It's a strange in-between season at the moment, no longer really spring, but surely not summer yet, despite all the roses. Summer, however, is definitely on its way, despite the 36mm of rain on Wednesday and the thundery showers yesterday, and today's vase contains the first evidence of both summer colour and summer abundance.
A stem of Alstroemeria 'Indian Summer' was the focal point, joined by a selection of calendula, the first pickings from the cutting beds. Alerted by Karen of Bramble Garden to a new variety of calendula offered by Chiltern Seeds, I splashed out and added 'Touch of Red Buff', 'Neon' and 'Oopsy Daisy' to my seed list for this year as well as the usual 'Snow Princess', ditching the popular 'Indian Prince'. A stem of Amaranthus 'Fox Tail', still disappointingly short, was also added, along with foliage from positively glowing Nandina 'Obsessed'. Almost as an afterthought, I cut two stems of Potentilla 'Miss Wilmott' on the way back to the house, realising as I did so that the plant would actually be at home in one of the bold borders. Having bought a pack of plug plants last year and grown them on, with a view to them adding a splash of pink to the obelisk border, they have been on borrowed time ever since the first buds showed colour, and were destined for the plant sales table at our open garden instead.
Searching my vase cupboard for a receptacle with orange, red or yellow tones and finding nothing with a neck wide enough to accommodate all the stems, I plucked this charity shop cut-glass vase with its flared shape from the front of the cupboard and cut the stems to fit. It seems ages since I have had such a fulsome vase! If you look carefully you will see a teeny pair of sunglasses (a pin badge) nestled among the blooms, in preparation for summer's arrival, although to be fair we have had many lovely days recently. The heavy and persistent rain on Wednesday, however, necessitated an emergency vase holding two short stems of Allium 'Miami' which had been snapped off by the downpour, leaving the remaining stems erect and headless in the border.
It is always lovely to see what is growing in the gardens of our blogging community, so if you would like to pick material from them to pop in a vase you could then share them with us on IAVOM by leaving the usual links. In the absence of pickable material, foraging in the locality is OK too.
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