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 wanted to take the opportunity to show you a dinner plate dahlia which has been catching my eye in the Cutting Garden for a few weeks now. Unlike the lovely sounding Cafe Au Lait, the uninspiring name of this one  – Mom’s Special –  meant that I was slightly reluctant to order it back in February.  I kept finding myself drawn to the lovely photo in the catalogue though and decided to give it a go. Unless you like enormous dahlia flowers (and I love them), this is not the dahlia for you! She really is producing bloom after gorgeous bloom the size of a large dinner plate.

After cutting my bounty I wanted to make the most of the lovely evening light by photographing the arrangement outside. Looking for a suitable spot away from direct sunlight I came across a chair that I had put in the woodland yesterday, when I needed  a cup of coffee and a break from gardening. I have not photographed the woodland since the heady days of spring and you can see that in the late summer it is little more than weeds – a complete contrast to the Cutting Garden where these flowers were cut from neat beds.  It is cool and private though so I often spend a few minutes sitting in the shade there when I am gardening. As winter approaches it is all due a good weed and mulch with leaf mould, ready to look its best during the bulb season.

To support Mom’s Special in this vase I have added the anemone flowering dahlia Blue Bayou, cosmos Purity, amaranthus and the airy flowers of knautia.

After the storm last Friday and drizzle all day Saturday I have been making the most of the damp conditions to start preparing my beds for planting bulbs and biennials. There is plenty of weeding to be done and I have started splitting and moving perennials that I earmarked for renovation earlier in the summer. All my bulbs are ordered and I am waiting for delivery so that I can get on with planting them. Last year I spent much of the cold damp Npvember kneeling on the wet ground planting bulbs and I am determined to be ahead of the game this year!

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks vase. I will be back later this week to show you the beds that I have been working on and to talk about my spring bulb order. For tonight I hope you will pop over to Cathy’s blog and see what she and the others have made today.