Wednesday 25 September 2013

Winners, Spring colour and the dregs of summer

*Free Seed winners:- Pack 1 goes to Sue Garret of 'Our plot at Green Lane Allotments'.  Pack 2 goes to  'Stella on Age' and pack 3 goes to Snowbird of 'Gardens & Wildlife'.
If you gals could email your addresses to me at lindaclaxson@btinternet.com I will get those packs of seeds out to you straight away. Thank you for taking part and I hope you enjoy your seeds ladies.


It is so nice to be able to potter around the land knowing I'm on top of all the urgent gardening chores, it makes such a huge difference to motivation.
My mum is flying up for the week tomorrow so it will be nice to be able to show her around, especially as there's been a huge difference since she was last here. I'm a tad concerned though because in our last conversation she stated that she wanted to help dismantle pallets when she comes up - I tried to explain just how hard pallets are to take apart but she insists that she's capable and stated "I took an entire chair apart by myself you know" by way of proof of her ability. I have to admit my mum is agile and certainly doesn't act like a 70 something year old and she may well have another 30 years left in her judging by the past females in our family but still, dismantling pallets? I think not mother!

Anyway, today while I pottered and mused over the changing of the seasons (though summer appears to have decided to show its face again the last few days) I decided to put together a bunch of flowers to put in my mums room while she's here.
Pretty much all the cut flowers are spent now and the garden flowers are on their way over too and I'm not exactly the most imaginative when it comes to these things (I stick to basic cut flowers only) so I really had to think outside the box to get a pretty looking bouquet (to me, thinking outside the box means using flowers other gardeners would probably use as the norm).
Not too shabby looking me thinks - this one has Coral Bells (who knew that would work!), the very last cosmos flowers, Montbretia, Himalayan Honeysuckle, Verbena, a rose from my patio rose, a 'Nostalgia' rose and a stem of Hydrangea for greenery (the stem is actually Black on this variety - maybe 'Zorro'?)


After making one bouquet I decided to try for another (actually I cut these bunches the other way round. The top one was cut second, this next one was cut first.)
Hydrangea again, Verbena, Coral bells, 'Virgo rose', red rose, Cosmos & Dianthus.


I also checked out that Asiatic Lily bulb that was about to flower - the one I had thrown on the waste heap without realising. It's now fully open and rather than leave it where no one will ever get the pleasure of seeing it I cut it and added it to one of the vases.
Pretty huh? I'll be digging those bulbs back up pretty soon.



I got a lovely parcel in the post from Thompson & Morgan. I wasn't going to bother with the free Allium offer in Gardeners World magazine but I've been stocking up on spring bulbs lately and thought it would be great to go from zero Alliums in the garden to 100 and they arrived today.


Now I just have to plant those little bulbs of goodness and wait for them to spring into this


Top left - bottom right:- Purple Sensation, Caeruleum, Ostrowskianum, Roseum, Sphaerocephalon, Neopolitanum.


3 comments:

  1. The flower displays are lively ! especially like the second one or should that be the first.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, the second one should have been the first Sue lol. I'm actually more thrilled with these two than I have been with any of the others, I think it's because I made use of garden flowers rather than just the specifically grown flowers in the PT.
      BTW your seeds are on their way to you :)

      Delete
  2. Lovely flowers! I can't arrange them to save my life. Did you manage to prevent your mum dismantling pallets? I have visions of her building you a set of garden furniture from them.

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