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!