It's not particularly inviting weather to do a stint of gardening, so I am hiding inside. Luckily I can also indulge myself indoors. After nearly a week abroad (hence no bunch last week) I am pleased to find that some of my seeds have germinated. The first tomatoes as well as some flowers that I sowed in the study have popped their their heads through the earth. Stock apple blossom and Salvia viridis blue (annual clary), are looking especially healthy and promising. I also noticed that in the greenhouse a few sweet peas are coming up. Even though I have been sowing my own seeds for more than a decade, I can't stop being intrigued by the magic of putting a little seed in a bit of earth, giving it water and seeing it germinate. 

So while daydreaming about scented stocks and sweet peas, I decided that for this week's bunch the best course of action would be some quickly picked favourites, ie the wonderfully fragrant Daphne odora Aureomarginata and Helleboris orientalis. The latter is flowering relatively abundantly in the front garden and the Daphne bush can still miss a few branches before it being noticeable. It's a slow grower, so I can't cut it endlessly, but I decided that for this week I wanted a lot of scent, so I cut off quite a few branches. 

I also cut six multi-stemmed branches of the hellebores. I've learned that you should always have uneven numbers in an arrangement, so I cut three stems of the light purple and three of the dark purple. I gave the Hellebores the 20 seconds in hot (boiled) water treatment and then a few hours in the cold and dark in a vase with cold water.  I also have some really dark blues, near blacks. Maybe I'll save those for next week, but first have a look at this week's bunch. 

I reckon I have about half an hour to write this blog, as I do need to cook! I've been planning, for the first time since our marriage a three course Valentine's dinner for my husband. Yes, I know, we are terribly unromantic - or not easily persuaded by commercial marketing, whichever one you think applies. 

Of course I do need to feed the teenagers and toddler before then as well. They are just going to have pasta with pesto and broccoli, so that shouldn't be much work. Also the sourdough bread is already finished, our own prunes (dried from the Victoria Plum) are soaking in cherry liquor for the chocolate pie, the stock is made for the pommes boulangère and of course the table arrangement is done. So what can go wrong with just two and a half hours, eight dishes and a blog to do left?

I am not expecting any flowers tonight. This is my own fault, or better, my own choice, as I tend to be very critical of bought flowers. They are often the unfragrant variety and I can hardly ever find a vase to suit the bunches under £20 and end up cutting up those long stems. I tend to have no problem with anything bought at David Austin roses or similar though .... 

So, therefore I've arranged my own, in both senses of the word. As the bunch from Monday is still as good as it was on -indeed- Monday including the three white hellebores, there is no need for another big arrangement. Instead I have made a willow heart wreath for the table. This proved tricky, but with a lot of bending and one V shaped set of twigs, also not too complicated once I had the initial shape. 

It isn't very even, nor does it lie flat on the table, but then life isn't perfect for that matter either. 

As it is Valentine's day I thought that I should reveal my secret stash of two varieties of dried flowers, Acroclinium and Limonium sinuatum (Statice). These are not from last summer, but from the summer before and I was simply amazed by how bright the colours still are. Obviously the storing in the dark does do the trick.The pictures below are not quite true to colour due to the bad light, but it does come close.  

I also added some little vases with fragrant daphne (Daphne odora Aureomarginata). As the leaves have started to yellow, I cut those off and added some rosemary sprigs instead. Last but not least I  decorated two champagne flutes with the dried flowers for some lovely bubbly.

I need to get on with the cooking, so have a look yourselves! Happy Valentines day!

I should plant a few more hellebore plants later this year as they are proving invaluable for winter bouquets. However, before I do so, I must really start sowing for this year. I bought an awful lot of seeds for the flower project and some, like sweet peas, would be good to get in the greenhouse now. I don't (yet) have a heated greenhouse, but sweet peas do okay in a cold one, sown before the great rush in March. They do even fine from an autumn sowing, but as I didn't get around to doing so last October, it's got to be this week. Then I also need to go through all those packets and make sure I know what to sow when. No point in discovering in April that some seeds need a long germination time and should have been sown in February!

But before then, this week's bunch. Last Friday was busy, this weekend was busy, so I only got around to it today, Monday. I went to the allotment early this morning and I picked hellebores, both the short stemmed white (Helleborus Niger - the classical Christmas rose) and the long stemmed green variety (Helleborus Foetidus - stinking hellebore, but I don't think they stink!) as well as some grey leaves and Euphorbia Oblongata. The latter is a short-lived perennial, which is proving not short-lived at all as it self-sows along all the edges of my allotment. 

For foliage I picked the gray leaves of artichoke, sage and also some stems from the curry plant (Helichrysum Italicum). I planted the latter as a herb, but I have yet to find a culinary use for it, so maybe it'll prove useful for the vase instead. I just read that you can also dry the flowers which may be worth a try. 

Unfortunately the white hellebores of which I only have three have rather short stems, but I think they still looks great!