In a Vase on Monday: a Bunch, Not a Posy

I’ll sing you one, O Green grow the rushes, O What is your one, O? etc

Last week, Anna of Green Tapestry apologised for ‘cheating’ when she shared her amaryllis/hippeastrum In a Vase on Monday. Happily, our rules for this meme are fairly fluid and contributors share vases very much in the spirit of it, and it was by no means cheating – and I am not just saying that because I doing something very similar this week! In fact, I am very grateful to Anna for messaging me back in November to let me know that ‘a certain German supermarket’ had these bulbs in stock, allowing me to hotfoot it down to our local store ASAP.

eye of potato, monkey’s tail….

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With very best wishes and thanks to all my blogging friends for your continued friendship, wishing you health, happiness, joy and good gardening in 2024.

Blooms are almost non-existent in the garden at the moment after several days of frost, but I had two options: another pelargonium from the Coop, or stems of the overwintering Salvia ‘Phyllis Fancy’ in the working greenhouse. The latter, which never made it back into a border last year after its previous overwintering, remaining in its pot in disgrace, won the toss. After continued underperformance, I have been on the point of banishing it altogether, but now plan to give it a reprieve, albeit keeping it in a pot rather than giving it border space. However, I am not holding my breath…

Although bubblewrapping the Coop in the middle of last week was abandoned after less than an hour, due to numb fingers, there was enough time to notice that two of my 2022 purchases of dwarf pelargoniums were in full bloom and looking surprisingly pretty, considering the time of year. This knowledge was stored in my head and formed the basis of today’s vase, with a single white bloom of P ‘David John’ forming the focal point. He was joined by three stems of Argyranthemum ‘Grandaisy Pink’ (now in the Coop too) and a clutch of foliage from Pittosporum ‘Tom Thumb’. The latter is in dire need of pruning, but for the time being I shall just remain selective about where I snip any foliage from!

You can create unique note cards with flowers and leaves from your garden. These botanical cards are easy and fun to make. With just a little bit of preparation and time, you can make your own note cards or holiday cards more personal by designing them yourself. Here’s how to do it!

Caught out yet again by the sudden descent towards darkness, I had to quickly pluck a few things from the garden to make a posy for my lift-giver to choir early last week. Having been working in the greenhouse, I snipped a few blooms from the overwintering Salvia ‘Mystic Spires’ and plucked greenery from some ivy on the way back to the house. Back inside with my cup of ta and cake, I found my friend had messaged me to say she was unwell and not going after all, so the posy was no longer required. Rather than keep it in its interim jam jar, I sought a vase with a degree of sultriness to match the dark moodiness of the salvia blooms and deep green of the ivy and its curious flowers, coming up trumps with a blue hyacinth vase.

Dusk caught me unawares yesterday afternoon – with sunset officially occuring at about 4.00, I shouldn’t have been surprised, although it still seemed light as I finished cutting up the prunings from R Cécile Brunner (with only the teeniest bit of shed roof clambering required…) and headed inside for a cup of tea and piece of cake… to remember I hadn’t prepared for IAVOM!

Welcome to the 10th anniversary of IAVOM, a meme which commenced on an inauspicious November Monday, with the sole purpose of encouraging me to pick flowers or other material from the garden on a regular basis. It must have worked because, ten years and 520 vases later, it is still going. My favourite vase from each of the last 12 months is shown in the collage below – July presented the hardest choice!