Welcome to ‘In A Vase On Monday’ when I am linking up with Cathy at Rambling In The Garden to share a vase of flowers picked from my garden every Monday.
This week I needed a quick and simple vase – I have been so busy recently and arranged so many flowers over the last few days that I am ready for a little floral downtime! I am starting to plan my Cutting Garden for next year, so thought a small bowl of Cutting Garden flowers in the kitchen would inspire me to get on with this important job.
After cutting so much last week for the wedding I had expected the Cutting Garden to look quite bare. The beauty of growing cut and come again flowers, however, is that it is very hard to strip the garden. There was plenty left untouched by the wedding and the many buds on the flowers we did use last week are all bursting into flower again this week – the Cutting Garden has been barely affected by the demands of a wedding.
In the photo above you can see the tops of my Antirrhinum ‘Giant White’. These half hardy annuals have been in flower since June. Although the flower length has got shorter as the season progressed, they are still a stunning addition to a bouquet and on my list for growing next year. I also grew a red variety for the first time this year, but have not used these as much for flower arranging so will leave them off my list for next year. Although antirrhinums are a half hardy annual they grow well from an autumn sowing in the greenhouse. I will start some of these lovely plants off in the next week or two and with another batch sown in March next year I should have plenty of flowers to pick from.
My second sowing of annual cornflowers has recently started to flower and they are looking beautiful – such a fresh clear blue. These are certainly on my list for next year – I will be sowing seeds directly in the garden next week and also growing a few trays of plug plants to be kept in the cold frame for the winter as an insurance policy.
Next on my list will certainly be this annual clary – Salvia viridis ‘Blue’. One sowing of this vigorous annual will keep you in flowers all season. I cut my plants back hard when the first flush of flowers started to fade and they are all flowering again. As well as growing it in the Cutting Garden, I use this easy to grow annual as a filler for any gaps at the front of my perennial borders. Like cornflowers this annual grows well from a September sowing, but I always do a tray of plugs for the cold frame just in case the winter is very harsh.
New to me this year is this lovely half hardy annual called Didiscus ‘Blue Lace’. It has been flowering since July and is still looking lovely in the garden. Just like cosmos the more you pick the more it flowers and these flowers have proved a very useful filler for lots of vases. Started off in March and planted out in June they have been in flower since July and are on my list for next year.
My sweet peas have been fantastic this season – in flower in June they are still flowering prolifically, although on a shorter stem now. My early problems with the little black pollen beetles disappeared towards the end of July and I can happily bring in lovely scented posies again. I will be starting off some plants to grow and flower in the greenhouse soon and will sow my outdoor sweet peas again in February as that worked so well this year.
My asters have been another star of the season and I will be growing a wider variety next season. Asters are half hardy so should not be sown until next spring. I am, however, going to try and grow some plugs in the greenhouse as an experiment, in the hope of getting an early crop of this lovely flower next year.
This weeks flowers were all placed in separate little milk bottles, which I then stood inside the metal bowl. I bought a few of these metal bowls to plant bulbs in, but for the time being I am making the most of them as simple flower containers.
I hope you have enjoyed my little bowl of inspiration and thank you once again to Cathy for hosting this lovely meme – I am glad to be back this week and hope you will pop over to her blog to see what she and the others have made. I will be back later this week with photos of the wedding flowers from the weekend, which I am looking forward to sharing with you!
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Really beautiful! Can you advise, when you sow your Antirrhinum ‘Giant White’ in your greenhouse, what do you sow them in and do they then flower in the greenhouse? Is it heated too?
I will sow them into plugs and then keep the plants growing in the greenhouse throughout the winter. If they start to fill the plugs I will pot them on into larger pots and move them into the cold frame in March. They will not grow enough to flower, but when planted out in May next year they should grow away very quickly and flower much earlier than the seeds I start in March. I hope that helps Julie.
Thank you, yes that was helpful, its not a cultivar I have grown before and its beautiful, I would like to try some.
Very lovely and so many flowers to choose from that keep coming…bliss!
Thank you Donna – I just love the fact that the more you use the more you get in a Cutting Garden!
Beautiful inspiration Julie.
Thank you Susie.
Very nice!
Thank you Cynthia.
Wonderful! And inspiring too… those cornflowers are perfect!
Thank you Cathy – I love the true blue colour of a cornflower – especially in September.
Love these little compositions of several vases.
Thank you Christina – these little vases are perfect when you need to make something quickly!!
I need to catch up on your wedding flowers post, Julie – haven’t forgotten! Thanks for sharing your cutting bed thoughts – I shall get some of the clary and am intrigued by the didiscus which I haven’t come across. I have some antirrinhum seedlings from an earlier sowing which for some reason are still tiny and was wondering if they would overwinter – what do you think? I don’t plan to sow direct at all as I don’t feel I have the space, so I guess my greenhouse will be full this winter! All your flowers today look so pristine, so gorgeous – you must lavish so much attention on the, but then again they deserve it! Thanks for joining in 🙂
Thank you Cathy – I would certainly keep the antirrinhium seedlings under cover for the winter and see what happens. You just might have beautiful flowers very early – possibly even in your greenhouse if you pot them into bigger pots with fresh compost. Although I will do some direct sowing I will still have a very full greenhouse and cold frame for the winter!
Wonderful pics and info as aiways. what else will you be planting for next year? and is this the best time to plant cut and come again seeds rather than in the Spring? I love your vases…………………
Thank you Sarah – I will be writing more about what I am planting over the next few weeks. The advantage of sowing hardy annuals in September is that you will get much earlier flowers next year. I will still sow the same seeds next spring to see me through the summer and autumn – but it is nice to know I have strong young plants to put out in March. I will try to do a more detailed post early next week.