Last week Joanna of Edinburgh Garden Diary posted an IAVOM featuring a collection of teeny vases and inkwells with single blooms, and I am afraid I have unashamedly pinched the idea to make the most of a selection of the last remaining blooms from my own garden. Thanks for the prompt, Joanna – much appreciated!
At the back is an unopened bud of Rosa ‘The Poet’s Wife’, current favourite Persicaria ‘Blackfield’ and young spikes of Salvia ‘Phyllis Fancy’; fully grown spikes of this salvia seem to grow to around twelve inches long, too tall for today’s IAVOM but a very pretty combination of soft purple and off-white. The four inkpots in the middle house my last remaining dahlia of 2018, ‘Willo’s Violet’, the first chrysanthemum bloom, courtesy of a cutting from Chloris which I think might be ‘Mary Stoker’, contrasting stems of Salvia ‘Hotlips’ (new to me this year; one bloom typically bi-coloured, the other only red), with the fourth holding pretty Alonsoa ‘Salmon Beauty’. At the front is new addition Salvia ‘Cerro Potosi’ and Fuchsia ‘Voodoo’ with its long long style and stigma. Together they represent the remaining spicks and specks of my November garden, spots of colour and specks of brightness.
Next week is the fifth anniversary of In a Vase on Monday for which I am setting a challenge and offering a giveaway. It is not compulsory, but I am challenging contributors to a ‘(Not) In a Vase on Monday’; I shan’t be any more specific than that to allow you plenty of leeway, so do give it some thought and see what you come up with. The last five years of IAVOM have been a wonderful journey so let’s celebrate with something a little different!
In the meantime, see what you can find in your gardens today, spicks and specks or autumnal bounty, and pop it in a vase or other receptacle as usual, leaving the usual links – then get your thinking caps on for next week!
Rambling in the Garden 
Your vases are beautiful, Cathy. There is such diversity in the flowers you can still pick. I feel a Salvia obsession starting to develop. Your fuchsia too is gorgeous. Is it hardy? It looks very similar to ‘Dollar Princess’, a hardy Fuchsia I have. They are such good value in the autumn garden, aren’t they?
Thanks Ali. Salvias are definitely now one of my favourite plants, but I am still establishing which ones are reliably hardy – I know cuttings are usually easy to take but I would rather they were hardy in the first place! The fuchsia is not hardy and the flowers are HUGE, but it wasn’t until temperatures dropped that they began to flower satisfactorily. It is their first year so I will pot them up and bring them into the greenhouse soon
Great way to display your blooms Cathy. Fuchsia ‘Voodoo’ is just screaming for mention. Love the entire collection. The chrysanthemum is a nice strong form and color too. My vase is more of the same blooms as couple weeks ago. Will ponder over the challenge.
Thanks Susie. The cutting was only taken last autumn so I am pleased it is strong enough to flower already. I haven’t had hardy chrysanthemums before so look forward to seeing how it bulks up
A really good idea to show off those little things. Nice to see dahlias a few more times. It’s sad to see the end of them as the season seemed so short. Here is my link:
https://ablogaboutcompost.blogspot.com/2018/11/autumn-colours-in-vase-on-monday.html
I think my dahlias started flowering in June, so over 4 months blooming time is pretty good value and I don’t begrudge them a winter rest now 🙂
Four months sounds good. I don’t think mine really got going until mid July but then they were fab and do deserve a rest.
I commented on your blog but I am not sure if it got swept away or was waiting to be approved – can you tell me if you got it please?
No sorry it’s not there. Thanks for trying. x
What a lovely group of flowers and containers. I remember the first time I saw Joanna’s ink pots I was quite impressed. Spicks and specks is pretty much the situation in my garden at this point: https://www.lindabrazill.com/each_little_world/2018/11/iovm-final-fall-color.html
Thanks Linda. I enjoyed featuring lots of different bits without them having to look especially pretty together
I love to get new ideas and I love this one, and enjoyed Joanna’s little vases last week too. You have so much still blooming even if your garden is waning. Today I don’t have a vase, but I do have a blogger interview/profile of Kris Peterson who regularly contributes her amazing vases from California. Your meme actually brought us together so I definitely have given you a shout out in the post! Enjoy your week Cathy!
Thanks Donna – and I look forward to reading your profile of Kris. We have made a lot of blogging friends through IAVOM!
I do love all those little pots Cathy! Just up my alley! I’ve gone all countrified again this week – just because the flowers were there and looking so pretty and light, which, for November, I thought was quite uplifting. I couldn’t just walk by, so here they are https://therunningwave.blogspot.com/2018/11/a-vase-on-bonfire-night-monday.html
Thanks Amanda, and I look forward to seeing what your countrified vase contains today
A clever way to show off the spicks and specks the garden offers at this time of year. I’m looking forward to next week’s challenge and think I might have a (not) vase already in mind! My offering this week is here: https://outlawgarden.blogspot.com/2018/11/in-vase-on-monday-clashing-colors-of.html
Thanks Peter – and I didn’t doubt for one minute you wouldn’t have a (not) vase!
Is ‘spicks’ a real word? Goodness! I can interpolate what it means by the context, but it is amusing nonetheless. A few come through my garden to get the figs, but I do not use that word. I think if I wanted specks, I would need to get them from my neighbor’s garden when no one is there. Although my garden looks pretty good, there is not much color at the moment.
‘Spicks and specks’ is just an informal phrase meaning ‘bits and pieces’, Tony – although as you say, ‘spicks’ is not a real word
(‘Spicks’ sounds like ‘spics’, which is a very bad word in our culture, which is why it got my attention.)
I Googled the term and I can see why you might have been a bit shocked – I apologise for any offence I might have inadvertently caused
Oh, it is not offensive at all. I know that it means nothing in other cultures. It merely got my attention in an amusing sort of way. Besides my colleague and I have been working on perfecting the most offensive racial slurs since 1986. Those of us of Italian American descent are notoriously difficult to offend.
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I’m so glad the cutting took Cathy. I love your little individual pots, they show off the flowers so much better than cramming them all into one vase.
My offering is here: https://thebloominggarden.wordpress.com/2018/11/05/in-a-vase-on-mon…a-book-club-posy/
I have Jessie Cooper in bud too, and a plant from a third cutting which I think was the unnamed one. Chelsea Physic Garden didn’t take. I am pleased to have flowering plants in just a year or so, so thanks for the cuttings Chloris
The individual pots show off your collection of blooms beautifully, Cathy. Seeing that plump ‘Voodoo’ fuchsia makes me nostalgic for the days I was actually able to grow them – they haven’t even been happy in my shade house this year. Here’s my post: https://krispgarden.blogspot.com/2018/11/in-vase-on-monday-old-standbys.html
Thanks Kris – I was pleased with how effective the blooms looked together
I’ve been following your blog for some time and appreciate the focused selection of blooms. Coincidentally, I just did a piece that focused on individual flowers, in this case mums. Here’s my post: https://roomsinbloomnw.com/blog/
Thankfully mums can stand up for awhile without being in a water source.
Thanks for following and for commenting today, Linda
You know what Picasso said: “good artists borrow, great artists steal”.
Hmm, that’s one way of looking at it, rickii!!
Lovely use of your collection of ink pots.
Thanks Noelle – they were perfect for these snippets
Cathy her little vases are magnificent. I see that you like salvias very much, they are all very beautiful. The last Dahlia of the season is a treasure. The Persicaria “Blackfield” is divine. And the Fuchsia “Voodoo” is a beauty, I really like its color in degradé, as its flowers hang. It is a very special and wonderful and magnificent and beautiful set of flowers and vases: I love them. Have a nice week. Greetings from Margarita.
Thank you Margarita and I hope your health is improving
this is a lovely collection – I’ve got some salvia and fuchsias too. what a clever idea from the Joanna the Edinburgh Gardener.
I’ve got pyracantha, coreopsis and Marguerite in my vase – so fire especially orange were on my mind so I talked about fundraising too.
I’ll have to put my thinking cap on for 5th birthday 🙂
love Bec 🙂
Oh yes, fireworks would have been a good theme – don’t think I would have anything suitable though. Look forward to seeing yours
A lovely way to show off individual flowers without squashing them up together! Love the fuchsia, and te Persicaria of course, but I am still not sure I like the Salvia Hot Lips… maybe the name puts me off! My Mum had one that eventually turned just pinky red all over. No vase today, but I hope to join in next week Cathy, for your anniversary challenge!
Thanks Cathy – and I am not sure about Hot Lips either! I only have this one because it was bought when I was trying to fill a few gaps before our garden openings, and I would be quite happy if mine turns pinky red too! 😉 Interestingly I noticed in a local park that from a distance the plant does indeed look pink. See you next week!
good choice of vessels Cathy. I love this look and I am sure copying is the best form of flattery, something like that anyway!
I am having problems with my WordPress account and have lost my settings. WordPress wants $89 to restore. I do not feel that I want to spend anywhere near that much to keep my account running as before. Any tips?
Thanks Dorris. How frustrating to be having problems with your site – do email me and let me know what your issues are and I will see if I can help, as long as there is a logical rather than a technical solution! Sometimes I find Googling helps, as the chances are somebody else will have had the same problem.
I will email. thanks Cathy
A most fine gathering of spicks and specks Cathy. Giving them their very own vases is such an effective way of honing in on these late autumn beauties.
Thanks Anna – and appropriate because the whole garden is spicky and specky at the moment 😉