We had some hard frosts on Thursday and Friday nights and since we were to be away, I decided to pull most of the remaining Alstromeria Indian Summer and leave them in a vase to arrange on our return. It is a good job I did that as the remaining blooms outside bear the scorch of the frost and even Persicaria Red Dragon which I was going to use for today's vase were damaged.
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The vase is a hand painted tankard which my sister brought as a present when she went to teach in France as part of her degree. I think she lived in Rouen.
A few weeks ago I started to show the arrangements of seedheads from the garden. This week another vase on the other side of this table is full of dried seed heads: this time they are those of Phlomis fruticosa 'Bourgaei'.
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| Phlomis fruticosa 'Bourgaei' seed heads |
I'm taking a sabbatical from my book group and catching up with reading my own pile of books. As you may have gathered from previous posts I do like rocks and pebbles, and I may have mentioned that I also admire the artist Annie Lewin's art. I've had The Book of Pebbles on my book shelf for some time, and enjoyed reading through that recently. The book is beautifully illustrated with a generous amount of Angie Lewin's illustrations.
I'm linking in this post with Cathy's whose inspiration and creativity is a pleasure to follow, and linked in will be other vases from gardens, so well worth linking it to view.
Your 'Indian Summer' Alstromeria are glorious, Noelle! I haven't seen any flowers from my 'Indian Summer' in the last couple of months. Many of my flowering plants were pounded by the recent rain here but it'll be interesting to see if I get a flush of blooms after the 3 decent rainstorms we've had in less than 2 months (great for us especially in the early stages of our short rainy season).
ReplyDeleteI really hope you do Kris, plants really appreciate deep watering. Alstromeria is such a great plant I agree.
DeleteMy goodness Noelle, your Indian Summer must be happy in its location to have produced all those stems and so late in the year too - they are lovely! And I love your seedheads too - they look so artistic splayed out like that. The seeds of this one haven't germinated yet, but the pink phlomis have
ReplyDeleteI have the Indian Summer in a pot, and it has been in flower all through the year. If I am not picking them for arranging, I make sure I remove the seed pods and a couple of weeks later I pull the whole stem. So pleased the pink phlomis has germinated. Let me know when Bourgaei comes up if it does. This plant is quite rare and it may be because the seed is not always fertile. There were plenty of bees around and I do have two plants so maybe it is just a question of patience.
DeleteAnd I was going to say thank you sharing your book choice, which intrigues me and I will seek it out. I love the illustration too, I always go for cards in this sort of style when I can
ReplyDeleteI smiled at that. I buy her cards, but must always get two as I find them hard to part with!
DeleteI am glad you thought to take in some Alstroemeria before going away Noelle. They are so pretty! The Phlomis seedheads are very attractive too and that is a plant I would like to try growing one day as I hear the bees love it.
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