The full moon rose as orange and round as one of these calendulas last night, although I was thinking of sunshine as I picked them and the California Poppies at the end of the day. California Poppies, Calendula, Cynoglossum, and Dill sow themselves around the garden if they can find a nice place. I sometimes take them for granted, but I’m very grateful for them.
Here are some of the flowers I tried to mix with Carnaval de Nice, as well as Iris Autumn Princess, who was never going to share that stage. The first of the Columbines and the last of the Daffodils, with the pretty little sweetly scented ‘Oregon Gold’ in the centre, with Dill flowers, Freesias, Cynoglossum, Sysrinchium, and Veronica gentianoides.
Continue reading “Dutch Iris in a Vase on Monday”
These I think are the last of the fantastic and long running show that the tulips have produced this year. Whether they are last because they are a late flowering tulip or because they are buried more deeply in the pot I don’t know, but it’s a lovely finale.
I made my vase last week, photographed the flowers, but ran out of time to post until now. The first of the California Poppies and the last of the daffodils meet with perennial Stock, Freesias, Dutch Iris, and the Black Diamond Tulips, still going. The leaves of purple sage were growing over a nearby rose so they made a nice addition of purple-green.
In amongst all of these beautiful colours a simple branch of perennial stock is adding a deep rich scent to the already intense scent of freesias, narcissi, and wallflowers.
I wondered if Asahi tulips were named after a beer, for their lovely golden tones, but no. Much more appropriately it’s ‘morning/rising sun’. And they are absolutely stunning seen in the early morning with the sun shining through them, but I was too busy running until the sun was setting, so here they are in the last light of day.
I was excited to arrive back at the garden and see all of the new tulips out and drifts of Thalia narcissi under the citrus trees. Friends were having a memorial so I made one vase with mostly pale colours: Tulips White Liberstar and Camargue, Freesia Symphony, Iris Apollo, Narcissus Thalia and Early Cheer, Lupins, Scilla, Iceberg Rose, and Hellebore x sternii.
Another borrowed vase today, a sweet tiny posy of little chrysanthemums on a table in a Vietnam restaurant. My excuse is unpacking, jet lag, and a full on day catching up at work. To make up for this cheating I have pictures of my own chrysanthemum cuttings from bought cut flowers.
More absent than normal this week, I’m in Vietnam, travelling down the Mekong on a boat. Like Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, this week I’m sharing Other People’s Vases. People here may not have a lot of things, but flowers and bright colours are everywhere – I feel like I’m filling up with colour.
Many of the fishing boats have vases of flowers lashed to a prong at the bow; our guide tells me that these are for the water gods. Chrysanthemums, Marigolds, and Tuberose are popular.
Arriving this week I was greeted by lambs on the lawn and the first of the ‘new’ Dutch Iris, “Autumn Princess”. I grabbed my camera to capture both before the lambs and mothers were ushered back into the driveway to make their way back through the fence.
The new Tulips are starting to bloom too, with Daydream opening a surprising lemon colour. It seems that the honey and apricot tones I was expecting only develop as the flowers age. Continue reading “In a Vase on Monday. – Spring Bulbs and Lambs”
Absent Gardener 