C’s Dad passed away this week, having fought cancer bravely and gained a hard won year. For him, the end was a blessing I think as he was in a lot of pain yet struggled with the effect of the painkillers on his ability to communicate.
I know this doesn’t really belong in this meme – however growing and gathering and photographing flowers is my main creative expression at the moment so… all things come into it.
Continue reading “In a Vase on Monday – a sad week”
Well, mostly purple anyway. Everything is growing now, in spite of or because of the rain. Anemones are producing continually as I planted them gradually, and they obviously had no appeal to whatever ate the tulips. Dutch Iris are still brilliant. There are still some Freesias and Geranium Narcissus for scent, and perennial Stocks.
Poppies are out, and the Cineraria have been flowering for a while. I bought a mix and I love this almost white one.
I noticed tonight that the petals of the white daffodils are spangled with little sparkles, tiny reflections of the artificial light. I didn’t catch that in my photos, taken outside in a cold light just before yet another hail storm.
The first wave of daffodils and narcissi are going to seed, but some of the later yellow ones and the lovely white Thalia are coming on now, and there are still new ones coming up – I’m enjoying the Poet’s Narcissus and some truely radical ones which came in the mixed batch.
Continue reading “In a Vase on Monday – Sparkling Daffodils”
The scent of any flower seems to me most divine when it’s the first one of the year, although it’s hard to get immune to either Freesias or Sweet Peas. I have a few clumps of Freesia alba ‘Burtonii’ which are smaller and sweetly scented, but even the larger hybrids are beautifully scented this year.
It has been a beautiful Autumn weekend. We slept well in the cool night, enjoyed the first Sugar Baby watermelon with grapes and zucchini fritters for lunch, and felt very lucky to be here. Monarch butterflies are floating around and the bees are enjoying the late summer flowers. The vegetable garden is doing as well as can be expected, so I concentrated on planting the first of my bulb orders in this perfect sunny weather.
Continue reading “Bulbs and bionics”
We took some flowers to C’s father in hospital this weekend, including Sweet Surrender, which is the first of my new lilies to flower. It has burst from the ground with strong long stalks covered with simple flowers.
Continue reading “In a Vase on Monday – Lily Sweet Surrender”
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.
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.
Absent Gardener 