A reason not to be very tidy

I thought I'd show you a patch on my allotment first. 

Quite a mess, right? It's so messy you can hardly see what is in the picture. This was my spring flower patch and now is full with seedheads which is why I haven't touched it yet. No doubt marigold, love-in-a-mist and cornflower seedlings will soon emerge after I clear this bed of both the old flowers and the weeds which I hope to do in the coming week or so. Today however I also took the opportunity to collect some of the seeds, some of which I'll sow in the next week (along with some bought packets) and some of which I'll sow in Spring. 

I also collected some ageratum seeds. This annual is still flowering wonderfully well in a range of colours (blue/purple/mauve/white/pink) and has already produced quite a bit of seeds. As I am not interested in a specific colour collecting my own seeds makes absolute sense.

Of course I didn't just collect seeds on the allotment, but also flowers. For one vase I picked ageratum, cleome, cosmos and dahlia's. I also picked some Cobaea scandens Alba and combined it with dahlia Karma Choc and rosemary. 

I love the results, have a look below!

Autumn is coming

The wind has been blowing all day today. The squirrels are busy clearing the walnuts from the tree, burying them in our garden and leaving the rejected ones to crunch under our feet. Summer is definitely nearing its end and autumn is coming. 

On the allotment the cosmos and dahlias are flowering abundantly as they are supposed to feeling the onset of Autumn. The sunflowers are producing lots of small flowers as well. 

For a friend I made an "all-of-the allotment-flowers" bunch, adding some Queen of Sweden roses as well as some other odd flowers to the dahlia's and the cosmos.

At home I made a small posy from Chrysanthemum coronarium 'Primrose Gem' and rose Graham Thomas. Not sure how either will do in a vase, but we'll see. I also added one aquilegia flower, which I found to my surprise in a weedy border. (In the picture you can only see the back of it)   Some time last year I did put in some granny's bonnets and this one has obviously barely survived until now and has gotten a bit confused about the seasons in the process!

  

Ps I didn't manage the flowers on Friday, as there was simply too much going on, but I hope to do my next bunch again this Friday. No promises though!

Even Superwoman needs flowers in the house regularly

Today was one of these days, just too much to do. Most of things were of course self-inflicted like making plum chutney and enjoying time with friends, but as a consequence everything got squeezed and I still haven't got done the laundry! But I did do my flowers and I am now writing my blog. 

Like everything else, I also did my flowers in a rush. I had an idea, combining some beautiful Helenium's with Hydrangea Annabelle, but arranging them in a vase wasn't as straight forward as I had hoped. I picked just the one stem of the Helenium and three stems of the Hydrangea's which proved to be not enough for the vase. So I added some goldenrods (Solidago) and rosemary. 

I am glad I didn't postpone doing my flowers though as today I had a few moments already admiring their beauty, giving just a few moments of peace and serenity amidst the chaos. 

Indeed, even superwoman needs a few flowers in the house to help her relax. I'll tell her next time I see her. 

Small is beautiful

Life can be busy. Summer holidays, extension building work, family visits and visiting, weeds, a laden Victoria plum tree and oh yes, flowers! So yesterday I did pick three little bunches, but I simply didn't time and energy to write about them. 

I do not expect any of them to stand very long, but I'm sure that I'll be able to enjoy them until we leave. There will be no blog next week as we're away, but then early September not only will I have more time again for the garden and the flowers, I also need to prepare for winter and next year with bulbs and autumn sowings. So there'll be plenty to do and write about. 

For now, just the pictures and descriptions of my three little bunches. Sometimes a small vase is much more practical than a large one (no point in having a large vase on the table while eating, for example) and often it's just as beautiful.  I hope you agree with me on this occasion!

Wonderfully fragrant Munstead Wood roses with Achillea ptarmica 'Double Diamond and Dianthus 'Green Trick'. 

I bought Dianthus 'Green Trick' last year. It is a is a non-flowering form of sweet William. The plants survived the winter with the old flowers producing new small plants. They haven't regained their vigour yet. Next year, I'd better take some cuttings mid-summer. 

From seed: Dahlia Cactcus mixed
My first ever flower of Cobaea scandens, Rose Queen of Sweden, Dahlia Kharma Choc and Sweet Williams

Cinderella sunflowers

For a few weeks now I have some lovely small sunflowers (Helianthus) growing on the allotment. You may have seen them appearing in a few bunches already, but I thought this week they should get the attention they deserve. I love sunflowers, but every year I manage to neglect them: half eaten by slugs, planted out way too late and not tied in properly.  A bit like Cinderella: neglected and forgotten until she becomes the star of the party. 



As for growing sunflowers,  you can sow in pots, ignore any advice that says you can't. 
The trick is to pinch it out quite early on.  In this way you'll get bushier plants that produce lots of little sunflowers. Don't worry if pinching out means taking off half of the plant. Sunflowers grow quite a bit of stem between sets of leaves and you need to take it back to the first or second set. Of course if you want to grow a tall one with one big flower, don't pinch it out! Sunflowers shed their pollen, if you haven't grown a pollen free variety. So be aware where you place your vase.




















Having left the sunflowers for so long, many were already past their best and I only found three today that I felt were good enough in my bunch of flowers. I am afraid that I can't tell you which variety it is as the label seems to have mysteriously disappeared. 

I combined it with some dahlia's, white nicotiana and cosmos. Cosmos is quickly becoming one of my favourite cutflowers. I've been picking from two white Cosmos bipinnatus "Purity" plants for a few weeks now. The good thing about cosmos is that also the buds will open in a vase, as opposed to dahlia's whose buds will never open in a vase. Cosmos' vase life is thus quite long, especially if you take out the faded flowers every few days. 

The accidental flower

All my flowers are more or less accidental, but this week's are definitely sliding towards very accidental. A few are pleasant surprises from packets of mixed seeds and some are a total surpise. 

First of all I should really have eaten this artichoke, but since I missed my window of opportunity, it has turned out to be a very interesting cutflower. 

The flower is intriguing. Unfortunately the picture below hasn't quite managed to catch its more violet colour, but it shows its sea anemone likeness. 

Like the artichoke, I did not expect to have any nicotiana, but the ones in this week's bunch did self sow on my allotment. They provide a wonderful fragrance. The dahlias are from a packet of seed that were just described as "mixed large flowered". These ones are the first to flower, which is very promising!  I also added some Queen of Sweden roses, Cerinthe major 'Purpurascens' and Ageratum. 

This is the first year that I have sown Ageratum. The plants do very well, despite my attempts to neglect them. This again was a packet of mixed seed. Some have come up mauve and pinkish, but the blues are simply magnificent.  The flowers are like little bristles, as the picture below shows. Next year I will most definitely sow them again.  

I am also pleasantly surprised by the Helenium (Helena Mixed - another packet of mixed seed!) that I picked last week. It is still going strong. Towards the end of the week I took out the flowers that were past their best and added some Cornflowers Black Ball, Dahlia Karma Choc, sunflowers and white cosmos.

So again, I have three vases with flowers in the house! 

(And in case you were wondering why this is on a Saturday and not a Friday, we had torrential rain in Cambridgeshire yesterday, so I hid inside instead of going to the allotment.)

I was thinking of a pink bunch ....

... as I still haven't cut  the abundant and wonderful coneflowers (Echinacea Purpurea) that are doing so well in the flower border. 

Some new buds also have appeared on my Queen of Sweden rosebushes and there are still some fragrant carnations that have a wonderful old pink colour. Together it should make a lovely bunch of flowers. 

However, when I started picking this morning, the pull of the red and yellow flowers was just too strong. I just had to pick these Heleniums. They are from a sowing last year, Helenium Helena mixed. They grow quite tall multi-branched flowers stems, over one meter, and they are intriguingly beautiful. 

Last week I already picked some Potentilla Monarch's Velvet. It is wonderful border plant and as I found out last week, also great in a bouquet.  It doesn't have large flowers, but acts like a foliage plant with strong red dots. Here is a picture of it in the border in front of the white Hydrangea Annabelle. 

A few plants of Rudbeckia Cherry Brandy have survived this winter and they are already in flower! This is sold as a half hardy annual, but obviously it can handle mild wintery weather. 

I then added some red carnations, hypernicum and rose "Fellowship" and was happy. Pink just has to wait!