In a Vase on Monday: Asteroid Explosion

It was a joy to be picking blooms from my own garden to pop into today’s vase, but of course it was also a joy to have Brian’s dahlias to admire last week, albeit for only a few days, leaving Mum with a full week of them before their demise.

My bargain, chipped-at-the rim Caithness Glass vase holds two out of the three different ‘Chinese’ asters (Callistephus chinensis) I am growing this year: Lady Coral Dark Blue and Star Violet. The latter is one I am trialling for Which? Gardening and I am unsure yet how I feel about its scruffiness, or its attempt at violetness – or the five months it took to get to flowering stage, for that matter. Lady Coral Dark Blue, on the other hand, has been flowering since the end of June and definitely makes a big impact in the cutting beds, despite being a shade that is really more purple than blue. The third variety, Strawberry Crush, is only just coming into flower and thus failed to make its debut in today’s vase. Joining them is distinctive and supposedly fashionable annual grass Panicum ‘Frosted Explosion’ which certainly lives up to expectations in appearance but was very conservative in its germination, providing me with only 4  plants; with its explosion of grassy flowers surely I should be able to collect enough seeds myself this year? Has anyone any experience of saving seed from this sort of grass?

For an appropriately astronomical prop I headed for my crystal collection and decided that this polished sphere of pyrites looked suitably like an arid planet or asteroid. Iron pyrites is commonly known as ‘fools’s gold’, because of its superficial resemblance to the real thing. Believed to be good for memory and thought processes, it also aids spiritual protection and counters negativity.

I think I manage to belatedly catch everyone’s vases last week, although sadly I wasn’t able to reply to comments but as always they were a pleasure to read; hopefully normal(ish) service is resumed this week! What can you find in your gardens to cut and bring inside to give you pleasure during the week? Please share it with us if you can be leaving links to and from this post.