In a Vase on Monday: Spring Flurries

Despite flurries of snow, an icy north wind and temperatures just above freezing, there have been bursts of spring sunshine today and the flowers are reaching up to the ever-changing sky. You can see it was actually snowing and sunny at the same time in this photo! (And can you see the Forsythia flowering in the distance? More on that later this week…)

I chose a sunny interval to go out and pick some spring flowers for a vase so that I can join Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for her Monday meme. The primulas and hellebores are in full flower in the Butterfly Bed…

And there is another ‘flurry’ of spring flowers and a lovely pale Cowslip in the Moon Bed…

I have a few Narcissi and Pulmonarias open now too. And some blue Chionodoxa, Scilla, Puschkinia and Grape Hyacinths. So I ended up picking a bit of everything.

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Some warm days last week brought on many plants and bulbs, including the new Foxtail Lilies I planted last autumn. (How exciting to see their shoots breaking through the damp soil!) And the garden is beginning to look green again at last. 😃

Is your garden coming to life yet? And have you also spotted a favourite plant peeking out the ground that made you smile (or even squeal or skip and jump!) ? 😉 Do share!

Have a great week. And Happy Gardening!

In a Vase on Monday: From East to West

So many of our garden shrubs and plants originate from the Far East, having been brought back from China, Japan, the Himalayas etc by ambitious and brave botanists hundreds of years ago. One of them is Forsythia, frowned upon by some, but loved by most for its early cheerful colour signalling Spring.

Well, mine is still not opening outdoors, but I had the foresight to cut some last week so that it would open in time for a vase this Monday. So I am joining Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for her weekly meme, with an oriental theme today.

Many willows also have their home in Eastern Europe and Asia, although Pussy Willow (Salix caprea) is native to much of western Europe too. The buds are just opening on ours, but in milder spots further down the hill I have seen them fully open for a couple of weeks already. A sure sign that the ground is warming up at last!

My prop is a Chinese carved scene which I inherited from my Nanny. I assume it was bought or given to her when she visited my Aunt and her family who were living in Taiwan/Hong Kong in the 1970s. I also assumed for many years that it was made of ivory, but I am not so sure now as I have had to make several repairs to it over time. Nonetheless, even if it is plastic I have always viewed it as a work of art – the willow tree and the moving mill wheel fascinated me as a child.

I wonder if the Forsythia is flowering in your part of the world yet? I can recommend bringing a sprig or two indoors to enjoy up close!

I used my hare jug again, and thank Kimberley for the suggestion of putting Forsythia in it. 😃 I plan to dedicate a post to my Forsythia shrub once it finally flowers outdoors… I hope that will be very soon!

Happy gardening!

 

 

 

In a Vase on Monday: Floating (Away)

After all the rain (and sleet and snow) we have had this winter our garden is saturated and parts of the garden are very squelchy. The trees will hopefully appreciate it although there is standing water all over the place, and we even have a little stream in one spot!

It therefore seems appropriate to show some flowers floating today. Thankfully the flower beds are on high ground and are not in danger of floating away, with well-drained soil helping considerably. 😉

 

But the Hellebores do float so nicely and I managed to find quite a few different ones to display.

Labels have been lost on many, and several apparently different varieties look identical to me, but I am happy to have these unnamed specimens on my table nonetheless. I do know that the yellow one is ‘Yellow Lady’, the others probably include Ice ‘n’ Roses Early Red and Early Rose, Penny’s Pink, Double Ellen, Carlotta and Noa.

This is undoubtedly one of the best ways to see the detail of each individual bloom, and my large footed Ikea trifle dish that I have had for years is ideal for it. (It has never had a trifle in it which I suppose should be remedied one day!)

My current favourite is the lovely double in the centre…

Which type of hellebore do you like best? Single or double? Pink, red or white? Or even yellow?

Many thanks to Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for hosting this lovely meme. Do visit her to admire her beautiful hellebores today too!

And have a wonderful flowery week!

 

In a Vase on Monday: Beautiful Blue

It is always a pleasure to join Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for her weekly meme. Sometimes it is tricky to find anything suitable for a vase in winter, but when I ventured out today it was clear that some Iris reticulata had to come indoors.

They stand out so well in my winter garden and I am slowly planting more of them in various spots. They seem to be untouched by the mice too, which is an added bonus. I have several different shades of deep blue, simply because they show up best against the woodchip mulch. A few brave violas are also flowering, but they – along with the hellebores – are looking a little tatty after some hard frosts.

The little blue vase seemed just right. But there is another vase in the background… can you see the lovely hare peeping around the iris?

This gorgeous jug was a surprise sent over from my Mum last week. 😃 So naturally I had to find something large enough to go in it immediately – some bright and cheerful yellow tulips from my local supermarket!

I adore it! And it will be used more frequently once I have some tall flowers in the garden. (Perhaps my own tulips? Roll on Spring!)

Wishing you all a great week, hopefully with a better weather  forecast than ours! 😉

 

 

 

In a Vase on Monday: Mini Spring Mix

It was gardening weather today: 11°C and hazy sunshine. At last! I could not only inspect the garden but also finally get some tidying up done. I cut back the last of the perennials still standing, and all the grasses. I usually feel sad to see them go, but this year they had been squashed and broken by the heavy snowfall we had a couple of weeks ago. Looks much better now!

The first crocuses opened while I was working. 😁

And I even saw a bee on one.

The early Hellebores have perked up while the later ones are just about to start flowering. So I picked one of the paler pink ones (incorrectly labelled so I don’t know what it is), for my vase today.

The tiny Narcissus is from a pot of spring flowers I received on Valentine’s Day, but the other items are from the garden.

The darker pink Hellebores are from last week’s vase – didn’t they last well! There is a sprig of Wintersweet in the tiny blue ceramic vase too. (The shrub is still looking lovely but is slowly going over now.)

So nice to have some sunshine – it makes taking vase photos much easier. 😉

I hope to have another day outside this week, before temperatures dip again. I can at least do a bit of weeding and tidy my pots and raised beds. I wonder if you have been able to do any gardening jobs this week?

Thanks to our host, Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, who encourages us every week to go out into our gardens (whatever the weather!) and find something to share in a vase.

Have a great week! 🌷

In a Vase on Monday: Thawing Out

The temperatures finally rose above freezing at the weekend after a week of snowy and icy weather. My garden looks terrible, with flattened grasses and muddy patches everywhere! Looking out of my window I can enjoy the view from a distance, but closer inspection is a little disheartening.

As the ground thaws my hellebores will perk up though, I hope. I managed to find some half decent ones for a vase today, along with some Cornus twigs and some Leucothoe which I have been protecting in my cold frame.

 

The grey winter skies have been pretty the last couple of days too.

And it is good to smell the earth and the scent of the pine trees again. We only need a little sunshine and warm breezes to dry things up and I will be able to do some tidying up before any spring bulbs start sprouting. I am itching to get out there!

In the meantime I will admire this sturdy little flower which has stood up to a heavy load of very wet snow and a week of permafrost. And yet it looks almost unscathed. 😃

 

Thanks to the host of this Monday meme, Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, whose garden is currently looking gorgeous with snowdrops, hellebores, witch hazel and more. Do go and visit her! 😃

And have a great week!

In a Vase on Monday: Good Timing

There are only a few winter-flowering shrubs I can grow in my garden and it is always a gamble if they will get caught by frost or the harsh north winds we get late winter. This year however, the severe frosts we had mid-December have given way to some very mild days, thus allowing my Viburnum ‘Dawn’ to make the most of this window in the weather and unfold its petals, emitting a delicious scent. It is at the top of the drive, and I detected the smell as soon as I got out of my car to open the gate the other day.

This is the only Viburnum I have that flowers so early. Other winter bloomers are the Witch Hazel ‘Diane’, which may flower by February, and the Winter Sweet (Chimonanthus praecox) which has lots of fat buds.

My title today comes from the metronome in the background which we rarely use these days but looks nice on the sideboard!

Although it is still a small shrub, I convinced myself that this twig was growing at a strange angle too near to the ground. 😉 I must resist the urge to cut any more though, and will instead be sure to visit it regularly for a sniff. In the meantime this indoor sprig smells lovely.

I am happy to be joining Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for her Monday meme, where she invites us to find something we have grown or foraged to pop in a vase and share. Do visit her today and you may be in for a surprise what she has used for her Monday vase this week…

Have a good week!