign of a bad winter to come. 

As you can see the garden has gone a bit wild over the last year and a half while we've been unable to look after it. We've had 'gardeners' in, only to see one pulling up prized plants so, for now, it's being left to it;s own devices. Although my husband is no longer able to garden, I'm hoping I will be able to get out there in the spring and sort the mess out. Well, that's the plan. 

So to see even more lovely floral offerings, from well-tended gardens, do pop over to Cathy's blog, Rambling in the Garden.

In A Vase On Monday

Afternoon Everyone,

It's been quite a while since my last In A Vase On Monday post. Mainly because it's been too cold, too windy, too wet, too stormy and just too awful to go looking in my garden for suitable material. In fact, I've been making do with potted plants, including a rather lovely poinsettia, for indoor colour over the last few weeks.  Today, however, I ventured out to pick fresh herbs - rosemary, savory and bay leaves - to add to a pot of soup I was making,  and that's when I spotted the winter jasmine just coming into bloom. 

And had I not been lured down the garden to pick the jasmine, I wouldn't have seen the hellebore flowers too.

They look so cheerful when just about everything else in the garden is either dead or dormant. I've added a few sprigs of myrtle to fill out the arrangement. 

For more seasonal and beautiful arrangements follow this link to Cathy's blog, Rambling In The Garden. You will find it well worth looking. 

Take care and have a lovely week. 

In A Vase On Monday - The Last of the Daffodils

Hello Everyone,

It's been a few weeks since my last IAVOM posting. Not because there has been no material ripe for picking - instead life got in the way for a while there and trips round the garden have had to wait.

In the meantime, the garden has been looking particularly cheerful due to the many daffodil and narcissus bulbs hubby has been adding to each autumn.

I teamed up these last few with some twigs from the Osmanthus x burkwoodii with tiny but deliciously scented white flowers splitting them up between three glass bottles that are just the right size to fit along this mantel shelf.

I don't think there will be many more daffodils in bloom by next Monday but that's okay because we have tulips in bud just waiting their turn.

Such promise.

Many thanks for visiting and have a lovely day.

In A Vase On Monday - The Last of the Roses

I wasn't going to join in with In A Vase On Monday today, at just 2 degrees above freezing it was too cold to venture out into the garden, that was until I read it was the 4th Anniversary of Cathy's meme - I couldn't let that pass without celebrating. Like so many, I have to admit that this weekly display of vases has made a difference to the way in which I view the plants and flowers I grow in my garden. Not that I've been participating these last few weeks ... not only is it too cold, and dark for most of the day, but after taking a tumble recently I've not been able to potter about as much as I would normally. And that means I've not been out to pick anything today so I thought I'd post this arrangement from a couple of weeks ago.

It's not a particularly wonderful arrangement but it includes the last of the cream 'Patricia Kent' roses. Our roses have gone on blooming long after what is normal this year. Here we are in the middle of November and Pride of England is still flowering with no hint of giving up yet. Perhaps the the drop in temperature last night - zero degrees - might put a stop to them.

There's a single white dahlia - 'Moulin Rouge' without the rouge. A bit of a mystery that. Neither of the two blooms we got from that tuber were true to the description given or the illustration on the pack. However, as I'm such a failure at dahlia growing any bloom was at bonus. The last of geum 'Mrs Bradsaw 'and crocosmia 'Okavango', though very badly arranged, added a bright autumnal touch to the cream blooms.

The Denby pottery vase the flowers are in is another of my many charity shop finds. I liked the subtle shades of green, the leaf pattern, and the unusual shape. I also like that it came from a Derbyshire pottery - we lived in the High Peak area of Derbyshire for a time so it's nice to have a vase to remind me of the lovely times we had there.

Hopefully, I will be able to join in again next week. Unless, that is, everything is frozen solid by then and the way the temperatures are dropping that would be no surprise at all.

Have a wonderful week whatever the temperature is wherever you are.