Monday 13 August 2018

In a Vase on Monday - In or out

Cathy who hosts this group of IAVOM  has posted a colourful arrangement...so go over and see what she has posted. 

Each week, as I start to think about what is best to pick and arrange for In a Vase on Monday, there is the question of what to pick.  Will it be the best of the flowers?  What can be spared?  What can be to be left in the garden for another week?  Often there are prunnings which would other wise be discarded that make a good addition. Then there are definitely ones which are left out because they are not up to much.  For sure I have my failures and disappointments, sadly this year the nasturtiums are not fairing well.

A few weeks ago, we spent a lovely family day all together.  To find things my GD and I can share is a lovely way of connecting. I have loved sharing my joy in nature and flowers and IAVOM with my beloved GD.  She has even been an apprentice IAVOM contributor. Izzi is at the fairy stage and is sharing her love of fairies with me.  Over several years we have shared our love of fuchsias, which also happens to be her favourite fairy.  Until the cooler weather and rain arrives,  it has been other types of flowers fairies who have been waiving their wands in my garden.

We found that there is a  Nasturtium Fairy.  For a number of years, I have grown nasturtiums...so very easy and colourful.  I have posted and talked often of this annual.




Each year I have been pleased with the nasturtium plants and flowers...until this year.  For the first time I bought seed, rather that collected seed from good plants.  I had a lovely tray full of good strong plants although even at that stage the shape and form of the leaves did not really appeal: Jewel of Africa  and planted them out at just the right time.  But I think Van Meuwen's fairies had not spread their magic dust on the packeted seeds.

With hot temperatures I had expected the plants to do well.  Although I have had the odd plant with variegated leaves emerge in the past and enjoyed this trait, now that all of them  are two toned, I have decided I prefer the matt green of 'standard' leaves where you can really appreciate the lovely round flat structure  where its petiole in the centre.

I have also read that the leaves are superhydrophobic, which means that because the leaves contain waxy nanostructures, water is not absorbed through the top of the leaf.  Because the water drops off, it removes dirt and dust aleaving a clean surface to continue photosynthesis.  I wonder what this substance is and whether we could add it to the surface of raincoats etc?

The shape of the leaves on Jewel of Africa are bumpy, and the outline rather wavy.  Sadly there are even very few flowers...but I did want to have an arrangement this week with the nasturtiums.


Only three or four blooms from about a dozen plants were worth picking, so I have added a couple of Tithonia flowers.  Those plants have more than made up for the poor nasturtiums.  Also a few stems of rudbekia.  One bloom and leaf would just not stay in the vase either...so out it stayed, and then three of my miniature yellow tomatoes decided the join the combination.

This afternoon, I may well uproot all the nasturtiums and use the space for plants I want to bring on.

For reading this past week I have had my nose burried in  these two, whichI picked up from the library as they were on the just arrived, brand new shelf, and I was the first to borrow these two!

I love reading about gardens, and am enjoying reading this one.


I am about two thirds of the way through 'So much Life Left Over'....loving this. I have since read that this is a sequel to The Dust that falls from Dreams.  I haven't felt reading 'So much Life Left Over' that there had to have been a previous book.



It seems strange to be adding a post-script to a post several months later.  However, it is mainly for my own use, and if you have been searching on nasturtiums, you will surely be wiser for visiting Joanna's post on the topic.  With much history and background she writes about the introduction of nasturtiums firstly to Spain and later to the rest of Europe in the sixteenth century.

27 comments:

  1. What an interesting and thoughtful post, Noelle - I really enjoyed reading it. It is strange how nasturtiums have not done well this year as it is the same here, but at least I have worked out which ones I really want to grow (just a deep red one, I think. The colour of yours with the tithonia nad rudbeckia look so pretty, with the extra bloom and tomatoes the perfect prop. Izzie has really grown since I last saw a picture of her - how has she been doing since her home schooling ended? I was given PL's book last birthday and enjoyed reading it - and fondling the cover which I find s pretty and tactile!

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    1. Interesting to hear that you have found nasturtiums tricky too this year. Izzi has always been to main stream school...she does however have loads of after-school activities, and gets involved with clubs after school and at weekends.

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  2. It's a pretty arrangement and a pretty child. I love nasturtiums but never have grown them successfully.

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    1. Thanks Susie, having found nsturtiums very easy till now...its good to have a 'bad' year, if only to be able to commiserate with others. However I have picked up from comments further down that they do not do that well if it is too hot.

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  3. I love those fairy flower illustrations and how lovely to share them with your GD. I am also reading the Penelope Lively book.

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    1. I'm even wondering whether I should get my own fairy book!

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  4. Very pretty arrangement and GD. Lucky you. My nasturtiums haven’t liked the heat. Hopefully they will take off when it rains and the temperatures cool a little

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    1. Thanks Karen...I've just read this minutes before I was going out to tear them up...they are having a week or two reprieve after what you have said. Its cooler here too and we have had some good rains.

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  5. I wonder how many fairy stories have spawned gardeners? Few they may be but the nasturtium blooms and their companions make a lovely little vase and the addition of the cherry tomatoes was inspired, Noelle. Nasturtiums are spring flowers here as our own summer heat is too much for them.

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    1. Your comment has been so helpful Kris, as it is now a little cooler, I am giving them a couple more weeks to prove themselves.

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  6. I have never had any luck with Nasturtiums..I do like the foliage in your vase and the Tithtonias. I just looked for the books in my library, not there. Sigh.

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    1. We have a way of ordering books from 'sister' libraries or hold a book for when it is returned. It costs me £1 each time, but with limited space..its a good way of getting a good book for very little.

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  7. A lovely vase....my nasturtiums did not do well either due to excessive heat and drought. Too bad as I love them and wish they had grown bigger and fuller with more blooms.

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    1. As I have seen from your vases Donna, you do grow other lovely blooms...

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  8. Izzi is so adorable that the nasturtium fairy must have gotten jealous and skipped your seeds this year. I share you love of this sweet plant and hope that your luck is better next year. Your bright arrangement is very cheerful.

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  9. Same here with nasturtiums. Love hearing about what you and your GD enjoy together.

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    1. Its great to be able to pass down delights...sadly GD is not interested in knitting!! I still hope that may come later.

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  10. What a lovely bright bouquet!!! It is a beautiful combination of summer and the approaching fall.

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    1. Thanks Cindy...each season melts into the next.

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  11. The tomatoes are an inspired addition. Those flowers all go so well together; it made for a happy bouquet.

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    1. Thanks Hoover Boo....Just fluke...I only have a couple of tomatoes each day to pick from my small plant in a plant pot, and they were on the side of the kitchen worktop...they almost edged in accidentally...and it worked.

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  12. I loved reading your ponderings over the shape and texture and water qualities of your nasturtiums. My garden is jam packed with them at present and I use them as a ground cover in places I want to discourage weeds. At least I do for now. I dread the time when I have to dig them all up, and find hundreds of seeds which yes, you've guessed it, reseed themselves from year to year.

    I also have self-seeded small yellow tomatoes growing so when I saw your vase, I did a double-take. I thought, perhaps, you'd visited my garden during evening hours, hah!

    I also have sweet peas growing presently, which I just posted about.

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    1. I love your writing style...but sadly you live too far to visit...your garden sounds lovely...I shall visit on line for the first time soon!

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  13. All of my nasturtiums died, we think from the heat. Barry watered enough and the sunflowers grown through them thrived, but the nasturtiums just went to straw, it was most weird.

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    1. Pleased to hear your Sunflowers flourished...and its seems that everyone has had trouble with nasturtiums this year. So we shan't give up for next year, will we?

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  14. A most cheerful vase Noelle and what an excellent garden fairy helper you have in the shape of Izzy. Oh I'm so glad to read that other people have had nasturtium woes this year and that's it's not just me. The Penelope Lively book is waiting in the wings for the darker nights. It sounds like a good read.

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    1. Thanks Anna, everyone posts about their lovely flowers..I felt I was being a little 'brave' in admitting problems..but in the end the comments have been so helpful regarding the nasturtiums.

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