About my garden

Monday 17 September 2018

Vanilla Ice In a Vase on Monday

 Here I am with a vase. I always have things in vases but don't always get time to post them on here. I find it harder to organise my time now that I am working from here. I need to get into more of a routine. I think when you have pockets of time you fit more in. 


In here is Sunflower 'Vanilla Ice' front and centre. I 'm sure I saw this first on IAVOM last year and added it to my seed list. It has been fab, flowering for at least two months with gently nodding heads. 
There is also 'Prado Red' which is a rich dark brown/red. Also smallish heads good for vases. 
The dahlia is (apparently) 'Apricot Desire'. It's really not apricot but very bright yellow. I find dahlias to be contrary and sometimes do change colour. What do you think? Disappointing though, when you've chosen a colour specifically. 
There are some Rudbeckia 'Sahara' in here which are wonderful. Robust plants and varied and beautiful flowers. Some very double and some single. 
Dill flowers. 
There are a few bits of Pineapple sage which I'm testing out in vases. The droop readily but improve with the hot water treatment. You put the stems into very hot water for 20-30 seconds, top up with cold and leave for at least 4 hours. I have found quite a few things respond to this, even things which have already drooped. 

I keep giving myself new jobs which is one reason why my list never gets shorter and I run out of time. This week it's a pile of mulch to move. 
There was some tree work going on next door. I had the nerve to ask for some chippings and got some...


...rather more than I expected. They were glad to offload it. At least I had the forethought to put down this plastic but now I need to bag it up and get it off this grass. 
I'm going to be using it around trees etc to keep down the weeds but, of course, I'm not ready for it yet so I need to store most of it. Absolutely not complaining as I have many uses for it. 
Tree surgeons are often happy to deliver a load of chippings for free. 

Pop over and visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden to see wonderful things in vases and add to your seed list.