Tag Archives: Autumn

In a Vase on Monday: Ninth Anniversary!

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It is now nine years since Cathy at Rambling in the Garden first invited fellow bloggers to join her and share a vase every Monday with materials from their gardens. What a great idea that was! Even though this was November – the onset of winter in the UK – it struck a chord with gardeners around the world and soon created a wonderful little community in the blogging world. And yesterday some of us even met up on zoom for the first time, which was lovely!

Cathy has set us a challenge to celebrate this anniversary: create a hand-tied posy.

I love a challenge. So I made my posy a few days early, as frosts had been forecast.

At the centre I used some Miscanthus ‘Red Chief’, my last red Gaillardia, some Persicaria ‘Blackfield’, a few deep red Cornus stems and the very last of the small sunflowers.

Around the edges are some common spurge, some geranium leaves turning lovely autumn colours, and a large hellebore leaf.

A couple of sprigs of Queen Anne’s Lace and the deep red Leucothoe add highlights.

I tied the posy with a piece of string, and then added a green ribbon, although it is hard to see on my photos, and got a bit soggy when I put the posy in a glass of water!

Saturday night/Sunday morning we had our first frost – it was only just below freezing, but was accompanied by a cold north-east wind. And yet Geranium ‘Rozanne’ was still flowering. Such an amazing plant. So I decided to make a second posy to celebrate that as well!


More Miscanthus ‘Red Chief’, red cornus stems and Chrysanthemum ‘Anastasia’ at the centre, with silvery Anaphalis triplinervis and the blue Rozanne flowers. Then four bronze Heuchera leaves around the edges, and a purple ribbon.

(By the way, I used Rozanne in last week’s vase, and it lasted extremely well.)

A huge thank you to Cathy, and to all the others who join in every Monday as well as all those who write comments. This meme has made Mondays so much more enjoyable and I look forward to visiting everyone’s posts, even if it is sometimes a day or two later. You and your gardens are all wonderful!

💕

In a Vase on Monday: Heavenly Blue

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A very late flowering Salvia lends its name to the title of my vase this week. Salvia ‘Heavenly Blue’ is in its second year and has only just started to flower! I am also not sure how hardy it is as it surprised me in the spring when it started sprouting new leaves. So I cut one stem and left the other for the remaining insects to peruse. And we will see what it does next year. I gave it its own rosebud vase, to show it off best.

Beside it, for the other flowers, is a tiny porcelain blue vase (originally bought from a Christmas market for snowdrops, but I will probably never have enough in this garden to pick!)

I cut a few Geranium Rozanne flowers for this vase, to continue the blue theme, and found a single blue Campanula flower as well. The leaves are fresh Pulmonaria foliage.

The shorter days and chilly nights mean flowers are increasingly hard to find, but there are still enough for tiny posies now and then. The asters have gone over rather quickly in the last week or so. We haven’t had a frost yet, but night-time temperatures have often been hovering just above zero. It has been a gentle slide towards winter though, and I do even have some summer Pelargoniums in pots that are still flowering well. In November! 😆

I am joining Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for her Monday meme. Do go and visit her to see the brilliant idea she has had for her meme’s ninth anniversary next week, and also to take a look at the lovely flowers she picked to share this Monday. 😃

Have a great week!

In a Vase on Monday: Summer in October

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Well another week of warm, sunny weather has passed and we have been basking in it; soaking up all that vitamin D and happiness the sun brings with it, and watching the garden go on blooming as if there is no winter approaching. Bliss!

October 31st? Yes! 😃

As a result of this mild and sunny month, I have a rather odd mix of flowers to share in my vase today. Odd in a very positive way, I must add.

As you can see above, a large pink cosmos has made a late appearance, possibly the ‘Double Click Cranberries’ which turned out to be single from last year. Then there is a blue Scabiosa, some pink Gypsophila which I thought had died in the summer, some pink Salvia (‘Icing Sugar’) and a blue Geranium…. and is that white flower on the left an anemone?  No, a Hellebore!

In the middle of the the three mini vases you can see a pink aster and my one and only reliable Chrysanthemum ‘Anastasia’. She comes back bigger and better each year, while others barely produce a single flower. I think I might try and take cuttings from her next year.

And on the right, more Geraniums (the pale pink one is ‘Apple Blossom’), a white Japanese Anemone, some purple sage and Aster ‘Ezo Murasaki’.

The temperature was 21°C yesterday (Sunday), but is forecast to slowly drop this week down to 7°C on Saturday. Oh well, it was a wonderful month and the garden needs a rest now, so November can come.

How was your October?

As usual, many thanks to Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, who had the ingenious idea one November to share a vase of things from her garden and has since invited us to do the same every Monday. 😃

Have a great week, and happy gardening!

🍁☀️🍁

 

In a Vase on Monday: Red and Gold

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A simple title for a simple vase this week, as I join Cathy at Rambling in the Garden with some materials gathered from my garden for a Monday vase.

Even before going out with my garden scissors, I knew which vase I wanted to use today – the bargain red glass bottle found at my local supermarket recently, with golden leaves attached. It just seems perfect for the season!

No blue skies in the background today, but the rain is doing the garden so much good that I will not complain.

I found the ideal flowers to put in it too. Some golden Chrysopsis from the Sunshine Bed and a couple of small sunflowers that are still looking decent.

The red flowers are Gaillardia ‘Burgunder’ and the red spikes are Persicaria ‘Blackfield’, both growing in The ‘Edge. I added a bit of Plumbago foliage as well – the flowers are over but the leaves are such a gorgeous shade of red at this time of year.

Three of these Gaillardia were planted together, but for some reason I also get flowers with yellow rings around the petals. Not sure if that is normal or my plants are trying to revert to their original colour… 🤔 I do prefer the solid red though.

The sun should be back tomorrow for the rest of the week, so this October really will have been golden. 😃

Hope your week will be full of sunshine too, and happy gardening!

🐝🍁🐝

 

Why I Love Autumn…

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October is progressing, so it is time for an update from my autumnal garden. I really love this time of year, not just for the cooler temperatures and the special light or October sunshine. But the morning mists, the slower pace, the grasses, the asters, and a kind of ‘end-of-season’ feeling of satisfaction.

Apart from some slightly stunted growth (especially the Miscanthus), the grasses and asters seemed practically unaffected by the hot dry summer.

In the Oval Bed the rich purply pink Aster ‘September Ruby’ stands at about 1.8m tall. It has been the highlight for a few weeks now, along with the Miscanthus ‘Federweisser’, which is the only Miscanthus I have that has reached its full height and has flowered well. I love it!

Aster ageratoides ‘Ezo Murasaki’ is a small bluish purple one, about 60cm tall, spreading into a nice clump now….

Other asters have been planted in the Oval Bed but need a year or two to settle in, such as this pretty pale pink one called ‘Rosa Sieger’.

Moving across to the Butterfly Bed, this much pinker one is Aster novae-angliae ‘Andenken an Alma Poetschke’.

Pink is an understatement for this flower! It is lively, vibrant, luminous – a great one to have if you only have space for one or two asters, or as a focal point as it really stands out.

(By the way, Poetschke is one of the oldest gardening companies in Germany and this aster was named after the grandmother of Werner Poetschke who ran the family business until the 1980s.)

In the Butterfly Bed the mice/voles had fun reorganizing everything last winter, so bits of asters planted there have moved and labels have been lost! The only one I can name for sure is the Aster pringlei ‘Pink Star’, seedlings of which have been put in the Oval Bed as well. 😀 Here it is pictured alongside a blue Geranium and the Chrysanthemum ‘Anastasia’, which is just beginning to open.

These are also flowering in the Butterfly Bed…

 

Now onto the Moon Bed, which focuses on blue and white flowers.

I had Aster ‘Mönch’ flowering here. for weeks, but it is finally going over. The current blue in this bed is the very tall Aster ‘Barr’s Blue’… not a true blue, but lovely nonetheless…

The Deschampsia cespitosa ‘Schottland’ is still a great backdrop.

The white asters in flower here right now are creating a stir… I would never have thought that white could be such a lovely ‘colour’, but at this time of year it brings light to the fading flower beds and stands out so well against the blue skies we have had recently.

This is Boltonia asteroides ‘Snowbank’ above, and below the slightly shorter Aster ageratoides ‘Ashvi’.

The other white aster I have is on the corner of the Sunshine Bed, which is extremely dry and exposed to sun and wind.

Aster ericoides ‘Schneetanne’ has tiny flowers, but major impact. It looks as good as ever, especially from a distance, like a little cloud in front of the yellow Chrysopsis.

Finally, The ‘Edge. This bore the brunt of the hot winds we had in July and August, and although the Miscanthus suffered, most of the other plants bounced back in September.

The Calamagrostis took it in their stride and the Stipa gigantea has remained standing all this time and is still very present.

I have got my final planting done, and bulbs in pots and in the ground, so I finally had time to sit on my lovely lounger last weekend and dream about the perfect gardening year we will have next year… plenty of rain, but lots of sunshine too. No wind. No heatwaves. No thunderstorms or hail and lots of butterflies and bees! 😉

Do you grow asters? Which have flowered well for you?

I hope you are enjoying your October gardens too.

Happy gardening!

🐝🍁🐝