Monday again, and time to make up a vase to share. 😃
I didn’t have a plan this week, but started off in the Herb Bed (in the background here), as there is so much lovely growth there and it is doing so well now. It has reached the stage where I have seedlings every year and can divide or move things.
The Fennel is such a great plant: it loves heat and drought, and remained standing until we had snow. The birds loved sitting in it in winter before it collapsed. And in spring and summer the foliage is wonderful in vases. I added a white and a blue borage and some chives, just about to flower. Then I snipped a sprig of tarragon (apparently an ingredient in the ‘Coronation Quiche’😉) and some wild strawberry flowers.
Then I moved over to the other beds and just continued snipping! A bit of this and a bit of that.
With a purple Pulsatilla at the centre of it all. 😃
This is what I wait for all year – enough flowers to snip for little vases throughout the week, and not just Mondays! 😃
The Spirea arguta is a cloud of white in the Moon Bed, and the white broom is also just opening. A pulsatilla seedhead, some of the golden Spirea, some Pulmonaria, and a pink Scabiosa got picked and I realised this tiny row of joined vases would be ideal. Other snippets were some Geranium phaeum, Euphorbia polychroma, Heuchera leaves and flower spike, and some Nepeta.
Why don’t you also join Cathy at Rambling in the Garden and have some fun picking (or snippety snipping) something from your garden for a vase to share this Monday!
In any case, happy gardening and have a great week!
Words and Herbs 
Beautiful and cheerful vases Cathy!
Thank you Chris!
I love your little vases! Your picks are inspiring 💐
Thanks Val! 🌷
lovely!
Thanks Sandra!
It’s nice to bring all of the outdoors inside.
It certainly is, especially when rainy days are ahead. 😃
Happy Gardening !!!
Thank you!
Lovely Cathy! You have such a variety of things blooming already. Your flowers seem to be way ahead of mine, but we’ve had a very cold spring. A warm winter set everything off to an early start, but then a very cold spring, set everything back. It is nice to see what is blooming in your part of the world and it is lovely!
We had a cold and rather long spring too, but it warmed up about ten days ago and the speed at which the garden greened up is amazing. You can almost watch things grow and we have mown around the flower beds twice! Our lilac should finally be in bloom soon. 😃 I do hope you get some warmer weather now and your garden will catch up in no time. 😃
Beautiful vases….perfect snipping heaven! Love all the herbs especially.
Thanks Donna. I am enjoying the herbs vase most as it is on my dining table! 😃
“Snippity snipping” made me smile, Cathy. I love it when you break out the joined vases. They asymmetry and the size add to its charm. I’m with you on the chance to make small vases of blooms. You’re always inspiring.
🤗 Thanks Alys! I will be making another vase today as we have rain forecast for the next few days.
I hope its a gentle rain and a nice drink for the garden. I love your vases posts.
What a beautiful joined vase and even moreso the blooms. I bet it smells so great too, with the herbs mixed in.
Thanks Tracy. The herbs don’t really smell much in the vase unless you rub their leaves, which I do frequently as they are on the table in front of me! LOL!
Well, I think it was a good snip!
Thanks Rosie!
Your herb garden got you off to a great start, Cathy! My self-seeded Borage bloomed early and then took a nose dive – my only theory is maybe it got too much rain this year. I love those conjoined vases, which are perfect for a rainbow of snips taken here and there 🙂
My Borage was so early this year, but that bed is perhaps the warmest spot in the garden. 😃
I love to snip, too. Is the fennel the kind that makes bulbs? My favorite veg! I remember your linear snip vase and enjoyed seeing it again. Enjoy the herbs.
The fennel is the leafy one, just grown for the seeds. 😃 Neither of us like the bulbs much but we love nibbling at fennel seeds when they are still soft. 😃
oh, I did not know where fennel seeds came from! I need to look into this as I love them as well.
I looked them up as I didn’t know what the difference is either. The one I grow for the seeds is Foeniculum vulgare and the vegetable/bulb one is apparently called Foeniculum vulgare azoricum. The seeds are sweet and taste of aniseed and we just pick them to chew on while out in the garden. I have no idea if the bulb fennel produces similar seeds….
Interesting..I have tried to grow the bulb here but the conditions are not right. I’ll look for some seed for F. vulgare..I would guess that is cool season here. I suppose this is the fennel that grows wild in Italy?
No idea, but the wikipedia page on Fennel has this link to’Giant Fennel’ : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferula_communis
Maybe that is what you are thinking of? I also know the one I grow as ‘Sweet Fennel’. (I usually use the German wikipedia for looking up wild plants and herbs as it is mostly so much more detailed than the English one. I have a lot of reading to do! 😉)
I am not sure, i have been reading a cooking book set in Orvieto, Italy and they were always picking fennel from the meadow.? This is intriguing I can find Sweet Fennel here and Florence Fennel (the bulb) there is also heirloom? The Sweet looks like dill flowers to me, is that what you have? It is cool season here.
Oh yes, I have trouble telling dill and fennel apart and sometimes have to do the taste test! 😉 I would say it is the Sweet Fennel you want for seeds.
Such a pretty gathering of spring gems Cathy. I miss my bronze fennel which has departed my garden. I must replace it. I loved the scent of it and stroking the foliage too 😂
I haven’t had any luck with the bronze one. I planted one two years ago and it hasn’t grown an inch! Maybe it isn’t as keen on the sun as the green one… We love the seeds, while they are still young and soft. 😃
A veritable smorgasbord! ❤
😃 A great way to describe it Eliza!
I love all the flowers/plants. And the nifty vases, too. Fun!
Thank you Beth!
Oh, I still dig fennel. It is something that I grew up with. It was naturalized near riparian situations of the Santa Clara Valley a very long time ago. I have not seen it growing wild in a very long time. I suppose that I should grow it intentionally in the vegetable garden. Both of the borages are nice also. I remember the blue, but want to try the white. It would be odd to grow plants that used to grow wild. Well, I suppose that white borage did not grow wild.
The white is not very striking in a flower bed, but at least it did reseed itself. The fennel is such a great plant for adding height to a landscape and I might try growing it in ither beds in the future.
?! Did the white borage reseed as white, or did it revert to blue?
It reseeded white. 😃
That is interesting. I will not likely ever try it, but if I do, I would prefer it to stay white. I intend to grow borage in the future, but will likely grow the typical blue sort because that is what is familiar. I will likely grow it from seed that I find growing wild somewhere at work. Although white is my favorite color, it is not the traditional color for some flowers. It is difficult to say. If I happen to find seed for white borage at the hardware store, . . . it will be tempting. There is a similar dilemma with scarlet runner beans. They should obviously bloom scarlet, but I sort of want the white sort.
I would worry my beans didn’t taste right if they had white flowers! LOL! I wonder if the white ones are pollinated as well as the red. I wasn’t that impressed with the white borage as the flowers don’t show up too well against the pale green foliage. Nice in a vase though.
Gee, I did not consider pollination. Red attracts pollinators who may not be so impressed by white. The beans likely taste the same though. White is not an easy color to work with. Not much bloom white within my planter box downtown, and the few white flowers out there look like litter.
Beautiful vases! Love it.
Thank you so much! 😃
Borage is particularly pretty! Do you get a lot of caterpillars in your fennel? One year I bought a small fennel plant at a farmers’ market just because it came with a black swallowtail caterpillar! We put the plant and the caterpillar in a little insect cage, where it ate the entire plant, spun a chrysalis, and hatched into a beautiful butterfly! Finally, I really like that row of tiny connected vases! Happy snipping!
Thanks Kimberley! I have had a swallowtail caterpillar in it once or twice, but I think they got eaten before I could do anything to protect them. 😮 Must keep my eyes open this year!
vase
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Your cut herbs are wonderful, Cathy! I should probably try growing borage here, as the Mediterranean herbs seem very happy and nearly as carefree as the native plants. And your line of snippets is delightful! 🙂
I expect you can grow all sorts of sage too, as they love hot dry summers here. Borage stands up to the heat well too. 😀
I love that row of vases. Absolutely delightful. The pulsatilla looks enormous. It’s a plant that I’ve tried several times but for some reason have never managed to keep for long.
Hi Judith. Well the vase is very small, making the Pulsatilla look bigger. 😉 I am lucky and have several Pulsatilla and they flower well here in full sun. I think I like the seedheads even more than the flowers though!
Adding fennel to your arrangement – very nice!
Thank you!
It’s hard not to smile upon seeing this collection of lovely flowers. So cheery!
Thank you Susie! I refreshed the vases and the herbs especially have lasted so well.
My week completely got away from me, but part of that is because since we finally have warm, dry weather, my garden tidying up has become a huge chore after months of neglect. I enjoyed seeing your pretty arrangements and once again being reminded that herbs make lovely additions. I so often forget that!
Last week was the same for us Debra and I barely had a moment to do any housework! 😉 And now we have had lots of rain and the weeds have grown again…. Have a lovely relaxing Sunday Debra!