Welcome to this weeks ‘In A Vase On Monday’, which I apologise for posting on Tuesday. Sometimes life seems set to thwart our best laid plans and this was certainly the case yesterday!
This week spring has arrived in the greenhouse leading the way to a change of mood in the garden. To celebrate the flowering of my potted spring bulbs I decided to move a few of the terracotta pots into more fetching containers.
These lilac ceramic pots were a birthday gift a few years ago and the large old basket came with the house and lives in the greenhouse for collecting vegetables.
I was super excited when I went into the greenhouse this weekend and saw that this lovely big pot of Iris reticulata ‘Harmony’ was finally in flower. As I had potted them up so late (late December) they are coinciding with the iris flowers that are now opening in the garden, but I love to see them up close like this and being inside the flowers are protected from the wind and rain that we have been having.
I find the flowers of Iris reticulata endlessly fascinating and I particularly love the blue of the variety Harmony. You can see photos from previous years here and here.
I have shown you these crocus before, a few weeks ago when I brought a couple of pots into the house to speed up flowering. These ones have stayed in the cooler temperatures of the greenhouse and are flowering just as my garden crocus are beginning to open. Once the bulbs are in flower the blooms will last longer if you leave them in a cool place, so I tend to leave most of my pots in the greenhouse and enjoy the beautiful flowers as I water my seedlings.
When you look at this picture you can understand why the bees are so attracted to these stunning flowers – I have some white crocus in flower in a pot outside and they are full of bees already.
I love the flowers on this pristine helleborus niger and decided it deserved a more showy pot than the black plastic one it was growing in! It is so interesting to watch the stamens increasing in length and opening out as the seed pod starts to form.
I have included this quite blurry photo of the iris as it looked to me more like a painting than a photograph.
I really love growing spring bulbs in my greenhouse – it is one of the highlights of my gardening year! I enjoy them just like this in the greenhouse on my daily trips to water my plants, I will be bringing them into the house to add a burst of spring colour over the next few weeks and they make a perfect present when I need something quick to take to a friend. I am already making plans for next years greenhouse bulb order and I will certainly be trying Christina’s excellent idea of forcing tulips next winter.
I must say a big thank you to Cathy at Rambling In The Garden for hosting this lovely meme and I hope you will pop over to her blog to see what she and the others have made this week – although as I am so late you may well have already done that!
I will be back on Friday with my monthly look at the Cutting Garden and I am very excited to tell you that the lovely team at Sarah Raven will be sponsoring a giveaway this month, so be ready to leave a comment to enter the draw!
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Gorgeous! My soul needed that shot of bright blue and violet from your gorgeous Iris and Crocus. I plan to borrow your idea and pot up a nice mass of I. reticulata for next spring. Better a day late than to miss this beauty altogether 😉 Best wishes, WG
Thank you for your lovely comment!! I hope that you do pot up some iris bulbs in the autumn for next spring – you will not regret it.
😉 I only regret not doing it back in the autumn. I’m a little envious of your beautiful pot of blooming iris this week! Thank you for sharing the photos 😉 WG
Oh, Julie, it all takes my breath away. That cerulean blue just knocks me out every time. I love your blog.
Thank you Susan – my garden iris are just coming into flower as well and it is such a joy to see that blue popping up in the borders after the grey winter months!
Such beauties! Thank you.
Thank you Cynthia.
i love the closeups of the crocus.
Thank you – I am making the most of that new lens and looking forward to a summer of flowers to practice on.
Pots of beauty Julie. It’s great being able to see bulbs close hand like that and to know that they are not going to get bashed about by the elements 🙂
Thank you Anna – it is nice to know that whatever the weather I can go into the greenhouse and enjoy a taste of spring.
Oh Julie the light on these amazing blooms is making me feel like spring might actually come. I adore purple early spring bulb blooms especially the iris reticulata. And I love how you moved them to perfect containers. As always your photos are stunning.
Thank you Donna – I really appreciate your lovely comments.
Absolutely stunning photos of such pristine blooms, Julie – the basket of iris in particular. How many bulbs are in there? What a good idea to display them in pretty containers like this – I have been appreciating my iris and hellebore in the greenhouse too (and the Paperwhites) but they are squashed in there amongst all the seedlings, still in their black plastic pots, and they deserve better than that. Like you and Christina, I am already formulating thoughts on bulbs for the greenhouse next year. Interesting observations about the stamens on the hellebore…. Thanks for sharing all this.
Thank you Cathy. I think I put 25 bulbs in a shallow round terracotta pot. I stood some plastic plant pots in the bottom of the basket as it is quite deep and placed the pot on top so that it looks like they were planted into the basket. I have never used baskets before this year to display bulbs, but am going to try and get plenty more for next year – I really like the effect.
The effect of all those bulbs really works well, doesn’t it?
Beautiful spring indulgences Julie. The flowers are sumptuous and I love the idea of you inheriting a basket when you moved into your home.
Thank you Susie – I love moving into a house and finding objects that belonged to previous owners. We still use a salt pot every day that was left in our first flat and I have inherited almost all my garden tools from previous owners of our various homes over the years.
Lovely Julie, particularly the iris basket, I can’t think of anything more beautiful. I will certainly be growing more bulbs inside next year!
Thank you Christina – I have never put iris in a basket before but I am delighted with the effect and think baskets of bulbs could solve most of my christmas present problems this year!
Beautiful. Those rich colors really shout spring and I love that you have the crocus in your header to match. The baskets are also a nice stage, I’m looking forward to seeing what you do with them next year!