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 weeks contribution to Cathy’s lovely meme was put together in the late afternoon today. I have been tidying beds and planting bulbs in the Cutting Garden today, as well as dead heading my dahlias quite ruthlessly in the hope of protecting them from the approaching storm. When I realised the time it was a case of picking very quickly – before I lost the daylight completely. These early evenings are still catching me out on an almost daily basis!
The flowers that I grabbed from the Cutting Garden were prepped in the kitchen (by removing all the foliage along the stems and recutting the stem at an angle) and then placed into this tall white jug. I also floated a large flower head of the dahlia Lilac Time in a stemmed Bonbon bowl to show you just how big this dahlia can be. I then rushed outside with the flowers to catch the last of the light and quickly took my photos in the rain as the evening started to draw in.
This mix of flowers – dahlias, cosmos, annual clary, stocks and knautia reminded me of a woven floral tapestry.
Lilac Time is my favourite dahlia this year! It manages to be both elegant and graceful despite being so large. I just had to stop and take a few extra shots to try and capture her beauty.
The other dahlia I chose today is called Purple Gem – a Cutting Garden staple for me. Sadly I could not get the colour right in the photographs. It is a true purple, but appears more pink than purple in these shots.
I am lucky to still have plenty of cosmos and annual clary to pick – both of these flowers were self sown in the Cutting Garden this year.
I am also enjoying the flowers of a late sowing of 10 week stocks, which are looking very fresh in the fading cutting beds. These were sown in July just before we left for our holiday and have been in flower for a couple of weeks now.
I will be keeping my fingers crossed tonight that the predicted winds do not do too much damage to the Cutting Garden. My shelter belt of yew hedges around the perimeter are still quite young, but they are providing some shelter from the wind these days. I was encouraged to read recently that in theory a hedge is a better windbreak than a wall, as wind can be channelled over a solid wall whereas it will pass through a hedge with the force taken out of it.
I am very busy in the garden right now tidying borders and planting bulbs. I think I have said before that I find November and December very bad months to be in the garden, so I like to get as much done as possible in the hopes of hanging up my boots for a couple of months. In the Cutting Garden I am clearing fading plants out of beds, weeding and mulching and replanting with bulbs and biennials sown earlier in the summer. In the Vegetable Garden all the summer crops have been lifted and eaten or stored. The winter crops are well covered, compost is being spread over empty ground and all that is left is to plant my garlic and broad beans. I am sorry that I have been absent from Peonies & Posies for the last week and that I have not been visiting all your lovely blogs much – I really am prioritising getting the garden under control for a few weeks!
This week I hope to be back on Friday, when I will be talking about my plans for the Cutting Garden next year. In the meantime I hope you will pop over to Cathy’s blog to see what she and the others have made this week.
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Gorgeous! A real (last) taste of summer with all those luscious pinks and mauves. Hope the storm isn’t too bad… it’s on its way to us now, so I shall be dashing around the garden tomorrow I expect, tying things up and cutting things down before it arrives!
Thank you Cathy – with the clocks changing tonight it really does feel like the summer is over! The storm passed over without too much damage and better weather followed – I hope it was the same for you.
Those colors are just gorgeous: so clean and vibrant and alive. Loving your late season choices here!
You’re out planting bulbs? Hmmm I finally got around to ordering mine yesterday! I probably won’t plant until early December. I managed to find some Jan Reuss!!! Only one nursery here in the States sells them, so I bought 50. We will see!!
I am glad to hear you have managed to find Jan Reus Libby – it is such a common tulip here. I hope it flowers well for you!
I adore your vases and your stunning photos especially of the dreamy dahlias….really beautiful!
Thank you Donna!
Beautiful jug of flowers Julie! It’s easy to see why you like Lilac Time so much. I think I’m enjoying your cutting garden almost as much as you. I always find good tips/recommendations here. The annual clary is something I’m not familiar with but I like its structure and stocks remind me of a favorite gardener I knew. Hope the winds are gentle.
I am really pleased that you are finding all this useful Susie – annual clary is also known as salvia viridis and is available in white or pink, although I have only ever grown the purple. It is a very easy and prolific flower to grow from seed.
Hope the winds weren’t too damaging Julie. All the colours look superb in your vase today. The Clary does combine really well with the Dahlias, I’d never have imagined that it would. My bulbs arrived yesterday to time to start sorting and planting.
Good luck with your planting Christina – mine is going well now that the soil has been softened by some rain.
Your Dahlias are beautiful, they look really good with the knautia and Clary Sage too. We have a lot of wind and rain here this morning, hoping as well it does not do too much damage to your garden.
Thank you Julie – cutting the large heads off the dahlias helped a lot – they all came through standing!
You have indeed been busy – I tend to be in and out so much with other things and probably never have a full day in the garden these days. Ten week stock sounds a great do-er for the cutting beds, and I need to try harder with clary sage as that bluey purple looks stunning with your dahlias and cosmos – a lovely vase, as always. Hope your garden is unscathed by storms – it is a little blustery here today, but the earlier rain has stopped and the sun is out now.
I think not having many full days is my problem too Cathy – I often think that managing this garden would be so much easier if I had a few uninterrupted days. You might want to try setting off a tray of clary sage now in the greenhouse. I have some that I sowed two weeks ago that are up and forming nice little plants. I will pot them on and keep them under cover for the winter and hope for some early flowers next spring. I am hoping they might even cross over with the latest of the tulips, although that is unlikely.
I have found I did still have some clary seed (Oxford Blue) so I shall sow some this week – thanks for the prompt 🙂
Your flowers make me think of summer, Julie. Good luck powering through your garden chores!
Thank you Kris – I am still working hard and hope to have it finished soon.
A stunning arrangement and gorgeous photos as ever Julie.
Any tips for getting your clary to grow tall? Mine have been good, but a little short, so any tips welcome.
And please don’t tell me how much you’re cracking through in the garden, I’m sitting inside with a chest infection getting NOTHING done! Ah well at least I get to read my gardening books….
I am so sorry to hear you are not well and hope you are a bit better by now. There is nothing more frustrating than being ill when you want to be out working in the garden! I am sorry but I do not have any tips on height – mine grows to about the height of a lavender bush in flower. It is a bit taller where it has self sown in slightly shady positions though so possibly you could try growing it in a few different spots to see if that makes any difference.
Hope that your garden has come through unharmed by today’s dreadful weather Julie. Your cut flowers are looking remarkably fresh for this time of year. Annual clary was one of the first flowers I grew from seed. I’d forgotten how attractive and must sow it again 🙂
Thank you Anna – I think it is easy to overlook annual clary. I tend to forget about it until I cut it for a vase and then I am reminded of its beauty and of how well it goes with so many other flowers.
So lovely flowers and beautiful pictures! Love it!
Have a great weekend,
Titti