In a Vase on Monday: Between Sweet William’s Two Lips…

…might in the circumstances be a mug of frothy Ovaltine, but in truth is some beautiful foliage from an unknown aquilegia.

I found myself quite excited yesterday in anticipation of today’s vase, partly because the last two week’s were prepared, photographed and written about on the Sunday and scheduled for posting on Monday, and also because I had no real certainty of how things might come together. The tulips were in one of the lead effect planters visible from the kitchen window, from a cheap batch that were literally ‘shoved’ into the pot two or three seasons ago and have reappeared each year since, despite complete neglect – unlike the ones similarly shoved alongside the two Sundaville plants which spend the winter in the sitooterie and are thus even more neglected as they haven’t had the benefit of any rain. Hmm, memo to self – don’t bother with any indoor plants that need even the slightest attention!

The Sweet Williams are from the batch grown from seed, sown at the end of August, and having only just been planted out had begun to flower in their cell trays in the greenhouse. The variety is ‘Black Prince’ and as the packet had no picture I had forgotten what colour they were meant to be – dark red with dark leaves, so I am not absolutely convinced by the aptness of the name but they are attractive enough, and flowering in March! I had noticed the bright green aquilegia leaves with their hint of red on my rambles recently, and when they were cut and added to the tulips and Sweet William I was really taken with how well they combined, deciding instantly they didn’t need any further embellishment.

Choosing a suitable vase was not as easy as I had envisaged a plain and simple slim glass one – which I  knew I didn’t have, so had to scout around for alternatives, looking through boxes of newly acquired vases, trawling my kitchenalia and searching through other ornaments. This vintage Ovaltine mixing glass was the best I could find (although ideally I wanted something slimmer and shorter) and the pickings were quickly plonked in and taken outside for photographs. The vase was initially lost amongst the mossy rocks and then the camera’s batteries were exhausted, but a quick recharge and some black felt finally brought acceptable results.

From the moment the tulips were cut and brought inside they began to open their tightly closed petals and will no doubt be fully open before the day is out. Like last week’s vase I am fairly confident that this one will last the whole week, as tulips tend to have a good life in a vase. I can report that the hyacinths have only just ‘gone over’ and the tulip leaves are only now beginning to curl, whilst the euphorbia looks as fresh as ever. It is so exciting to see what appears in a vase on my kitchen table each week, so multiply that by the number of other bloggers posting a vase on Monday….. can we cope with all that excitement?! I am sure there will be other tulips appearing today – will they be in your vase? Flowers, twigs, leaves, vegetables, pebbles – what will you find in your garden today to pop into a vase or other container? Please share your pleasure with us by leaving links to and from this post.

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