Each Monday Cathy at Rambling in the Garden leads this meme where we are asked to share a vase using materials from our gardens.
It is a damp grey Monday here, so a vase is just what we need to brighten up the kitchen. It has been very hot, so the rain and cooler temperatures today are so welcome! The Alchemilla has flopped in the rain, so that was a clear choice for the framework of my vase this week.
My Herb Bed contains some Hypericum perforatum which flowered bang on time for midsummer‘s day again as well as this dark-leafed one which isn‘t quite flowering yet. In fact I thought it was a goner when it got frozen back by freezing East winds in the early spring. But it has bounced back.
It is planted near the pale green Hypericum, these red Geums (G. chiloense ‘Blazing Sunset’) and the yellow Anthemis tinctoria, which is a pleasing combination.
And since I was in the Herb Bed I decided to cut some of the Lemon Balm which is getting rather vigorous. I must admit I never use it, preferring my Lemon Verbena for tea. But when I was putting a few sprigs in the vase with all that frothy Alchemilla I couldn‘t help but think of lemonade!
Some Stipa tenuissima (also in the Herb Bed), a broken stem of Calamagrostis (the sparrows?) and a Nigella seedhead saved from a previous vase were added as extras.
And my first Scabiosa ochroleuca to flower went in too. Love that plant… a seedling I brought over from my old garden has grown into a substantial plant, so I hope it will reseed as freely here too.
Do visit Cathy to see her vase – and all the other vases being shared today. 😃
Your Alchemilla makes a beautiful base for all the other additions. I love its frothiness and how it plays well with so many other flowers. I think it is a “must have” for any garden. Can you believe my sister hates the plant, and never fails to tell me so every time she visits my garden. I think it makes every arrangement special with its unique acid green color.
So glad you received some rain and a reprieve from the heat. I just looked at our forecast and we’re expecting upper 80’s to 90’s for the next two weeks with high humidity. The thing I like least about summer. Everything and everybody wilts a little in this kind of heat.
Have a lovely week Cathy!
I always think it funny when people dislike certain flowers, but then I remember I also have a few I don‘t like much too! Alchemilla really is wonderful for vases though. Yes, the humidity is the problem here too. We have had a few lovely summer days but the humidity then hit! Let‘s hope it will only last a couple more weeks and we get some cooler breezes soon!
Lots of lovely things in your frothy vase today! I love it, especially those geums, such brilliant pops of colour! We have a lemon verbena, self-seeded, by our garden gate (door actually). It has extended a long arm across the opening and so I brush past it several times a day as I come and go. I always think, like you, that I never use it in cooking although the lemony smell. I believe it is good with chicken but don’t think I have ever tried it. I would love a lemon balm bush for tea – so fragrant and delicious! Amanda https://therunningwave.blogspot.com/2020/06/an-art-inspired-vase-on-monday.html
Thank you Amanda. I love those Geums too. I like Lemon verbena for tea… how lucky you are to have one self-set! Do try it! It is also delicious in drinks and sorbets. It is not hardy here, so I buy new plants every spring and cosset them until they can stay out overnight…. my babies! 😉 My lemon balm on the other hand seeds itself around quite vigorously though, so I am constantly pulling up bits! 😉
Beautiful arrangement. I always love your arrangements because you always show case some flower I have never seen or heard before. Keeps my running list of plants I want, growing. 🙂
Thank you Angie. I just visited your blog and was unable to leave a comment – beautiful roses and photography. 😃
I agree and love the frothiness of your vase. I could use a sip of that lemonade!
😃 Sending cool thoughts and lemonade your way! 😉
Cathy I’m sorry I haven’t written in so long. I was with the arm and the right hand for a long time and I have spent a few days on the beach with my Mother in my brother’s house with his wife. Today it is 37ºC in Madrid with sun and at night 22ºC. I love your vase and your flowers. The Alchemilla, the Hypericum, Red Geums with Anthemis tinctoria yellow, the Scabiosa: I love them all. It is a magnificent, wonderful and very happy flower arrangement, I love it. I hope you are all well and you especially. I hope the weather gives you a break and the temperatures drop. Take care. I wish you the best. Very affectionate greetings from Margarita xx😀
Good to hear you are well Margarita. Thank you for your kind words. 😃 I wish you all the best too, and cooler weather soon!
Cathy thank you for your loving words. Today we have a break in the heat, 33ºC, but next Monday again 39ºC. This is Madrid and Climate Warming! I hope you are much cooler. Good weekend. Very affectionate greetings from Margarita.
Your vase really does fizz, Cathy, with the alchemilla and herby accompaniments – I was half-expecting cosmos as I believe there is a C Lemonade! How tall does the scabious grow?
The scabious can get to about 70 cm I should think. Maybe a little taller. Cosmos Lemonade sounds interesting. Is it yellow? I have been tempted to fill a vase with only Alchemilla before now… love it!
C Lemonade is a pale yellow although I believe there is an apricot variety too – don’t fancy it myself, though… Thanks for info on the scabious – have checkd and it is available in seed or plant form in the UK
Karen ( https://bramblegarden.com/ ) had some of that Cosmos in her post today. It is rather pretty.
Yes, that must have been where I saw it
Love that Geum! Maybe I can find one here at one of our nurseries (and maybe ‘Totally Tangerine’, too). They look esp. nice with the chartreuse Alchemilla.
I have been looking for Totally Tangerine too and have finally decided I will probably have more luck sourcing seed. These were easy to grow from seed, but you do then have to wait a year or two before they take off.
Interesting; I have never met Hypericum perforatum before. I see it only in the pharmacy as an herbal supplement. There are two species of Hypericum that have naturalized here, but I do not remember their names.
Hi Tony. Hypericum perforatum is the one that grows wild here (as well as in my herb bed) and I also grow Hypericum hircinum which I think comes from Greece or Italy but is plenty hardy enough for our winters too. The dark-leafed one is H. inodorum.
Is Hypericum perforatum native or just naturalized?
Native. In almost all of central Europe I think. Lots of ancient customs linked to it. 😃
Alchemilla mollis is fabulous for arrangements, I love the frothy effect of your vase. And that cheeky little red geum popping out its head.
Thanks Chloris. Yes, Alchemilla is wonderful isn‘t it! 😃
“Fuzzy lemonade” is a perfect description, Cathy. I love Alchemilla but it’s another of the plants that doesn’t wish to grow in Southern California, or at least in my part of it. I’ve had only nominally better luck with Geum.
Hi Kris. Yes, I suppose Alchmilla would not like your heat as it does shoot up, flower, and then wilt here. The flowers get burnt and look unsightly in Juky, so I have to cut it right down and hope the young shoots don‘t get frazzled. Then it provides nice ground cover and may even produce a few more flowers.
I love the colors and the froth. Wish I could grow Alchemilla here just for the color. And the Geum.
The lime green of Alchemilla is certainly lovely for contrast with the bright summer colours now arriving. 😃
Yes, I love the lime greens with everything.
I’m in love with this arrangement. The Alchemilla is so rich, your use of herbs makes me wish I’d gotten to a garden center in early spring, and the Geums are beautiful. Have a great week.
Thank you Susie. 😃 I can imagine something lemony would be lovely in your meditation circle. Lemon balm is a very calming scent too.
Thanks for the suggestion. Great idea.
I’m with Cindy regarding Alchemilla. It is lovely both in the garden as your lovely arrangement shows. vase. The Lemon Verbena is a great plant to have in a herb garden. Have you tried the very young tender leaves chopped thinly like parsley over say a sliced mango or pawpaw. Try it and let me know what you thing.
I was worried I had used too much Alchemilla, but everyone seems to love it! I am afriad mango or pawpaw are not readily available in my rural supermarket, but I drink lemon verbena tea daily and dry lots for the winter. 😃 I must try lemon balm too. In fact I will do that today!
A lovely arrangement Cathy. The geums are like cocktail stirrers amongst the froth and the vase works perfectly.
What a lovely way of describing them! 😃
Such a charming and refreshing bouquet, Cathy, just perfect for a hot summer day! We too had a great thunderstorm Friday night, I was singing and dancing in my bed all night for joy 🙂 . This time last year we had our first canicule and so far it’s much more pleasant although no doubt it’ll arrive eventually. Hope all is well with you and the new garden is coming on nicely. Enjoy the summer xx
Thanks Annette. The heat slows me down but I go out early or late and do my watering and chopping back/deadheading chores. Thank goodness we have been spared excessive heat here too so far, but the wind…. dries everything up. Have a great July in your garden Annette! 😃
What a pretty bouquet to bright the day. BTW, how are your Russian tomato plants doing? Good I hope.
Hi Karen. Have just been tying the tomatoes in again… they seem to grow by the minute! Some are looking a bit wild, but all have tiny green fruit already. 😃🍅🍅😃
Terrific! I grew some Russian tomatoes in our garden in Maine and they were outstanding. I hope yours will be as well. 😊
Thank you. 😃
Oh I like your glass of fizzy lemonade flowers Cathy even though it not the weather here for cool refreshing drinks. I was thinking that I would be without lemon verbena this year but managed to get replacement plants this week so am most happy 😄
Oh, I am glad you found some lemon verbena Anna. I have already dried a lot as my plants did so well in the warm spring (and I brought them inside overnight until the end of May). I tried lemon balm as tea the other day but it is not quite as nice as the verbena. 😃
Your vase is lovely as always, Cathy.
Thanks Alys. 😃
The red Geums are the stars as far as I am concerned.
I think so too. Love them! 😃