In a Vase on Monday - where has the snap gone?

I last grew Antirrhinums and put them in a vase in 2017. They were tall strong white specimens which I had planted the first year in the garden.  This year I picked up some very young plants from the Bishop's Palace at the start of July and they are just now coming into flower.  The speed at which they have grown is quite remarkable and another strange thing is that they are open throated, which I had not noticed up to now when admiring snapdragons in other gardens. There were in small modules with nine plants and they are just now coming into flower. I think they may be of mixed colour, but these were the first to flower, and by some luck when I planted three lots of three plants, these coral coloured ones were all together.

These antirrhinum have no snap!  In the vase are a few other plants from the garden: Sedum Frosty Morn, Fuchsia 'Tom West', and the flower spike from a heuchera, of which I have no name.  

July garden flowers in a vase.

 I am linking in this arrangement to Cathy's 'Gobstoppers'.

Once again we are having very high temperatures, and the garden is seriously parched. To give you an idea today the washing dried out in the garden in only two hours! The Antirrhinums have need watering regularly, using mainly water run when waiting for the hot water to reach the kitchen sink.  Sadly the forecast shows no rain for the coming fortnight. 

Six on Saturday - 9 August 2025

I wonder what takes the place of the garden and love of plants and gardening in non gardeners?  Can be it something as fickle, which has ways to enchant and ways to cause angst?  Even something completely uncontrollable such insects or weather or disease can stretch ones feelings whether is is pleasure or pain?  This is a rhetorical question.  It is Six on Saturday so to a few observations to link in with others over in Jim's Garden Rumination post.

1. What is not to like about this glowing fiery nasturtium.  I first admired this one in a friend's garden a few years ago that autumn was given a few seeds, and I was delighted that they came up in the garden despite spending two winters in my seed box under the stairs.  The colour is not easy to capture but they literally glow in the early morning sunlight.

2.  We have had a little day flying moth flit around the garden over a number of days, and I finally managed to find it when I had my phone in hand.  

Jersey Tiger Moth

3. This week saw my dearly beloved finish the external shed refurbishment, and I am particularly pleased with some of the little improvements such as replacement of the rusty hinges for marine quality stainless ones, and also a lovely escutcheon.  Two more coats of paint and the guttering was dismantled cleaned down and the waterbutt reassembled. The internal refurbishment is to take place once the weather cools down. The shelf is back in place, no paint needed there, and plants put back.

4. I may have mentioned that I was disappointed in parts of the garden. Possibly this time it has been my fault, but I have learnt lessons which hopefully when applied will make it a better summer garden next year.  On the way back during a little excursion yesterday we happened to pass East Lambrook Manor Gardens. Somehow I had, it seems quite wrongly, thought the gardens having changed hands had ceased to function as before.  As we saw a sign outside I begged a little forray to see if they had any plants which I could add to fill in some gaps. Even though we didn't have time for a garden visit.  I can confidently report that East Lambrook Manor Gardens are open, and they did have some good plants.  I was delighted that Ellie, the person on duty in the garden filled me in, and I shall be sure to return.

All four plants were planted last night: two Dahlia Karma Sangria, and two Agastache Bolero.

5. I had a clump of Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Golden Arrow' which honestly had looked like it had decided to 'kick the bucket'.  It just could not hack the dry clay and extreme sun. However now that it has been dug up and has its roots in muddy water in a bucket, it has come back to life.  It will be tried in a couple of different parts of the garden to see if another area would suit it better.

Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Golden Arrow'

6. Last year I bought the grass Miscanthus nepalensis, and my SOS Sis was sent some seed.  I kept a seed head back and this was sown earlier this year straight into the ground.  Given the unpredictable seasons ought I to pot these very small plants up and maybe overwinter them on inside the shelf by the window?  It will depend if there is room!

Miscanthus nepalensis seedlings

Another week of dry hot weather is ahead of us......

In a Vase on Monday - Monochrome

 This morning we woke up to an evenly grey sky with no billowing cumulus nimbus clouds, and like the other days where we were promised rain but got none, today I fear that wind will be the on the agenda as Storm Floris hits the north of the country, with lesser winds felt this far south. The Storm is called Floris, so quite apt to mention it as the name means flower or blossom.

To reflect the storm and the grey skies this week I chose again a monochromatic selection which I think for three or four days will form a shapely arrangement in our living room.

There are four elements in this Chinese Cloisonné vase.  Central are the spikey rosettes of Eryngium 'Silver Ghost', and soft velvety whorls of  Pseudodictamnus acetabulosus form a lovely contrast in texture, again the  Hylotelephium × mottramianum 'Herbstfreude' much more easily referred to as Sedum 'Autumn Joy' is a favourite even before it is showing any colour, and appearing for the first time in a bouquet the delightful still green seed heads of Corncockle.  

I only got to grow Corncockle this year as they had a tray of 9 small plants up at the Bishop's Palace, and I like to buy something as it raises funds for the garden.  As a cultivar is had the tiniest of pink purple flowers not at all as shown in some pictures, but it did have good height, and I am so pleased that that I did not grub them all up straight away.  The stems of the unripe seed heads are to me very attractive and the grey green colour a perfect element in this vase. When we were down in Kent a few weeks ago I saw the white form of Corncockle with larger blooms grown to great effect in Great Dixter and also at Sissinghurst

Unripe Corncockle seed head

With winds in mind, armed with my bucket of water I had headed outside this morning and picked a selection of material including some roses, as well as doing some dead heading. Although I could have used the roses and changed the mood of the first arrangement completely, they did not go to waste. Here they are on the sideboard in the dinning room in front of a sampler made by a very special person.

The most recent read from the book club is James by Percival Everett. I found it well written and worth reading, but must say in parts I didn't feel brave enough to read it as a bed time read, as I found the cruelty metered out too upsetting.

James by Percival Everett.

I am linking in the In a Vase on Monday post to Cathy's blog, where in contrast you will be able see the sweetest of colourful arrangements.

 

Six on Saturday - 26 July 2025

Whilst still suffering from a lack of adequate rain, I am focusing this week on some pleasing aspects of my gardening.  Over at Jim's blog called 'Garden Ruminations' you will find more than just my post, providing an insight into gardens and gardeners, plants and possibly also weather. 

1. How could I not start this Six on Saturday but with this luscious plant:

Looks like it might be Canna 'Tropicanna'.  After only one month its first ripe mango/papaya coloured blooms are charming me.  For a while all the plants in pots along the shed side of the large gravel, size of the gravel, not the area, have been moved together whilst the shed is having a full refurbish. I am certainly enjoying veering off my usual pallet towards warmer richer colours for the summer.

2. On our date day out yesterday, we had a little detour for lunch and a mooch around Sherborne Garden Centre, and how could I not be tempted by a few plants.  With several large empty pots back home, I took advantage of a late season sale of two for one and bought two Begonia 'Bossa Nova Night Fever Papaya'. at first my eye was taken by the contrast of the dark foliage and the bright flowers when someone at the till was buying some.  I had to go back of course to get them: two for £3.99 was a definite bargain . Two Thunbergia 'Sun Eyes Terracotta' again £3.99, which I had to earn by disentangling them, I felt would look good growing in the same up up some old sticks that I had used last year and bound at the top with some copper wire.  I am hoping that like the Canna, given a month, they will be putting on a good show:

3.  And just because I had seen them growing on Tresco, I also picked up a couple of Lotus Berthelotti Orange, two for £2.75. I have since read that it needs a cooling period before flowering, so these went in together in my precious Whichford Pottery bowl, and hopefully after a winter in the conservatory they will flower well again next year, even if they don't this year. Usually plants at this time of the year in garden centres are in a poor state but the care and attention which the dedicated staff give to watering etc., means that the nursery is still well worth visiting.

I decided it was too hot to put the order in the car, whilst we parked up and had a couple of hours in Sherborne, so had them hold my order, and returned later. 

4. The cuttings of Phlox bifida 'Alba' which I took a few weeks ago looked ready to be potted up again, so whilst I was potting up the plants mentioned earlier, these got planted in a half pot ready to pass the winter and later make a show next spring for one of the tables.

5. I took this White Pelargonium 'New Century White' which I was given as a plug by the gardening club to grow on, for our Gardening Summer Party competition, 10 days ago.  After this it stood on a pedestal by the front door, but it proved a little too hot there, so it has been moved to the back garden.  Some of the flowers have started to grow seed capsules, so one of my tasks later will be to take my fine nosed snips and remove these. It will probably entail removing entire heads as well, to allow the plant to develop more blooms. It won second prize, but the judge was a non gardener who even had to ask the name of the plants. My consolation was that I heard several people mutter under their breath that mine was the most tricky of the plants to grow and even the finest plant overall!  The judge probably just didn't like geraniums or white flowers.  But being a good looser is realising that everything is 'In the eye of the Judge'!

White Pelargonium  'New Century White'

6. Origanum Buckland is still quite small.  It has been moved and hopefully having a little space to itself in the middle of the gravel garden will suit it.  It has of course been struggling, but hopefully it will soon get its roots down in its new situation and flourish next year. I bought it in 2021 from Pottertons.

I can't find much about this cultivar except that it is probably a hybrid between O dictamnus and O. amanum with the branched hairs of the former but the intermediate in floral characters. I have O dictamnus close by but have yet to acquire O amanum, which seems elusive at its best. Should anyone be able to source or share same Origanum amanum with me, I would love to have it and if I have something in the garden to share, let me know.

Monday morning breakfast posy

We breakfast in the conservatory and usually on the central lazy Susan I have a little collection of finds. Having arranged this little posy of fresh flowers it was moved temporarily there. 

A few dwarf dianthus, Chamomile: Chamamelum nobile 'Flore Pleno', some lemon thyme flowers, and wild marjoram, as well seed heads from Scabiosa 'Butterfly Blue.

As soon as breakfast was over, the little posy was moved to the kitchen windowsill, as the heat and sun would desiccate the flowers before evening, when it is cool enough in there for us to have dinner.  On very hot days we step back to eat in the dinning room, or eat out in the garden.

Already there were some seedheads from the Clematis Alpina 'Blue Dancer'.  When I first picked them they had a smooth and shiny tails to the seeds, now several weeks later, all water gone and fully ripened the tails are now feathery. I picked them as I wanted the young plant to focus on growth rather than on seed production.  I've kept them just it for their sheer beauty.

Feather tails on seeds of clematis flower

Behind it in the other vase are a few stems of Persicaria Red Dragon.  After I had picked these for a vase a few weeks ago, I also cut down the large plant.  It usually bounces back nicely, but with the ground bone dry, I cannot yet see any signs of life.  It rained at last yesterday but nothing like the amount falling in other parts of the country.  The Persicaria is slowly growing roots and this is my insurance should the large plant fail on account of the drought. Regular readers will appreciate just how often I use this, and of course it has great sentimental meaning for me, since the original plant was given to me by Cathy our beloved anchor woman for In a Vase on Monday. Do go over to Cathy's post, where I and several other gardeners show flowers from their garden.