The right vase

Can you ever have enough vases? I have got twenty, I just counted them. They range from small to medium, nothing really large The colours I have are green, glass, blue, red, one striped with bright colours and a few that have such odd colours that I haven't had an opportunity to use them since I started this blog! Maybe that means that they can be thrown out. I recently bought a square glass one and a little green milk jug. Sometimes though, the best vase is a jam jar with a ribbon!

If time, space and money were never an issue, I'd get a new vase for every single bunch of flowers. Finding the right vase is always a bit of trial and error. For this week's bunch I had at least half of my vases out, put a few back, swopped a few bunches around, cut of a bit more, and it's still not perfect!

It's the fault of this scabious. I made a few sowings last year of a variety that I can't remember. Nothing really came of them as it was all a bit too little too late, but one plant survived through the mild winter and has now produced several flowers. It has a wonderful bronze red colour and I very much like its wildflower look.

I combined it with cornflower "black ball", some cosmos and fragrant nicotiana that has self-seeded on my allotment. It looks a bit like a wild flower bouquet due to the fact that all these flowers consist of branches with flowers at different heights. This unfortunately also makes it impossible to arrange. I tried out several vases, cut of a bit extra, and tried as much as I could to turn it into a cone-shaped round bunch, and it's still not perfect, but the best it's going to get. 

  

Of course these weren't the only flowers that I picked. My first dahlia's, a wonderful variety called Karma Choc:

Last week's bunch with Hydrangea Annabelle only lasted a few days. Hydrangea's usually last longer, but they have to be fully open to do so. I would have been better off waiting for another week or so with picking them. So I made another bunch of flowers with Goldenrod, Hypernicum and Buddleja . The Buddleja has a terrific fragrance, but only lasts for a few days. 

 So today I decided to vamp it up again with some calendula and (hardly visible in the picture) Potentilla Monarchs Velvet

I also changed vase, from round to rectangular. It makes all the difference ... of course! 

Counting the losses

Looking at the calendar, it's time to count the losses. We're more than month past midsummer. There is no point anymore to sow seeds or to plant out those seedlings that were forgotten after pricking out. For example this lot of nicotiana and snapdragons are unlikely to ever flower. And if they do, it isn't going to be very impressive. The weeds that have come up in the homemade compost will probably do much better!

I have tried to grow more than I could handle, but then it is always difficult to estimate what is feasible. (Family)Life is difficult to predict and so is gardening, the first often influencing the last. Slugs have been absolutely terrible this year and have caused me a lot more work through having to resow. Then of course I also embarked on some silly ventures, like thickly sowing papaver somniferum and then deciding to wait and see what happens if you do not thin them out. The answer is nothing as none of the flowers have the space to grow into a decent flower!

Other experiments have worked. The flower garden that we planted up a little more than a year ago after taking down a dilapidated garage has got some wonderful plants in it. It isn't well balanced out yet in terms of shape as some plants have taken over a bit (and will need proper stakes in place before they grow wild again next year!) whereas plant like the roses are still relatively small thus leaving some gaps. Nevertheles, the cone flowers (echinacea) and buddleja are terrific and have ensured that the garden is literally buzzing with wildlife. 

I did use some of the buddleja and cone flowers in bunches for friends last week, but my mood isn't flamboyant so for this week I decided upon something smaller and more delicate. I picked some flowerheads of Hydrangea Annabelle, another plant that really needs to grow a bit more into its allocated space. I combined it with Verbena Bonariensis.

And I'm happy again.

Spoilt for choice - even without summery weather

Where is the summer? Usually this time of year I am complaining of all the watering, now I am complaining of all the rain and the three inches of weeds that I've found on my allotment after being away for a little more than a week. 

However, I can't complain about the flowers. Spoilt for choice that is! This week the
Ageratum and the Salvia (Salvia viridis "Blue Clary") have come into flower. Also for the fist year my coneflowers (echinacea) are doing terrific in the flower garden and the  butterfly bushes (buddleja) are producing masses of fragrant flowerheads attracting a huge number of insects, including butterflies. But those I'll save for my bunch of next week. 

Last Wednesday I made a single bunch of flowers, but because of all sort of things going on, I didn't get the chance to write about it.  Today I replaced the roses in this vase as all the other flowers were still going strong. The red rose is Black Baccara, but it is not as nearly as black as on the marketing pictures. The sweet pea is "Winter Elegance". This is a variety that you can sow early autumn for early cropping in the green house. I sowed it very late -thus missing both the point and the early flowering!- and also only one seed germinated. Nevertheless, this one plant keeps on producing lovely long stemmed and fragrant pink sweet peas. 

My bunch for this week was made with Ageratum, Salvia (Salvia viridis "Blue Clary"), Calendula officinalis 'Indian Prince' (the most beautiful marigold I know!), Achillea double diamond and Cerinthe major 'Purpurascens'. 

This was the first year that I sowed both the ageratum and the salvia. Being unfamiliar with their growing habit, I was worried at first of the plants only producing very short stemmed flowers. Of course I worried unnecessarily as by the time the salvia's top buds flower the stem is a reasonable length and the ageratum buds just appear before the stem shoots up. I think both deserve a place in my cut flower garden again next year. What do you think?