In a Vase on Monday: Bluesy Floozy

Having decided to pick blooms that had not been included in a vase this year, not because they were not vase-worthy but more due to the seasonal abundance, I toyed for a while with different titles – Waifs and Strays? Pigs Ear? – but the ease of finding a prop meant that Random Selection, like the blooms, made the cut.

I may have been critical of Symphyotrichum ‘Little Carlow’ yesterday, bemoaning its height and slowness to flower, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like the flowers – because I do. It’s as if all the buds have opened at once, the froth of small lavender blooms creating an appealing haze of colour, accentuated by the addition of miscanthus plumes. Grasses seemed to be the ideal choice to complement the single stem of aster, and inspecting the two or three miscanthus in the garden I was pleased to find at least three flowering stems on Miscanthus ‘Kleine Silberspinne’ (Little Silver Spider).

The starting point for today’s Monday vase was the tall spires of Sanguisorba canadensis. I am rather puzzled by them and can’t remember where and when I got the original plant, which was in the main blue & white border. It must have been over five years ago and I recall it flowering just once, but not leaving me impressed, especially as it began to spread without earning its keep. Last autumn, when I lifted all the contents of the border, I composted most of it, but planted a small section in an adjacent border, where it is now flowering generously. I have no idea why I wasn’t impressed before, because the flowers are gorgeous, six inches (15cms) plus of greenish-white fluffiness on each spike; the plant is exceedingly tall, I know,  more than its supposed five feet (1.5m), and thereby taller than me. I am not intimidated by tall people these days, but I do avoid the tallest of plants in my garden. However, I will overlook this failing on the strength of its blooms, albeit not literally!

In this case, it was the egg, as that is what I found myself thinking of when I picked today’s blooms…

When this bright red gladiolus suddenly appeared it was inevitable it would end up in a Monday vase sooner or later. One of a batch of 25 bought from Aldi two or three years ago, it is one of only about 3 blooms in total over that period, working out to less than £1 per bloom!

As you know, I prepare my Monday vases the day before so I can schedule them ready for other IAVOMers to link to on Monday morning. Yesterday, however, we had a day out planned, meeting up with dear blogging friend Anna of Green Tapestry and Himself, at Wollerton Old Hall*, so I wanted to pick material before we went out. Despite originally planning to begin with some rudbeckia and build up a posy of late summer sunset shades, I got sidetracked by Dahlia ‘David Howard’, towering above my head, and instead decided to bring him down a peg or two, the change of plan aided by the steady rain that was now falling.

I had hoped to have several long stems of Dahlia ‘Geoffrey Kent’ to place into one of my taller slimmer vases, but it wasn’t to be and instead there are a few stems of varying length with blooms of variable openness, placed into the smallest of my Caithness glass ‘Ebony’ vases with stems of Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’ to add grace and movement.

My perennial Phlox have been a good stalwart flower for cutting and filling a vase this last few weeks. I found the pink colours had more scent but all the Phlox seemed to drink copious amounts of water (I wondered if water and scent were related). The Penstemon in the same vase as the Phlox was not as successful as they had a far shorter life. Another successful long lasting cut flower is the Alstromeria. The Reds performed better than the yellows but both lasted over a week.

I nearly shared a photograph of monstrous Rudbeckia ‘Irish Eyes’ on Six on Saturday, but had too many images for it to make the cut. It is a variety I have grown from seed for six or seven years or more, but never has it grown so tall – at least 4 feet or 120cms! Not only that, but the blooms have lasted on the plants for a good month with no deadheading required, although one or two are now just on the turn. If any bloom deserved a shout-out in a Vase on Monday it is this rudbeckia and, accordingly, its blooms make up the majority of the contents of today’s IAVOM.

…to displaying flowers and foliage in a vase, but that art could be anything from utilising learned floristry techniques to basically plonking them in a receptacle. Perhaps after plonking we might then rearrange them slightly to achieve something we see as more satisfactory, without necessarily recognising why we want to tweak things, or perhaps we might place them a stem at a time to achieve some perceived kind of balance, without having any formal or even informal training in floristry.

Once yesterday’s wet afternoon had subsided, I was able to venture out to cut material for today’s vase, choosing increasingly bountiful blossom from crab apple Malus ‘Evereste’ and Tulip ‘Pink Sound’. The latter were bought largely because of their bargain price for sufficient tulips to fill a few containers, but I have nevertheless enjoyed watching them springing up and growing into shapely heads in a pleasing pink ombre effect. Admiring them from the kitchen windows it occurred to me that pairing them with the similarly shaded crab apple would make a pleasing combination for IAVOM.

Thank you all for your kind words over the last week following the unexpected death of my sister; they were very much appreciated. It has been a strange week and I greatly value the support of our blogging community.