Welcome to my regular Monday post ‘In A Vase On Monday’, when I link up with Cathy at Rambling In The Garden to share what I have found from the garden today to put in a vase.

My Narcissi Paperwhite are finally flowering in the greenhouse! They seem late this year, but actually I forgot to plant them until early December, so really they are on time. I have a few more pots just coming into flower and another batch of bulbs that I planted recently in the greenhouse bed to make sure I have Paperwhites for a few weeks more.

This week I am displaying them in a zinc planter rather than a vase. I have used oasis in the planter to support the tied bunch of Paperwhites and then added Eunonymous Emerald Gaiety to fill out around the bottom of the stems. I had also cut some lovely stems of Sarcococca hookeriana, which is just coming into flower. When I made the arrangement I decided they were not necessary, so put them in their own little vase.

Paperwhite Narcissi Arrangement

I arranged the Paperwhites in a globe shape, cut the stems to the same length and tied them together with a ribbon.

Narcissi Paperwhite Arrangement

I used small stems of Euonymous Emerald Gaiety to push into and cover the oasis base. You can also see the stems of Sarcococca that I cut and put in a separate vase.

I have so far been underwhelmed by the scent of Sarcococca in my garden, but have just discovered in the last weeks that if you bring the stems into a warm house they release the most delicious scent. I think from now on I will forget wandering around a cold garden sniffing the air trying to catch a scent and just fill my house with the branches of scented shrubs. I have my eye on Viburnum Bodnantense Dawn next – I noticed that it has some lovely buds.

Euonymous Emerald Gaiety

The newly opened Paperwhite flowers are very fragrant. Fortunately they have a scent that I love although, as with hyacinths, not everyone likes the smell.

Narcissi Paperwhite

The zinc planter was a bargain buy from Sainsbury’s last summer. The lace ribbon came from the White Company (sadly I have almost run out) and the lace table cloth is from a small collection I have been building up from a lovely vintage outlet in the village of Clare, Suffolk.

Euonymous Emerald Gaiety

In the pile of books I have used you can see one of my current favourites, The Garden In Winter by Suzy Bales. I find that the more years I spend gardening the more I appreciate the winter season. I love winter flowering shrubs, flowers and bulbs and am looking forward to making the most of them this year by bringing them into the house. Every year I add more to the garden and finally the first ones that I planted when we moved here four years ago are starting to look more mature. I still have a way to go though to realise my dreams of a winter walk in my small woodland.

I hope you will have a look at what Cathy and her other readers have put into their vases. I will be back next week with another selection from my winter garden.