In a Vase on Monday: Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

A mixed day, in fact, as a sunny morning yesterday gave way to a sudden short but heavy shower when I was in the greenhouse, then again as I prepared to photograph this vase, as you can see from the spots on the green felt fabric backdrop. These cheerful blooms, however, injected their own sunshine into the day, regardless of the weather.

It has been a struggle to reach the sunflowers this year, in the far corner of the cutting beds, without precariously stretching over dahlias and rudbeckia – and most of them were beyond my reach heightwise, anyway. Towards the end of their season, I decided there was much to be gained from cutting them down – not least the content of today’s vase, but beginning to clear the way to foreshorten this cutting bed and allow for all 3 water butts that previously served the greenhouse to be linked together now that the greenhouse is extended. The sunflower ‘stumps’ (many beyond the strength of my secateurs) reminded me of those fossilised forests that are sometimes revealed when water levels in reservoirs are low! We now need to work out how much of the cutting bed needs to be lost to allow access to the water butts when they are all in place – but it can wait till the long-flowering Rudbeckia ‘Irish Eyes’ has finished strutting its stuff.

A few of these rudbeckia blooms have infiltrated the bunch of their sunflower neighbours, joining ‘Vanilla Ice’, ‘Earth Walker’, ‘Italian White’ and ‘Ruby Eclipse’ in today’s vase, my spotty yellow jug. I am thrilled to be finally seeing the deep red of Earth Walker and the russet two-tone Ruby Eclipse at close quarters, instead of squinting a couple of feet above eye level! The dangly Vanilla Ice (or Italian White; it’s hard to say which) in the main photograph really was dangling like that, so for ‘dangly’ now read ‘artistically placed’! Lastly, and possibly reflecting the dottiness of the jug, we have some dotty Golden Hornet crab apples, currently smothering the small tree in the shrub border.

The Irish Eyes in last week’s vase still looks as fresh as the proverbial daisy (rudbeckia?) and it would be wonderful if all today’s blooms lasted as well this week, continuing to Bring me Sunshine… What will be bringing you sunshine in your Monday vases today? See what you can find in your garden or forage locally to pop in a vase and bring you pleasure during the week – and do share it with us by leaving the usual links to and from this post.