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 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.
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”
The morning was so sparkling that I stopped for a photo opportunity while loading the car. It was -3 according to the new thermometer – it almost never gets this cold. In the greenhouse the poblano/ancho chillies are still producing. The lambs seemed happy enough – after weeks of rain and wind sunny and cold is probably preferable.
Continue reading “Spring flowers in a Vase on a chilly Monday”
Scilla natalensis or Merwilla plumbea is flowering in my garden for the second year, so I feel that I’ve managed to give it the right conditions despite our high winter rainfall and clay soil. The flowers are a delicate blue with a tiny bit of pale yellow, flowering a bit at a time to give an effect which reminds me a little of a shorter blue Foxtail Lily.
It was a busy weekend moving plants to make space for a bigger water tank. So initially I collected flowers from plants which needed to be pruned before moving.
I planted these Iris this year, made a label, and then forgot where I had planted them. I think I have found them now.
With Satsuma plum, Rosemary Chef’s Choice, and Austin Rose Strawberry Hill in the background.
Absent Gardener 