IAVOM ~ 'Little Things'

 

A teeny- tiny sprig from me today in what must be a candidate for the world's smallest vase. On Wednesday afternoon there was a faint knock on the door and by the time I got there I saw the back of a man retreating to a van. However in the porch was a large box which I bought inside. I wasn't expecting any deliveries but the label had my name and address on it, so I opened it which was easier said than done. Nestled inside was a beautiful orchid complete with a note informing me that the sender was my sister. What a lovely surprise!

Sadly during either packaging it up or in transit a tiny flowering spring had broken off so I decided to put it in a vase. A big thank you to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' who gets us together each and every Monday to share our Monday vases.

Storm Claudia arrived on Saturday - we were fortunate to escape the devastation that hit some of the country as a result of heavy and prolonged rain accompanied by strong winds. Here we had 29mm of rain in a 24 hour period. Since then the temperature had dropped significantly and we woke up to a light air frost this morning. It has been a glorious sparkling day today albeit chilly. The week ahead looks progressively colder. Yesterday all the plants that need some winter protection were bought into the greenhouse. I'm undecided yet as to what to do with my potted snowdrops and may just bring a smaller collection of my favourites under cover for the winter. The last of bulb planting will hopefully be done at the weekend when it should be warm enough for my fingers 😂 Have you had your first frost of the autumn yet? 

Wordless Wednesday ~ Norton Priory Walled Garden, Cheshire, November 2025

 

IAVOM ~ Nestled

Today I'm joining in a most special celebration of the twelfth anniversary of 'In A Vase On Monday' where bloggers get together to greet the new week with a vase of pickings from their own gardens. Participants were challenged to include a prop and a pun in today's post. In my vase today are :

• A flower of a chrysanthemum - although the label reads 'Avignon Pink' I have some doubts but whatever the identity it's a welcome pop of colour on a damp November day.
• A couple of sprigs of symphoricarpus or snowberry bush which bears the little pink tinged berries that you see in the above photo. This year it has produced more berries than ever. The plant came to me from my parents otherwise it would have not been planted as it's a thug and should carry a government health warning. It slightly redeems itself at the time of year but only very slightly.
• Tucked into the vase are flowers of erigeron karvinskianus which must be the longest flowering plant in my garden. It bears teeny tiny white daisy flowers some of which take on a pink shade with age. 
• Some foliage from pittisporum 'Bannow Bay' now wearing its autumnal/winter colours.

My prop is a small ancient and slightly skewhiff Russian doll who resides on a shelf of my Welsh dresser in the kitchen. I have a soft spot for her even though she is rather full of herself. The vase is one of two I have that was hand painted by my mum.

With special thanks to the lovely Cathy who resides over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for providing us with so many years of shared fun, knowledge, friendship and floral inspiration 👏🏻 💐🤗  Do visit if you haven't already done so.

IAVOM ~ Fall Back

 

With the clocks falling back an hour this weekend there's no denying that autumn is well and truly here and that the nights are lengthening. It's not my favourite time of the year and I'm already counting down towards the winter solstice. The weather was suitably dire this weekend with strong cold winds and intermittent rain some of it heavy. I picked the contents of my vase on Saturday to photograph not knowing what today would bring. As it's turned out it has been much drier and although still windy the direction of that wind is changing becoming milder.

In my vase this week are :

• Rudbeckia 'Enchanted Flame' - a new to me this year plant which were purchased as my usual sowing of Rudbeckia 'Sahara' was a complete and utter flop. This is a tender perennial which I shall be bringing into the greenhouse soon along with the dahlias. 
• The red foliage is chard' Bright Lights' which produces a mix of edible leaves with stems that produce a rainbow of colours. I use them in salads and sow them most years. I didn't this year but bought some plug plants from a local garden centre in late summer.
• Finally for the scent factor a couple of sprigs of mint. I've lost track of which this one is but think it may be pineapple mint. 

Thanks as always to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' who gently encourages us to collect something from our gardens to show in a vase every Monday. Do pay her a visit if you haven't already.

This week's garden tasks include more bulb planting and leaf sweeping. A confession to make - a second albeit smaller bulb order arrived last week on the heels of the first delivery. We are also making our way through deciding what to do with our bumper apple crop apart from eat them and give them away. There's a supply of stewed apples in the freezer and we will be making a batch of spiced apple chutney later this week. The remaining necessary were bought this morning so we're all set to go. Any other suggestions as to how to use up surplus apples are welcome although preferably not anything involving cake 😂  Wishing everyone a good week both in and out of the garden.

In A Vase On Monday ~ The Late Show

 My vase today is a hotch potch of late blooming flowers namely :

• A trio of very pink and frilly cosmos flowers - these emerged from a packet of the annual cosmos bipannatus 'Double Click Cranberries' which they are most definitely not. At least this colourway was only to be found on one plant - the others being true to their name but to my surprise I've become quite fond of this errant imposter.
• A single flower of the lovely perennial that is aster frikartii 'Mönch' - with larger flowers than aster 'Little Carlow' but a very similar colour.
• A couple of geranium 'Azure Rush' flowers. I've bought a couple of plants to replace two hardy geranium 'Rozanne' plants which have been occupying space in a border for about five years or so. I love 'Rozanne' but she sprawls and rudely elbows her neighbours out of the way. 'Azure Rush' is very similar in colour, flowers just as late on into autumn but fingers crossed has a more compact habit. I plan to pass a 'Rozanne' on to a friend if she's amenable to providing her with a good home and use the other in a pot.

Thanks Cathy for your excellent hosting skills. 'In A Vase On Monday' can be found weekly over at Cathy's blog 'Rambling in The Garden' when bloggers from all over share their weekly pickings. 

It's been a dry and settled week with pleasant temperatures ideal for getting on with gardening jobs including bulb planting and the serious leg of seemingly never ending task of leaf sweeping and bagging up. Fortunately for me himself does more than his fair share of this as there are a number of large trees in the vicinity. Serious rain stopped play yesterday though and it looks as if we're in for a mainly wet week ahead so I'll be retreating to the greenhouse to do some more bulb planting in pots. I've also got one or two September sown hardy annuals that I'm going to risk pricking out into small pots before it gets much colder. I wonder what everybody else is up to in their gardens this coming week 🤔

IAVOM ~ 'Isle Of Capri'

There are definitely fewer and fewer flowers about now but here is a small picking for this week's 'In A Vase On Monday' in which there are :

• Astrantia 'Capri' - this is the second new to me astrantia purchase this year. I came across the plant in the plant sales area at Hampton Gardens in Herefordshire when we were on holiday last month. The name sung out to me as Capri is the island where my parents honeymooned in 1950. I've mentioned before on my blog that my Mum was Italian by birth and was born what was then a small town not far from Rome. Her family though moved to Rome during the war. At one point I had astrantia 'Roma' in the garden but she has sadly vamooshed. I hope to replace her and perhaps add other astrantias named after Italian cities namely Milan,Venice and Florence. I wonder if there are others. Unusually for me I had considered a prop last night but some unexpected overnight rain spoilt my plans. It was going to be a music box still in working order which my parents bought as a souvenir of their stay. I wind it it up every now and again to simply listen and to be transported to childhood days when it was a special treat to wind the music box up.
• Unknown long lost label variety of persicaria.
• Some flowers from the lovely perennial aster 'Little Carlow' - this was in flower at the beginning of September if not before and although beginning to go over it is still throwing out colour and attracts pollinators. 

The vase is the second of two vases that I treated myself this year on our holidays. This vase was bought at Stockton Bury Gardens, also in Herefordshire which was staging an exhibition of various crafts when we visited as part of Herefordshire Arts Week. One of the exhibitors was a potter who began to work with clay just after the 2021 lockdowns and who has fallen in love with ceramics. Looking at her work it was impossible to guess that she was still a relative novice. 

Thanks as always to the lovely Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' who convenes our weekly floral get togethers. Do over to her blog if you haven't done so already!

For the last week since Storm Amy partied for an entire weekend the weather here has been calm and dry with some occasional pleasant sunshine thrown in. The coming week promises to deliver more of the same which is most welcome as there are various jobs to be done including making inroads into planting the contents of my bulb delivery which arrived late last week. Now just where am I going to plant them all 🤔😂

IAVOM ~ 'A Frog He Would A - Wooing Go'

Today's flowers for ' In A Vase On Monday' were picked from my little herb patch. They are allium tuberosum also known as white garlic chives and are a perennial herb flowering here at the same time the ordinary chives get their second flush of flowers. As the name suggests they smell and have taste of mild garlic. They are also a good pollinator magnet. 

The vase was a treat to myself on the first of our two short holidays this year. We visited 'The Hirsel' in Coldstream, Scotland which was the childhood home of a former British Prime Minister, Sir Alec Douglas - Home. 'The Hirsel' is now a 500 acre park open to the public all year round with a large artificial lake and river in the grounds. There is also a woodland area and a late 19th century rhododendron and azalea woodland garden but it was too late in the year for us to see this at its peak. We enjoyed a memorable walk around the perimeter of the lake, where we had the magical experience of seeing seething masses of hundreds but more probably thousands of newly emerged baby frogs hopping along lakeside. My post title was inspired by an old folk song which originated in Scotland in 1549 albeit with different words to the song we learnt as children. Sadly the frog one Antony Rowley was gobbled up by a lily-white duck before he could have any fun.  It was quite a challenge for us not to step on any of them with himself's size 12 feet and my size 7. We walked slowly and with great caution before wending our way back to the homestead, where as well as a café there are various craft workshops including a small ceramics studio, which is were my vase came from.

Thanks as always to the lovely Cathy who blogs over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for getting us together every Monday to share our vases. There's been no time for gardening activities today and won't be until later in the week when I plan to give the greenhouse a good autumn clean. I hope that you can all get out into your green spaces this week.

IAVOM ~ Harvest Home

 

The last few days have seen a marked contrast as we move toward's the autumn equinox later today. Friday was positively balmy and apart from a swift short shower it was dry. I made the most of it to gather up the last fruits of what has been a bumper tomato crop, to lift the remaining 'Charlotte' potatoes and move them to a crate in the shed as well as taking down the sweet peas and French beans wigwams and disposing of the somewhat bedraggled plants. I also took a few cuttings. Himself was kept occupied with picking apples. Just as well as Saturday was the wettest day we have had for some time - it poured down throughout the day and then into the early hours of Sunday morning. When I checked the weather app. on my phone yesterday morning it informed me that we had had 36mm of rain in the last 24 hours! However we woke to a sparking clear blue sky complete with sunshine and it turned out to be a completely dry day, possibly the first we've had this month.

In my vase this week a nod to autumn's arrival with :

• Dahlia - I think this one is 'Night Silence' but I'm not sure as it's in a pot with no label.
• Panicum capillare 'Sparkling Fountain' which was sown from saved seed back in March. I've grown this grass for a few years now and love the way it sparkles in the sunlight. It self seeds but never in places where it's easy to extricate and replant so I sow it yearly.
• Rudbeckia hirta 'Enchanted Flame' - for the first time in a good few years I had no joy with growing rudbeckia 'Sahara' from seed. I was upset as it's a flower mix that is good for late summer/early autumn flowering with colours of various shades. After some pondering I remembered reading about the rudbeckia hirta 'Enchanted' series over at Catherine's 'Notes From My Garden' blog. More pondering and although these plants are half- hardy perennials a special 3 for the price of 2 offer from an online source tempted me. I must admit that I'm not keen on the muddy looking colour that these particular flowers had in bud but I do like the final fully opened version. I will still sow 'Sahara' again next year whatever joy I have with overwintering these plants.

Thanks as always to Cathy who is the custodian of our Monday's vases and who blogs over at 'Rambling In The Garden'.

A few domestic tasks to catch up on here whilst it's still warming up - the temperature in the greenhouse dipped down to 5.7 centigrade here overnight which is most cool for September. Then there are jobs to get on with outside. Wishing you a happy Monday and a most gentle autumn 🍂 

IAVOM ~ 'September In The Rain'

A borrowed vase from me this week. Having returned at the weekend from a holiday in the depths of rural Herefordshire, there have been a few jobs to catch up on including taking various cuttings as well as picking tomatoes, pears and apples from the garden. The pears are now ripening on a sunny windowsill (ie as and when the present weather pattern improves) whilst the first apples to be harvested have been peeled and stewed. With one batch in the freezer the second batch was on the jobs to do list this morning. As the day has unfolded it has turned increasingly windy and the odd shower has fallen. The green waste bin is empty and due for collection tomorrow but I have decided not to venture out with my secateurs this time.  I will no doubt feel guilty tomorrow.

My vase was in the 'Ladies' at Stocktonbury Gardens which I've wanted to visit for years. Despite the fact that all the gardens we visited had suffered from the long, hot and dry summer there was still much to hold our interest especially the garden's history. If you're in the area it's certainly well worth a visit. I'm not sure exactly what's in the vase but can identify the white flowered aster diveraticus, an eryngium and what I think is a sanguisorba. It's a garden that I would love to visit again especially in spring when their huge apple orchard is in blossom. This is just a small glimpse of it below on a September day: 

I also fell for rosa mutablis, a rose which I have read much about over the years but had never glimpsed in flower before now :

There were plants for sale in the plants sales area but I'm not sure where I could plant one so resisted. The little dragon perched on the roof was rather fetching too but not for sale.

Thanks as always to Cathy who blogs over at 'Rambling In The Garden' who gets us together every week for a floral party. Do visit her if you haven't already!

IAVOM ~ 'September Morn'

 

What better way to start a new month than with a vase of flowers. Yes September has arrived - my favourite month of the year after May. In my vase today are :

• Helenium 'Sahin's Early Flowerer - this is a hardy perennial which likes the sun but also moist soil. It usually does well in its allocated spot but has languished this long dry summer so along with the astrantias has received the odd drink from the watering can.
• Aster 'Little Carlow' - another hardy perennial and one of my favourites with clouds of small lavender blue small flowers.
• Some foliage from the climber 'Humulus Lupulus aureum' or golden hop. I've never seen this plant grow so much as it has done this year - it has turned into a veritable monster. It's looking most attractive now with all the dangly hops. 

Thanks as always to our lovely hostess Cathy who blogs at 'Rambling In the Garden'. A quick and early post from me today as I need to get ready to head out for a garden centre visiting marathon with a dear friend who loves plants too. We may be gone for some time but I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone's vases later.