Just a very quick vase post from me this Monday, with a quickly snipped clutch of Rosa ‘Lady Emma Hamilton’ and foliage from the ‘devil’s plant’ (symphoricarpos) that I expended a lot of energy trying to remove from the hedge. to which it has now returned, no doubt with a vengeance. I could of course have easily produced another bunch of sweet peas (and indeed could do that week after week) but despite the speediness of the post I made the effort to pick something different, and Lady Em called to me as I glanced out of the kitchen windows.
The need for speed is because the time of opening our garden for the NGS (National Garden Scheme) is now upon us, and we are due to welcome visitors on Wednesday and Sunday this coming week, with a big group visit a week later. This is our fifth year of opening (we opened in February last year, before the pandemic was upon us) so the preparations are essentially routine, but although not a perfectionist I do like to have everything ‘just so’ – although that’s not in the garden, where deadheading, staking and tying back is currently a daily routine. The Golfer has all but completed his path sweeping and weeding to great effect, promptly obliterated by rose petals after rain all day on Friday.
The cakes are all made and in the freezer, and I am determined not to wear myself out with last-minute nips and tucks in the next couple of days, so hope to ensure all the admin preparations and furniture moving (to allow our pop up câfé) are completed ASAP. I do like to work to a deadline, so something like this is right up my street!
The rose, as well as sharing the colour of an apricot, has a distinctly fruity fragrance with definite hints of apricot, and the simple bunch is popped into a vintage blue & white jug and displayed with a copy of the NGS book which lists all the gardens in England and Wales opening under the scheme in 2021. The vase is photographed outside the back door, on the wall built earlier this year to raise this section of the hedge border, which has filled out nicely since the wall was built and forms a useful perching point for vase photography!
It is a busy time of year for most gardeners, even without opening their gardens for charity, but if you have time to plonk a few blooms or other material from your garden into a vase or jamjar today then please consider sharing them with us by leaving links to and from this post.
Rambling in the Garden 
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A perfect rose and such a gorgeous colour. I do hope the weather will play along and be kind for you when the garden is open. Hope all goes well! 😃 https://wordsandherbs.wordpress.com/2021/06/21/in-a-vase-on-monday-dragons-or-lions/
Thanks Cathy – and so far the forecast is looking good for both days
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Beautiful colours! All the best for the day, I hope it goes well and look forward to hearing about it when the day is done. https://absentgardener.com/2021/06/21/scent-of-spring-on-the-shortest-day/
Thanks Cath – I will no doubt do a summary after all the openings are done with
Good luck with the Open Garden – hope the weather cooperates! And – Oh My Goodness a real live printed on paper book! I think if we had something like your Open Garden all the info would be on-line. No charm at all! No circling addresses and underlining names and turning down page corners….my heart is yearning for something like that! Oh yes, the rose — beautiful!
Yes, the Yellow Book is an institution for garden visitors, even though all the info is now online too. Each county has a booklet too, with tghe appropriate extracts from the main book, which is provided free for garden owners to supply to visitors and garden centres. They provide details of when the openings are, plus information about the garden (although the word count is restrictive). It helps to plan visits diring the season, and if we are travelling elsewhere in teh country I will always check and see if tghere is a garden opening in the vicinity. The gardens are all vetted too, to ensure they have at least 45 minutes of interest for visitors
I admire your garden prowess and feel your visitors will be delighted. Your rose has the loveliest form and that apricot color is my favorite. What a beauty! Thanks for hosting. Best times this week!
Thanks Susie, I know I have been responsible for buying plants and shoving them in the garden, but I still feel it then does its own thing, bringing abundance from those that are happy and spitting out the rejects that don’t fit. Lady Em really is a breautiful rose in all its stages and has beautiful foliage too
To think you have your garden in this book and so many visitors lined up. I wish I was one of them but sadly we are too far away. Next year I plan to buy that book early and plan some breaks in to include visits. I know the search can be made on line, but just as with seed catalogues, there is something quite pleasing about turning down the corners of pages, and using a pencil! Lady Hamilton is just gorgeous. I have a pale apricot offering today: https://noellemace.blogspot.com/2021/06/in-vase-on-monday-grace-and-friends.html
As garden openers we get our book free but I would buy one otherwise – as you say, great for browsing and planning visits. I always look out for gardens to visit when we travel anywhere. Sadly we have no idea if there are any visitors at all lined up and being slightly out in the sticks we are unlikely ever to have huge numbers, but that’s fine as they couldn’t all get parked up anyway. And you have Grace today…!
I adore the color of that rose!
It is lovely, as is the foliage too
Beautiful rose and blue and white china is a favorite of mine, you’ll see it today. Good luck with your opening and share some photos with us. please. Thank you for hosting this week! Here is my vase https://theshrubqueen.com/2021/06/21/in-a-vase-on-monday-the-cure/
Thanks Amy – I always intend to take photos during the openings but in practice it’s not easy as the gardener is very much in demand from visitors!!
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Oh, I love that jug! Did I mention my fairly recent addiction to English pottery? 😉 Although I’m not fond of the colour of the rose I think it works very well with the blue vase. I wish you good luck for the opening and lots of charming, well behaved visitors. I admire your energy too 😀 . Here are my apricots…sorry, my vase: https://personaleden.wordpress.com/2021/06/21/cyanotype-cyanotypie-ii/
Yes, I believe you did, Annette 😉 I didn’t spend too long choosing a cainatiner this week, although there a few rejects before I found something a suitable size to support the heavy heads of the open blooms. Fortunately our visitors are genrally well-behaved – apart from the young Mum who brought 3 children and then let them run around without supervision…🙄
I love that rose, although the one I received as a raffle prize from the Garden Bloggers’ Fling I attended in 2018 has been disappointing. I’m sure that’s entirely my fault as none in my small collection of roses are very impressive. Best wishes with your first garden openings! Here’s my post: https://krispgarden.blogspot.com/2021/06/in-vase-on-monday-funky-and-frilly.html
Shame that your Lady Em is not too impressive…
Beautiful arrangement and I am swooning over the color of those roses. I hope all the preparations go well. This year, many of our garden tours were cancelled, so I am relying more than ever on garden blogs to tour gardens 🙂 That’s my hint to say “We will need pics of your garden once ready for the tour.” LOL
https://angiethehappygardener.com/blog/iavom-june-2021
Haha, I will make sure there are plenty of pictures, although it might have to wait till the end of the month and I will do my end of month video too. The two groups that had booked to come last year did not rebook for this year, but I suppose everything has been so uncertain. I am sure they will rebook for another year though – well, I hope so!! Lady Em has quickly become one of favourite roses
I do love your blue and orange complimentary coloured vase today Cathy! A lovely combination. The second week of nothing from me because I can’t get the blog template to let me navigate from the title box to the text box! Or insert photos. No idea why and despite repeated efforts last week and this, nothing changes. Very frustrating indeed. I will persevere and fiddle about with it! Hey ho! A lovely vase! Have a good week. Amanda
Thanks Amanda, and I am so sorry you have more WordPress frustrations to contend with…grrr!
Sorry Cathy – instead of wittering on about my lack of post I should have been wishing you luck with your garden opening! Always such a joy to see what others are doing, and a great source of ideas! Hope it goes well on Wednesday and at the weekend. A
Aw, not to worry Amanda, and thanks for your good wishes.
I am glad the tour is on. Your hard work pays off and I only wish I was closer.
Thanks Beverley. Most of the National Garden Scheme garden openings would not actually be called ‘tours’ – you just list the days and hpurs you are going to open and people just turn Up (although during lockdowns visitors might need to have pre-booked to spread numbers out). Obviously I will be on hand to answer any questions or identify plants, and we have friends to be on the entrance and plant stall and serving teas. If I had a separate group visit booked they might ask me to lead them round the garden but to be honest it’s far easier for them to have a wander at their own pace and then ask for info later as required.
Good luck with your openings this week, Cathy. I’ve no doubt your garden will be well received!
Thanks Eliza, and the weather looks set fair which always helps!!
‘Apricot’ got my attention. I know it is a color, but I think of it as a fruit. Well, apricot colored roses are nice. There happens to be one here, known as ‘Apricot Candy’. It is a hybrid tea rose though.
This one even has the flush of red that the apricot fruit has!
How does it taste?
She is such a beauty Cathy – not only the flowers but the foliage too. I just need to overcome the dreaded blackspot. Hope that today’s glorious weather spills into tomorrow and that you have a brilliant day. Will be thinking of you xxx
Mine was a couple of weeks later to flower than most other roses this year – how about yours? Do you have blackspot already?
My favourite rose! Good luck on your opening!! 🙂
It’s a lovely rose – good luck with the opening!
Thanks – and its fragrance was much commented on by our visitors
We have a week of mostly ‘normal winter’ weather ahead of us – lots of lovely rain!
Sending our sun up north to you.
Thanks Diana – it was glorious on the Wednesday, but overcast and breezy on the Sunday – but no rain, thankfully!