Welcome to this week’s ‘In A Vase On Monday’ when I am linking up with Cathy at Rambling In The Garden to join her challenge to fill a vase from the garden for the house every week.
After what feels like a very long break I am delighted to be back at home and joining in again with this weekly habit of making a vase of flowers from my garden. This week I must confess that I made the vase yesterday morning and gave it as a present to a lovely new friend to decorate her table at a garden party in the afternoon. I will excuse myself on the basis that we are only just back in the UK and I have heaps of shopping, laundry and housework to do to get our lives back on course. I really did not want to miss out again this week, so decided to compromise by stretching the rules a little.
The mood of the garden has changed during my absence – it certainly feels like high summer now. All of my early summer beauties have faded from the scene to be replaced by the later summer bloomers including phlox, dahlias and echinacea. On my return I was delighted to welcome the first snapdragon blooms of the year to my Cutting Garden and these provided the spiky focus for my hand tied bouquet yesterday.
On such a hot day I was in the mood for some cool green and white shades. Having picked a handful of white snapdragons I then added white phlox, ammi majus and sedums to my basket.
To provide a contrast I decided to sacrifice some blackcurrants before the birds get to them. I am having a real love affair with unripe fruit at the moment, adding raspberries, blueberries, blackberries and branches of crab apples to most of my arrangements.
I also picked a few fresh fern leaves to provide a ‘collar’ around the arrangement. When making a hand tied bouquet it gives a neat finish if you surround the base of the flowers with an edging of greenery.
The sedum I used is the traditional ‘Autumn Joy’, which I like best when the flower heads have developed fully but have not yet started to colour up. I also used some of my second crop of ammi majus. The first crop, which was grown from overwintered plants, finished flowering whilst I was away and now needs to be pulled out. This second crop has much smaller flowers, but is still as pretty in bouquets.
The snapdragons were started off in the greenhouse in February so it has been a long wait to see the flowers. I love snapdragons and have planted three varieties this year: Antirrhinum White Giant, Liberty Classic Crimson and Apple Blossom.
I have kept this weeks post quite short whilst I ease myself back into a normal routine (if there is such a thing during school holidays!). We had a lovely break in Florida, spending time with my husbands family and enjoying eating out, sailing and trips to the beach. It is always hard to say goodbye to everyone at the end of our trips – the time goes far too quickly. I have much to catch up with in the garden now I am back and I will be paying particular attention to the Cutting Garden for the next month as I am growing flowers for a wedding in early September.
I hope you will find time to visit Cathy’s blog to see what she and the increasing numbers of participants in this lovely challenge have made this week.
Insert your profile info here, by going to Users -> Your Profile -> Biographical Info. Profile image (avatar) comes from gravatar.com. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam faucibus ornare lectus nec cursus.
I admire your limited color palette with textural interest supplied by the shape and variety of flowers. Simple elegance. The use of berries is a nice touch Julie.
Thank you Susie.
Hi Julie ,
All your blooms seems to have been waiting for your arrival. The whole arrangement look so pure with that colour scheme….be it texture, colour and shape. Happy to read you enjoyed and waiting to see more of your garden news. And a big thank you for the guidelines on sweet peas as I managed to get few bud now 🙂 and few wild varieties of flowers and dahalias.
I am so pleased that you have some sweet pea flowers Sajina – keep picking them and hopefully they will flower until the autumn.
Ok Julie 🙂
Really beautiful photos of your flowers. And nice that you are back 🙂
Thank you Nina.
I think your limited colour scheme is very restful and just right for high summer. Did the tall white Antirrhinums come from Sarah Raven? The ones I have are short but they also need training for their stems. Staking is something I need to think about early for next year. If you had been picking the Ammi would they have continued flowering for longer? Sorry so many questions. Christina
Thank you Christina.
Yes – my white antirrhinums came from Sarah Raven. I usually find that I need to make two sowings of hardy annuals like ammi to keep them going all through the summer. However much I pick the early sowing always seem to run out of steam around mid July. By making a second sowing in June I can keep picking hardy annuals into the autumn.
Not only is the choice of cool and refreshing colours lovely – but the way you have arranged them in a tied bouquet is most effective. I really like the blackberries as a little “extra” to catch the eye. Very tasteful and pretty!
Thank you Cathy – I think the fruit is like a little ‘surprise’ in a simple bouquet.
That is a beautiful vase, and thank you for the reminder that white snapdragons are so pretty too. Great idea to add the berries.
Thank you Janet – snapdragons are also very long lasting in a vase so well worth growing.
I am really getting a taste for white and green arrangements Julie, and must make a note of white antirrhinums for next year – they look gorgeous in bud. And what a good idea to use the sedum heads before they open. Using the blackberries is a nice touch too – sharing our ideas is proving to be a real eye opener and one of the reasons why this meme is so enjoyable. Welcome back!
Thank you Cathy – I am glad you enjoyed my flowers this week – it is so nice that we are all inspiring each other with our combinations.
I’ m glad you had a lovely holiday, Julie. I love your beautiful cream and white arrangement.
Thank you Chloris – I am glad to be home and back in my garden!
Oh how pretty Julie. The blackcurrants make a most attractive finishing touch. They seem to ripe very early this year. Sounds as if you had a brilliant holiday.
Thank Anna – we did have a great time. You are right about the blackberries – all the other fruit arrived on time but the blackberries are very early. I need to have a look at the wild blackberries to see how they are progressing.