Today’s vase started with two large red grown-from-seed dahlia blooms, with their bright yellow eyes, and was developed around the theme of ‘bright’, but when it came to arranging them they dominated the rest of the blooms because of their size, so I replaced one of them with Clematis ‘Ville de Lyon’, a clematis I know has a good vase life. Even so, the dahlia still looks a little big for its boots!
Joining the dahlia and clematis are Calendula ‘Snow Princess’ and ‘Indian Prince’, both looking better than every other year I have grown them, Cosmos ‘Popsocks’, Limonium ‘Purple Attraction’ (statice), Centaurea ‘Black Ball’ (cornflower), Antirrhinum ‘Liberty Classic Rose’ and, to fill in some gaps, side shoots from a delphinium. On the way back to the house with the pickings I spontaneously picked up a stem of meadow rue (wild thalictrum) that had been pulled out from one of the borders earlier and used the foliage to finish off the vase.
The vase itself is formed of black glass with a wavy upper edge and a lower section that normally contains a glass frog but I removed this and filled the space with biodegradable floral foam which meant the stems could be inserted at an angle.
Those of you who know your musicals will recognise the eyes from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Cats’. This was probably the first modern musical I went to, way back in the early 90s, at the behest of Elder Daughter who knew the songs word for word despite her tender age at the time.
I saw a film of the production recently as part of Lloyd Webber’s ‘The Show Must Go On’ on YouTube, where he generously allowed the public to view six of his musicals at no cost – and what an exhilarating production it was, an improvement even on the original (what I remember of the original, that is).
With the coming of blooms in the cutting beds there should be a greater injection of colour into my Monday vases, with less dominance on the pinks and purples of springs – but every garden is different and it is always a pleasure to see what other gardeners have in their Monday vases. Whatever the colour, they are bound to bring pleasure into your life, and if you would like to share them with us too please leave the usual links to and from this post.
ps following on from my promise last week, I have given away six posies, a good start.
Rambling in the Garden 
Gorgeous colour collection!
The cutting beds really expand possibilities
There is a lovely range of summer colours there Cathy. What lovely calendulas. When did you sow them? I can’t seem to get my timing right to get them to flower mid summer, and need some help there.
Thank you – the calendulas were sown first week in March, Noelle, and planted out end of April and beginning of May. They really have done better than previous years (and it was old seed too!) and seem to have appreciated the netting as they easily flopped before
Oh here is my post: https://noellemace.blogspot.com/2020/06/in-vase-on-monday-seed-heads-and-summer.html
Cheerful and colorful. You have a great mix of flowers and the meadow rue gives a nice polish. I really like the cool wavy vase too. Thanks for hosting us Cathy. Have a good week.
https://pbmgarden.blog/2020/06/22/in-a-vase-on-monday-summertime-sunset/
Thanks Susie – I haven’t used this vase for ages and even though the glass frog is pretty useless so I pleased to get the vase out of the cupboard for this one
Hi Susie, it’s Amanda from therunningwave here. I have tried to post a comment on your lovely post today but it keeps getting rejected – but I did love your vase, and especially the phlox – the scent always reminds me of childhood days. Dreamy! Amanda https://therunningwave.blogspot.com/2020/06/an-art-inspired-vase-on-monday.html
Thanks Amanda! Signing in to all these different sites is tedious and tenuous at best. Appreciate you tracking me down! Blogspot is often uncooperative for me too. Will have to see if there’s anything I can do on my end but I’m not aware of changing any settings.
Lovely brilliant vase of flowers, reminding me how colorful life is and should be. I truly appreciate the array of color you’ve shared, as I mostly contain my gardens to the pastels of pinks and purples.
Aw thanks, Cindy – most of my garden is pastels too but the cutting beds provide a rainbow of colours
I love the vase and all the flowers – Dahlia from seed..it never would have crossed my mind – did you collect the seed yourself? Are the flowers whet you had expected? We still have a few spring holdovers here, but summer has definitely arrived!
https://countygardening.wordpress.com/2020/06/22/in-a-vase-on-monday-rescue-event/
The dahlia was from a mixed packet of cactus types and I only kept two or three of the final plants, another red one but more cactus-like than this. I have tried saving my own seed as well, but as I have a limited amount of space I probably prefer to keep it for things I know I am going to like – although it’s exciting to try it, I admit!
Another glorious carnival of colour Cathy. I’ve not heard of cosmos ‘Popsocks’ so must find out more. ‘Snow Princess’ is a most pretty creature indeed . Are you responsible for those cat’s eyes or is it a copy of the show programme? Thanks for hosting as always. My vase this week here :
https://greentapestry.blogspot.com/2020/06/iavom-shimmer.html
I think Popsocks is new Anna, and it’s a shortie, like me – it’s looking good so far. The cat’s eyes are a ‘snip’ of the logo from the internet and printed off!
I like the Dahlia and its scale in the vase..very colorful and summery. The Cats prop is my favorite part..trying Calendulas this winter.I have seeds called Bronze Beauty. My vase this week http://theshrubqueen.com/2020/06/22/in-a-vase-on-monday-shrimp-and-greens/ Thanks for hosting.
Glad you thought the dahlia was OK as the scale of it is so different from everything else. Good luck with your calendulas. You enjoy ALW musicals. I am guessing?
I love a change in scale and Cats!!
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What a wonderful mix, Cathy! I envy you all those bright summer flowers. My dahlias are still relatively small and nowhere near bud-stage and my zinnias are just tiny seedlings – I’m off to a particularly slow start this year with my summer flowers. Thanks as always for hosting. Here’s my post: https://krispgarden.blogspot.com/2020/06/in-vase-on-monday-adjusting-color.html
Thanks Kris, The seasons have changed many ‘normal’ flowering times here – my dahlias are only just starting to come into flower, a few weeks kater than last year, but I also have buds on zinnias whch are usually much later! The cutting beds are such a great asset – I love them and they provide blooms over such a long period
Bright and beautiful! It’s nice that the colourful annuals are starting to show in our gardens.
My vase this week is still mostly perennials, but the annuals are coming soon… https://wp.me/p3O3z4-2vL
I had bright and beautiful in my head as I was preparing the vase, but ‘bright eyes’ won as a title as I had a prop in mind! I get so much pleasure from gazing at the cutting beds, such abundance in a relatively small space…
I love all the colours in your vase today Cathy! Bright and cheerful, just what we need! I always feel a bit glum after the longest day!! Your vase has cheered me on! Thank you. Amanda
https://therunningwave.blogspot.com/2020/06/another-wild-bunch-in-vase-on-monday.html
No need to be glum, Amanda – we still have months before we start getting dark evenings again!!
I know, especially here in Scotland where our evenings are so long, but it gets me every year, and I always really love the shortest day! A
We are rarely at my Mum’s in June but one year we were and it just didn’t get dark at all – today the sun is due to set there at about 10.15 so of course it won’t get dark there till even later!
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So many gorgeous blooms here, Cathy. I have just one today: https://wp.me/p5Pz00-2hd
Thank you, as always, for hosting x
Hello Sam, good to hear from you
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Oh, I can see summer has arrived Cathy! Snapdragons and Dahlias haven‘t got going here yet though. I love that pink Snapdragon. Here is my vase for today. Many thanks as always Cathy! xx
https://wordsandherbs.wordpress.com/2020/06/22/in-a-vase-on-monday-friends/
This is the joy of annuals and the cutting beds Cathy!
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So bright and beautiful! I love it! I saw Cats in the mid-eighties in London when I did a semester of college there. It was a great experience. Here’s my vase this week: https://cosmosandcleome.wordpress.com/2020/06/22/in-a-vase-on-monday-buttercups-and-daisies/
Thanks for continuing to be such a gracious hostess week after week!
Thanks Kimberley – and I am glad IAVOM brought back some happy memories for you!
Lovely and bright! I especially like the addition of the clematis. Do you have to treat it first?
I am late, so late ! Joining you today!! https://digwithdorris.wordpress.com
I picked a stem of this clematis some weeks ago to bring it inside so I could work out what it was as it had been wrongly labelled and I just plonked it is a jar of water where it looked good for well over a week – so no conditioning
Clematis are described as a good cut flower. They just do not seem like they would be so easy to work with, since they have vine stems. Yours is impressive.
It doesn’t seem to apply to all of them though
Well, any diverse genus would be like that.