In a Vase on Monday: Random Selection

I have no doubt mentioned a number of times that I have been very lax in supporting my dahlias this year, inevitably resulting in a number of casualties. By way of excuse, I have been awaiting a supply of stakes from a friend whose husband coppices for a local farmer, stakes cut a number of months ago apparently, waiting in their garage and on the point of being dropped off here any time now – or at least that was my friend’s intention! At least if I receive them soon they will be ready for next year and I can have them in place when the tubers are first planted out again, as is probably recommended by professional growers!

Succumbing to the urge to move unusually lanky aster Symphyotrichum‘Little Carlow’ today instead of waiting till it was dormant, I also moved the sanguisorba I featured in a vase a few weeks ago, and again today, a little nearer the fence. Whilst doing so, I realised the label read Sanguisorba dodecandra and not S canadensis as I had thought. Googling doesn’t tell me a lot about the former, and illustrations suggest it looks more like the latter, so it remains a bit of a puzzle. The aster looks all the better with something behind it and, having dug it out with a large rootball, doesn’t look any the worse for its experience; the sanguisorba, however, is now glowering at me and I cut a few flowering stems for today’s vase rather than leave them to a potentially slow demise on the plant.

Last week I chose random blooms for my Monday vase, blooms that had missed out on being featured; this week I am choosing (mostly) blooms with shorter stems, blooms that have missed out to others such as dahlias, which could otherwise easily dominate vases from June to October.

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).

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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!

Aldi

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

I am probably doing the Duchess a great injustice by implying she is a floozy, as I don’t know her well enough, but when you are such a lovely shade of deep purply blue that you become the focus of a vase on Monday, then perhaps you need to be big enough to allow people to take liberties with your reputation.

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.