On Friday my flowers were still doing well and as I was also out for the largest part of the day, I decided to wait with my next bunch for a few more days. On Sunday morning both vases looked miserable, so I went out to pick what was available. It's really spring. The lilacs are out, delphiniums are flowering and also the first granny's bonnets (aquilegia's or columbine's). These two are flowering in my back garden this week:

Delphinium Pacific Giants

Aquilegia vulgaris 'Miss M.I. Huish'

As I didn't want to ruin my display, I left these in place and went on a mission to pick what was available, which was the following: 

5 Roses "Golden Celebration"

5 Tulips (from a mix that I grew last year, dug up, lost half and put the remaining half in pots) 

1 Aquilegia "Swan Mixed (I accidentally snapped it while weeding)

1 Gerbera Jamesonii (the only one)

3 lilac blooms (We have one tree which is actually not winning the battle from the lelandii, so I cut three blooms which were half on the ground and they subsequently don't have straight stems)

5 yellow and 2 pink ranunculus (the last ones from the allotment)

Cerinthe major Purpurascens  (which has come up in a weedy patch) 

Euphorbia Oblongata (from the allotment)

Together with last weeks' bunches, this is how it looked together (in temporary vases and containers). 

Having picked them in the morning, I then focussed on sorting out the last flower border in the back garden which took the rest of the day and evening, so I ran out of daylight. Early this morning I arranged them in 5 (!) vases. (The challenge of finding a space for each one comes later.) 

I love the lilacs' scent, but the angle of the stems really proved impossible to make a decent arrangement with them. Never mind. They are on the bar and I can smell them every time I walk past. I've combined them with the cerinthe and the three leftover dark tulips. I think these are tulip "Black Hero" and I have been really impressed with their vase life.  

Before I leave you with plenty of pictures of this week's flowers, if you have a lilac tree, please do go out and pick a few. They have a short vase life, but without proper conditioning they are not even going to last a day. This is what I have done:

• Removed all the leaves (apart from a few that are near the flower)
• Remove two inches of bark
• Dipped in boiling water for a few seconds 

Other suggestions that I have come across are only picking them when half of the flowers are fully open (certainly don't pick when all of them are open), adding a dash of alcohol to the water and splitting the stems. You could try these too, and do let me know how successful they are!

Where to put the next vase? That is the question of the moment. With today's bunch of flowers I currently have three vases and with a hot conservatory and extension building in progress, there isn't actually a lot of space for another vase. Last Tuesday's posy is still standing (except the rose) and also the tulips are still very glamorous. The stems have erected themselves further like graceful ballerinas above the green helleborus. (Click here for last bunch's blog)

So, this week's bunch is literally going to be a movable feast, as a feast it is. Look at the bright flamboyant colours of the ranunculus. 

It's a movable feast as the the vase will go from bar to table to coffee table and back again. I added some Euphorbia oblongata for foliage. Both varieties had to be dipped into boiling water to condition them, 15 seconds for the euphorbia's and the ranunculus just a few seconds. I then let them all soak up some water slightly warmer than tepid in the vase while outside in the shade. 

I have every hope that these posh buttercups (as that is what ranunculus are) is going to grace whichever part of the house for a good week. But as always, I'll let you know next week. 

I have broken with convention. I am not talking about writing on Tuesday instead of Friday as that is because I was away for a few days. No, I have broken with convention because I have used an even number of tulips in my arrangement today. I had six beautiful dark purple tulips and when I went to cut them this morning I decided to cut them all six, thinking that I would probably discard one. But then there wasn't any reason not to use that last one, so I have. And tell, me do you think I shouldn't have?

Of course you could argue that I have used five plus the one in the middle, but I think that is fudging the issue a bit. 

The other convention is of course that most flowers in a bouquet are the same height. I could have left the Helleborus foetidus (also known as stinking hellebore, dungwort and bear's foot) on its stem as I only cut one main stem this morning. However, I felt that in this way both tulips and hellebores are complimenting each other as well as allowing each to feature their own beauty. I love the purple fringe on the hellebore's flowers and its green colour is reflected in the tulip buds.

This morning I also cut the first rose, a lovely specimen of Golden Celebration. It is apparently tea-scented, but it always reminds me of lemon with honey.  It didn't have a long stem, so I combined it in a posy with a random calendula and the first flower of Gerbera jamesonii which still needs to open up. I'm very pleased that the plants that I sowed last summer have come through the winter and I hope to pick lots of flowers this summer. 

  

I keep sorting through my seed packets. The first selection is a simple division between the ones that need sowing now, and the ones that I want (can) sow later. Then it's between direct sowing, and under cover. Under cover can be in the greenhouse or in the study where I have put some staging. The next question is seedtray, module or individual pots? With or without plastic lid? Heated propagator (I've got a simple electric one) or not? 

It is doing my head in. The number of packets doesn't seem to go down despite the space for trays and modules getting smaller and smaller. There are seed packets everywhere, they are being put aside, or put on the same pile, and then the whole sorting thing can start again. 

Some seed is so fussy that it doesn't actually help this whole process. Bells of Ireland (Moluccella laevis) got top marks for complication as it had to go in the freezer first for a week and then in a seedtray. I've sown those and am now of course counting on those beautiful green spikes even though the seedlings have yet to appear.

Good thing I could just do my flowers today. As toddler had fallen asleep on the couch, I was limited to what the garden rather than the allotment could give me. I am not complaining as the spring is bringing plenty of flowers. While putting them together teenager made me laugh by asking "Where are all those flowers coming from?". I was twice his age when I started to notice anything with leaves or flowers, so no wonder he doesn't see what is out there. I probably should be grateful that it is being noticed at all that I am doing something with flowers.

I once read that forget-me-nots (Myosotis sylvatica) poison other flowers while in a vase, just like daffodils. Not sure if that is really true, but nevertheless I set out to make a double-walled vase using a killner jar, an emptly glass jar and some floristry wire.

Remember the white tulips that appeared in my pink/blue border? I now remember how they ended up there as some purple ones also appeared next to them. Two years ago I bought a mix which was described more "blue" or definitely as blue as tulips get, than they turned out. Apart from them not being what I thought they were, the disadvantage of the mix is also that they flower at different times. While the white ones have nearly finished, the purple ones are only just in bud. 

It really doesn't make for a great display (note to self: don't every buy tulip mixes again), but now the purple ones will be great for the vase, together with the forget-me-nots, Cerinthe major and some hellebores. I dipped the stems of the forget-me-nots in boiling water, as that is supposed to prolong their vase life. 

 

I also put some daffodils (Cheerfulness) in a little vase next to some more forget-me-nots, so it makes a little trio. I'm slightly annoyed that the forget-me-nots are more cyan blue in the pictures than they really are, but I've taken several photos and I can't improve on it. But I am sure you'll get the idea.