In a Vase on Monday: Pot of Promises

Travelling to our NGS lunch yesterday, barely 20 miles from home, to pick up posters and publicity material for this summer’s garden openings (as well as eating our lovely lunch!), we drove down lanes with snow banked several feet high on either side which had obviously been cleared a by a snow plough; here, however, although we added another inch or so to the snow I showed in my EOMV views we have got off very lightly compared to the vast majority of the UK. Now, changes are afoot: after a foggy morning yesterday the day finished with rain and temperatures up to 5°C and by the time this post is published on Monday morning the snow will be all but washed away.

You may have seen from yesterday’s post that I planned to unearth some Tête à Tête narcissi for today’s vase; this little clump is in a bed outside the front door which faces east and gets the sun, when we have it, for most of the morning – but it also meant they got the brunt of the wind and snow, blowing in as it did from the east. Some buds were on the point of breaking before they were buried and there they still were, tucked up safe and cosy under their white blanket.

As the first of this year’s narcissi, they undoubtedly bring with them the promise of spring; witch hazels, however, carry that promise with them for several months

throughout winter and a sprig of Hamamelis ‘Arnold’s Promise’ went head-to head with the narcissi to emphasise that point. Ivy, however, is with us throughout the year, ever faithful, never letting us down, loyal to the core, and a scarf of a variegated form was tied around the neck of the old ink pot that contains the blooms, attached with a bow of yellow string (several balls of coloured string having been purchased from eBay to co-ordinate with any hand tied posies that might be made).

Although our snow was minimal, the wind whipped it up and left it in interesting drifts and swirls and eddies around the garden, and the Pot of Promises was photographed wedged into a drift of snow that piled up along the raised bed outside the kitchen windows. The initial show of colour from two of the buds when the narcissi were first picked had become three fully open flowers by Sunday night, so they all may be wearing their frilly yellow party dresses by the time you begin adding your vases to the meme on Monday. Will there be promises in yours this week? Please share them, as usual , by leaving links to and from this post.

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