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.
Today has been a truly awful day for picking flowers! As torrential rain was predicted for the whole day I have been on a shopping trip to Cambridge with my son to ‘refresh his wardrobe’ before he starts at his new college next week. The dogs and I just made it to the Cutting Garden this morning before the rain became more than a shower and I grabbed a handful of flowers which I left drying in the kitchen whilst we were out.
I had intended to make a hand tied bouquet out of these blooms for tonight’s post but, feeling jaded from the shopping, I have decided that they look fine as they are! At this time of the year the flowers do their own talking!
My bunch today includes my very first flower from dahlia Cafe Au Lait. Cafe Au Lait is to dahlias what Kate Moss is to the catwalk. She must be the most talked about, desired and photographed dahlia of the summer – a star of many a wedding bouquet. This is the first time I have tried to grow Cafe Au Lait and, as I had read that she is shy to flower, I have not been concerned by her late appearance. I generally find that the first flower on a dahlia tends to be quite small so I expect she will get bigger and more blowsy as she gets into her stride. I am so proud to have my very own Cafe Au Lait that I had to show her off immediately!
Along with Cafe Au Lait I have picked a few blooms of the David Austin rose Gentle Hermione, quite a few blooms of my current favourite aster the pale peach Tower Chamois, cosmos Purity and a few white snapdragons.
Gentle Hermione is a new rose to me, planted in the Cutting Garden early in the spring. Despite this being her first year she has flowered well repeatedly throughout the summer. The blooms seem to be quite weather resistant which is always a plus in a cutting garden rose.
Above is the lovely dahlia Cafe Au Lait again. This pale coffee colour is very unusual – although the asters are peach coloured they appear slightly pink against Cafe Au Lait.
My cosmos is really getting going now. I grow both single and double whites and the zingy orange ‘Bright Lights’. I plant cosmos anywhere in the garden where I see a gap, as it seems to thrive in all kinds of conditions and can be relied upon to fill a space with its light airy stems from August until the first frosts.
Finally a close up of the pale peach aster Tower Chamois. Annual asters do not seem to feature in the flower wish list very often but I love them. They can be grown in all shades and with these incurved petals they look so much like a chrysanthemum. They are the flowers most often commented upon when I use them in a bouquet. These have come from a late sowing in May, but seed started under cover in February will be in flower in June and they repeat well as long as you dead head regularly.
On this, the last Monday of the summer holidays, my thoughts are now turning to September with the promise of a new gardening year to plan for. With a sharpened pencil and a new notebook the first job on my list is to finalise my bulb plans and get the order placed. I will start planting narcissi and bulbs for indoor pots in the second half of September. Next on the list is to order some early flowering sweet pea seeds and to review my stock of annual seeds and fill any gaps. I will be sowing hardy annuals direct in the Cutting Garden and in the greenhouse later in September and sowing sweet peas to grow in the greenhouse in October. I also have lots of biennials sown in June which are ready to plant out as space becomes available.
My aim is to try and have flowers to cut for as many months of the year as possible. At the moment the Cutting garden is producing buckets of blooms and this should continue until well into October. I will be bringing my chrysanthemum cuttings into the greenhouse soon and hope to have these in flower for October and November. If I plan my bulb planting correctly the first batch of Paperwhites should be flowering in December to follow on from the last chrysanthemums. I am also busy drying hydrangea heads and collecting poppy seed heads and alliums to store for winter vases.
Before you head off to make lists of all the jobs needed in your gardens I hope you will find the time to pop over to Cathy’s blog and see what she and the others have produced this week.
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Tower Chamois is a star with its gentle peach color. Also Cafe Au Lait is very fine. Would never know you’d just grabbed a few flowers before coming in out of the rain. They seem perfectly chosen.
Thank you Susie – I did pick them all from one section of the Cutting Garden where I grow complimentary shades – that makes a quick dash easier!
A very elegant Dahlia, I can imagine it looking wonderful in a bridal bouquet against a dress of raw silk. Looks as though it might be difficult to mix with other colours, it doesn’t look quite right with the pinks in the images but maybe in life it is better. I love the way the petals roll in on themselves.
I think it is at its best in bridal bouquets. I am looking forward to seeing how it blooms – I have heard it comes in various shades but I am not sure if that is from the same plant or if different tubers produce slightly different shades. Also this is a dinner plate dahlia but my flower is more tea plate sized so I am hoping later blooms will be bigger.
That rose is stunning, isn’t it? All those lovely petals, and continuous flowering too…. I can see why Cafe au Lait has been such a hit, although as Christina said if you wanted it in a border choosing bedfellows might be difficult – I guess yours is in a cutting bed? If you have seen Christina’s vase today you will have seen her ostrich plume asters – together with yours they are a great advert for the annual species and I think will now be featuring in lots of vases next year! Good to read your comments about sowing times – that’s helpful. I have learned such a lot about sowing seeds this year – from experience and other blogs – and I too have done some autumn sowing this year. Thanks for your input on vases and growing – it’s great to share! 🙂
Thank you Cathy – this year has been great for broadening all our growing horizons and being able to share experiences is an added boon to the joy of making the vases. You are right about Cafe Au Lait – it works best in a Cutting garden – not really one for a garden border. It will be interesting to see how it develops over the rest of the season.
Where do you order your seeds from – I’m always looking for new single colour seeds!
This years seeds are a mix of Sarah Raven and Seeds of Distinction. I got most of my sweet pea seeds from Owl’s Acre Sweet Peas. The asters came from Seeds of Distinction, who have a great variety available. Do you have any suppliers you would recommend?
I too use a lot of sarah raven seeds but also Chiltern seeds. I’ll have to have a browse thru the seeds of distinction catalogue !
I am oh! so! jealous! I had ordered café au lait but the bulb company sent me the wrong ones. Seems there was a world wide shortage of those gorgeous things, which come to think of it, isn’t too surprising. Still, I got my money back and the Sangria dahlia I got instead it pretty charming…maybe next year. Also, I may have to swim across the pond to come steal a cutting of your Hermoine DA roses. They are just to die for. Well done you, another lovely post.
Thank you so much Bethany – my supplier was Rose Cottage Plants but I guess that is not much use to you over there. Better luck next year!
A beautiful arrangement Julie and some wonderful photographs. I am full of admiration too for your very organised plan. Its given me a timely reminder to at least start thinking and then note down and order.
Wonderful!!! Such delicate, subtle colours and café au lait is certainly a beauty, much more so than Kate, haha! I must try and get it as I’ve plans to grow dahlias again next year.
Your photos are gorgeous! The colors of this arrangement are beautiful – the soft pinks really let the soft coffee of your cafe au lait shine! My asters are very late this year – lots of airy leaves but no blooms yet! Yours are lovely!
The dahlia is simply lovely. Mind you, all your flowers are beautiful. And I’m impressed by your ability to plan blooms for most of the year. How clever.