Blue Muscari Steal My Heart

Mmmmm, I love blue muscari. I like all the other colours too, but the blue, well, that just steals my heart!  I have muscari in the garden, at various stages, i.e. year one, two and three since their planting, so they are all at different heights and sizes. I have blue, purple, green and pink and I absolutely adore the texture of their compact early buds, their shape and their small flower head. But blue, well, I love it.  Here are some images to share from the harvest this week in the garden.

In amongst violets and pansies.

 

The compact waxy texture of the young bud is exquisite, the individual flowers look like they have another flower embossed on them before they open up into a bell shape.

Getting a frilly 'skirt'!

Looking into the tiny open 'bells'.

The flower heads are like little gems or beads and they lend themselves well to lots of potential floral art. Spoilt for choice, collages, headdresses, definitely floral jewellery, earrings would be a must with these little beauties.  But I've only tried a few examples of their potential here.

Pretty as a picture.

Candle 'collar'.

Teatlight 'collar' threaded together with transparent nylon.

Then place it in it's own tiny moat of water to extend it's vase life.

And finally, anyone familiar with my facebook page know I have an irresistible urge to use miniature people to complement the smaller garden flowers. Here they are guarding one of the first precious muscari.

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SPRING EVERYBODY! Brrrrrrr!

The Yellow of Spring

Despite the ‘interesting’ early spring weather we are having, the flowers still fight through and follow their own true path of growth. So even though the weather doesn’t feel ‘yellow’, yellow is still shining through in the garden, with narcissi and primroses holding their own. I picked many yellow blooms yesterday prior to the hard frost we had, did a few arrangements for customers and then with ‘leftovers’ (the favourite bit of every flower grower’s business) I had some fun and the sun actually shone for a while to improve the light for a bit of photography. Here are a few photos to share with you from yesterday.

I feel toasty warm just looking at these pictures of narcissi bathed in sunlight.

I love this picture in a 1953 bulb book and this quirky shaped old vintners bottle, found on a bric-a-brac 'foraging' trip, is perfect to show off these delicate narcissi.

Primroses provide the next bit of yellow in the cutting garden.

Iced shot glasses - just add beverage!

Let the yellow continue!

Holes and Hellebores

I can’t pretend I’m not loving this sprinkle of rain today but I must say we do need more, much more. 

Working on the garden yesterday, the soil was still ominously dry for the beginning of March.  Normally I would be thinking about starting to mulch some of my perennials at this time of year to help keep the ground moist after a precious winter soaking. However, I’m not entirely convinced the ground is moist enough to warrant a capping of mulch at the moment. So I shall be patient and optimistic in the hope we have more Suffolk precipitation (obviously before a gorgeous sunny drier summer - asking for too much?!)

I seem to be overrun with moles at the moment.  I haven’t actually seen any of the cute beasts, I just keep sinking into their runs as I weed and last week I noticed an increase of molehills around my Clive Greaves (not a euphemism but the name of one of my scabious, actually 'scabious' doesn't sound much better, but I know all you knowledgeable flower lovers out there know what I mean).   Apparently, last year’s wet weather increased mole populations and as the worms come to the surface in wet soil so do the moles. I’m very protective of my worms.   When I first started the cutting garden my worm sightings were minimal but after much enrichment of the soil their appearances have increased. So the thought of the moles munching their way through my worms doesn’t fill me with love for these velveteen rodents.  Now, if they just ate the slugs, that would be different! I shall be watching closely over the next few months to ensure that the moles hopefully make their way outside the perimeter of the garden wall and that they remain there.

Lots of productive work was done in the garden yesterday, preparing beds as well as picking hellbores and here are a few pictures to share of some single and double burgundy beauties.

Beautiful ruffles like a ballerina's tutu.

Trying a sneaky peek underneath.

The fresh, tender, deep burgundy leaves and buds have a superb gloss to them and the buds are as equally gorgeous as the open flowers.

I couldn't resist making a floating tapestry out of the hellebores, heather and catkins.  The mix of textures in these flowers is heavenly, blousy, waxy, dotty, spiky, flowing, I want to dive in there.