Aster to Zinnia

In this highly exceptional year of wet weather, my two stars of the moment are asters and zinnias. Both have germinated well and are now flowering their socks off and look very healthy. Last year I lost my asters to aster yellows disease.  This is a disease that strikes fear into my heart as a cut flower grower.  Very little can be done about it except dispose of the plants before the disease escalates. It is transmitted by aster leafhoppers, a bit like a grasshopper only tiny, measuring about 4mm in length. Thankfully I have not had the same problem with my asters this year but I have had my suspicions that it might have affected my Ammi Visnaga.  One short row grew to a superb height then some just yellowed and/or became stunted.  Ammi Visnaga, is a member of the carrot family and carrots are known to be susceptible to aster yellows disease.  However, I have planted some at the opposite side of the garden and they are healthy.  Aster yellows disease can be a difficult disease to identify as it causes different symptoms on different plants including yellowing, distortion, stunted growth and lack of flowers.

Anyway, back to some positivity, the asters are growing well and I have some good Ammi Visnaga!  Here are some pictures taken today to prove their health.

In this row are Lady Coral Dark Blue and Candyfloss.

I love their ‘collars’ supporting the flowers as they develop in size and colour.  The anaemic looking young flowers remind me of the villi type formation inside a fig.

A scrumptious ball of Lady Coral Dark Blue beautiful in its simplicity displayed all alone.

The two past casualties of aster yellows both shouting in Gloria Gaynor style, “I will survive ...”

And just because I can’t always abide by the rules of ‘less is more’ I’ve added another beauty, thalictrum ... when will I ever learn!

Clarkia ‘Apple Blossom’

I have been growing this hardy annual for several years now and I wouldn’t be without it in the cutting garden.  I always sow it directly into the ground in spring with several repeat sowings throughout the season. The germination can be a bit hit and miss and consequently I end up with strange gaps in the rows, but once established, it becomes a beautiful free flowering plant.

It is definitely worth growing as a cut flower with it’s pink powder puff quality and the individual blooms evenly spaced along a tall stem.  Each bloom can be a sumptuous 3cm in diameter and the plant stems grow to over a metre in height.

When cutting for the vase, I make sure most of the flower heads along the stem are blossoming, any sooner and the tips will droop in the vase.  The flowers open at the base first and the top last.  You need to strip back the lower stem which includes stripping back both leaves and the flowers as they bloom almost to the base (save the discarded flowers for drying).

Drying
I take the individual flower heads and lay them on a tray then place them in the airing cupboard.  They have a gorgeous fluffy quality to them when they fill a tray.  The size reduces greatly after just a few days but more exquisitely, the colour intensifies resulting in an almost Barbie pink. A few of the flowers will go a little brown and I’m guessing this is some of the blooms revealing their true age at the time of picking.  So the fresher the flower the truer the colour after drying.

Before

After

They are perfect for confetti and also threaded on a piece of cotton,  a little fiddly but great to use for decoration.

Clarkia ‘Apple Blossom’ will ALWAYS be on my list of desirable annuals in the cutting garden!

Vintage Flower Cigarette Cards

It seems quite incongruent, the combination of cigarettes and flowers, apart from the obvious exception of nicotiana.  I love collecting vintage flower and gardening cigarette cards.  This combines my passion for flowers, vintage and anything miniature.  I love the anatomically correct flower pictures, the information included on the back of the cards and how they are so of their time.  So today I thought I would share a few pictures from my collection of cards and include freshly picked and some dried flowers from the cutting garden.



Here are just a few Wills cigarette cards measuring 6cm x 8cm.

Beautiful Viscaria card.  I normally grow Linum in my garden but this year Viscaria has been much more reliable.

Who let the cat in?

Gorgeous dried Larkspur.

Advice from the past still relevant today... hmm, "Keep a watch for slugs among seedlings", have I ever this year!

Here are some tiny Godfrey Phillips Ltd, Flower Studies cards, they measure 5cm x 6cm.

You can almost hear the BBC RP voice reading this.

Now for the cards that really are of their time. Wills Garden Hints cards and only very smartly dressed gents were featured in these cards. I could do with a few of these gents to help out in my garden! Fabulous dress sense and not too afraid of hard work. 

Always ensure you wear your smartest hat and apron when constructing a dovecote.

Looks a little like chemical warfare.

Mind those brogues now!

My absolute gems: hand coloured Camera Studies from Cavanders Ltd.

Born and bred in Kent this one has to be my favourite, all the more for it's slightly off target hand colouring.

A little bit of Chaucer, which I believe translates, "Among the buds I choose one so fair".

Less Mundane Jobs Today

Amongst the weeding, stripping out of old sweet williams, slug removal (a neverending task this year) wedding planning and many other jobs in the garden today I was able to do my favourite thing: deadheading aka 'flowers for me' as well as for confetti drying.

Sweet Peas.  Each year I swear that I will not let the sweet peas overwhelm me with their rapid growth, but you guessed it, every year they do. Tying up and deadheading sweet peas could, I have suddenly realised, be a full time job for me on their own, so I have to be chilled out and allow them to do their thing without being too controlling!

 

 

A bucket and jug to fill the office with their heady scent.  Maybe their scent will inspire me to catch up on much needed paperwork tomorrow as the rain is predicted to return .... nah!!

Attention! A box of larkspur cut for confetti before they go over, colour coded and lined up ... what no blues and purples in here?!  Well actually they were done a couple of days ago in an equally regimented fashion.

Ready for rain, paperwork and garden planning tomorrow ... no excuses.

Hot, hot, hot

Each day in the cutting garden so far this week, it has reached the heady heights of 30 degrees and over.  I have therefore carefully planned where and when to work in the garden. I always ensure that I avoid working near the white painted south facing wall at midday as it becomes unbearably hot. It is so hard to make these considered choices in the excited rush to get back near my blooms and help them recover after the deluge of rain. So much to do and so little time. But the garden is looking lovely and seems to be singing. Here is a little whistle stop tour of the garden as it looked today, a bit parched and with some of the spring sown annual rows exposing their slug nibbled gaps.

Beautiful Larkspur

A 'cloud' of antirrhinums in the bright sunshine

Mmmm 'Appleblossom' antirrhinums

"Ooh, am I in the wrong place?"

'Red Velvet' antirrhinum looking like luscious hot lips

Shasta Daisies, they remind me of a feathery hat Doris Day might have worn

A tiny lethargic pollen leaden honey bee could barely move in the hot sunshine today

Sweet Pea 'Anniversary'

Sweet Pea 'Our Harry'

Helenium Moerheim Beauty looking a little ragged after the rain

Zinnias with a 'slug gap' but otherwise healthy

White corncockles

At last, dry enough to deadhead

Just ready to unfurl

Roses trying to recover...

And finally, Chateau de Fleur 2012?  Why not, after a hot, sweaty, satisfying day in the garden in the longed for sunshine of a British summer!