In a Vase on Monday: Pilgrimage

Monday has come round again quickly and other commitments yesterday, when my Monday vase was put together, made it a rushed job – aided somewhat by the on-off showers which made outdoor photography less attractive.

The title is a tribute to the yellow rose, The Pilgrim, which dominates the vase. Like its yellow floral colleague, The Poet’s Wife, the bush has really flourished at the start of this its second season and shows great promise; presumably I managed to prune both correctly last autumn! Joining two blowsy blooms are a number of buds just showing a hint of colour which may or may not open now they have been cut. Accompanying them on their pilgrimage are sprigs of Rambling Rector, each comprising numerous buds, woodrush Luzula nivea, seed-sown soft yellow and apricot aquilegia, vibrant custard yellow honeysuckle and a stem of spent Hellebore ‘Harvington Double Lime’.

Tangible props are missing from today’s tableau, but I could say that the Rector was welcoming the pilgrims, that the rushes would make a bed for an overnight stop on their journey, that the aquilegia’s common name ‘columbine’ refers to the dove shapes that make up the flower head and the dove has an important role in religious and secular contexts, and of course hellebores have a link to that poor shepherd making a pilgrimage to Bethlehem to see the Christ child who wept because there were no flowers growing in winter to pick for a gift until his tears fell and Helleborus niger, the Christmas rose, grew where his tears landed – and I am sure pilgrims would need stout walking sticks which were traditionally made from honeysuckle stems which have a tendency to wrap themselves round young saplings! I could say all that but it would sound very contrived and has in truth only come to me as I have been writing this post – so I will just say ‘no props today’!! The vase is a plain creamy coloured jug with a fine orange trim to the handle, although this detail is hidden in the photograph.

So, plain and simple but looking quite classical with its mossy stone background, is today’s vase. I look forward to seeing all the vases that fellow bloggers have created – it takes a little time to see them all, but it is such a pleasurable process and worth every minute spent, so keep them coming. Just find material in your garden or foraged nearby and pop it in a vase or other receptacle and share it with us by leaving links to and from this post.