Another brief post from me, but I am sure that opening our garden twice in the last few days is a good enough excuse, if an excuse was needed! I will feedback in due course, probably after our big group visit next weekend, but suffice to say at the present time that both days went well and the weather on Wednesday was especially kind, leaving visitors lingering and unwilling to leave. It was cooler and breezier on Sunday, but dry, and that makes such a difference.
The fragrance of sweet peas beguiled all our visitors, and two of Wednesday’s visitors independently suggested to us they would happily have bought some sweet peas if they had been made available. It of course made sense then to provide some little posies on our Sunday opening, which were duly snapped up – if there was truth in the report that a posh flower market was selling similar posies for £12, then it is hardly surprising these proved irresistable! Subject to a good crop, this sideline will now become a regular feature of the openings, and it occurred to me that I could also include posies from the contents of the cutting beds in the future too.
And that’s your lot for my ‘cop out’ Monday vase post – but I deserve a rest… Please join in by leaving links to and from your own post.
Rambling in the Garden 
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I may not be able to smell them but they do also look very pretty. 😀 Glad to hear all went well and the weather was kind. Here is my vase today, prepared early yesterday before it got hot again.
Thanks Cathy
Oh you certainly deserve a gentle day or two Cathy to recover. I’m so pleased to hear that both open days went well and look forward to hearing more about them in due course. Wednesday was a glorious summers day. I’m not surprised to hear that your splendid sweet peas were snapped up. I used to take some bunches of them along with dahlias for our allotment society stall at a local fun day and they always went along with other cut flowers. I have a lovely memory of a couple of young boys debating which colours of sweet peas would be their mum’s favourite colour 😂 My first sweet pea flower opened this weekend so fingers crossed enough for a vase soon. Meanwhile there’s another sweet in my vase this week : https://greentapestry.blogspot.com/2021/06/iavom-just-william.html
Thanks for you kind words, Anna. I got up to go to swimming and pilates as usual today, but realised I felt unusually tired and played hookey instead, which is most unlike me!! I had to smile at your recollections of those two boys 😊 Hurrah for your sweet pea -so many visitors mentioned that their sweet peas were nowhere near flowering, so I felt well blessed to have had such a good crop already
What a great idea – I foresee a whole new planting scheme forming for your future gardens! Looking forward to reading in more detail how the open gardens went.
The ‘cutting beds would normally be more colourful than they currently are, Chris, with mostly just cosmos and calendula open so far, although several things are just budding up nicely now.
Offering cut flower posies sounds like a brilliant idea. Glad both days went well. Yesterday it poured down all day here.
Thanks Jude, fortunately no rain, and most people dressed for warmth as it was the coolest it has been for some time
The weather is fickle this year. We have had torrential rain and fog/cloud since Saturday. Thank goodness for Wimbledon!
What lovely sweet peas. They remind me of my Mum, who grew them every winter – yes, here in Africa. I love those sweet pea colours. Thanks for sharing a pic of yours.
Thanks Alison. On one support I have the red (King George VI) and pink (Gwendoline) and on the othere there is a mixed selection
Preparing and holding these garden openings must be tiring, yet exhilarating. Your visitors are fortunate. The sweet pea posies are a perfect offering on these days. I would have snapped some up too. Hope you find time for yourself today. Thanks for still taking time to host our vases this week.
Thanks Susie – however tiring it is, it is still such an enjoyable thing to do as garden visitors are so lovely 😉 I am having a relatively lazy day today (hard for me!! ) but have done some gentle deadheading
Good, don’t want you to get used to goofing off! 😀
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I’m so glad all went well, Cathy, and having opened the garden before I know how tiring it is. At the same time very rewarding though. What a lovely gesture to offer the posies. Here’s my contribution: https://personaleden.wordpress.com/2021/06/28/in-a-vase-on-a-monday-a-glimpse-of-my-world/?preview=true&_thumbnail_id=3742 enjoy the well deserved rest and have a good week xx
Thanks Annette, it will certainly be a quiet week with no additional baking to do and mostly just deadheading in the garden – although I did spontaneusly lop some viburnum branches today which had been overshadowing some of the roses
Wish you could ship a posey to me! I have disastrous luck with Sweet peas. Oh well, love the colors and is there really anything better than a simple bouquet of fragrant flowers? Looking forward to the detailed report. A special thanks for hosting this Monday. https://theshrubqueen.com/2021/06/28/in-a-vase-on-monday-tropical-gardenias/
The fragrance of roses and sweet peas must have been commented on by all our visitors, Amy. I am pleased to be able to finally consider myself successful with sweet peas, but it took awhile
I can’t think of anything better than taking part of your garden home.
Aw thanks, Beverley – that’s what my friend on the plant stall was saying to visitors, to tempt them to buy them …not that they needed tempting!
Yes, you most certainly deserve a rest, especially as you have another opening in the offing. Including sweet pea posies for sale was a great idea! Thanks for hosting IAVOM despite all you have going on. Here’s my post: https://krispgarden.blogspot.com/2021/06/in-vase-on-monday-weve-been-lucky.html
At least with opening for a group they will all be coming at the same time, and I know this group can only stay about an hour as they wre on their way to Devon for a few days of garden visiting. And they have pre-booked tea and cake, which makes planning easier too!
The sweet peas are beautiful and bring back happy memories for me if my grandpa. He grew them on a chain link fence. I only remember purple though. I would’ve snatched a bunch up also!
Sweet peas seem to bring back memories for so many people, but I don’t remember them from my childhood at all.
Cathy forgives me for not writing for so long, but I’m still very depressed and not picking up the computer. I am very glad Cathy that opening the garden went great and you are looking forward to the group visit next weekend. The sweet pea bouquets are divine and their colors are fabulous, I love them. Cathy a very good idea to make corsages for the cutting beds …. very good idea! I hope you are all in good health. Have a week off. Very affectionate greetings from Margarita.
Thank you so much Margarita, and I am so sorry that your depression has not lifted. I will try and email you soon
Cathy thank you very much for your words of encouragement. Seeing the pictures of the Sweet Peas have encouraged me a lot. Cathy your blogs are wonderful. Very affectionate greetings from Margarita.
Thank you Margarita, it is good to know that you you are beginning to take an interest in reading blogs again
I am sure there will be lots of lovely memories of your garden taken away by your visitors. Well done. Those sweet peas are lovely. I am not posting today but I can report that Alison’s sweet peas were lovely lovely, and we have a lovely afternoon today, when I very much enjoyed being shown round her garden, and seeing a number of developments.
Thansk Noelle, and oh how lovely to have caught up with Alison and her garden. I hope she and her business are doing well. I must make time to email her one of these days
Everyone loves sweet peas and no wonder those stems were a hit!
Yes indeed, and I am sure I could easily have sold more but didn’t want to strip the plants completely. I did make up two more posies fro someone who came much later in the afternoon though
No one needs to know it is a cop out. Sweet pea are enviable to those of us who do not grow them.
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It’s great that it went so well and the weather was kind! Sweet peas are my favourite – either boom or bust for me. Totally worth all the effort but I only need to forget them for a week to have them turn into seed pods. Here’s my IAVOM. https://absentgardener.com/2021/06/29/more-sweet-scent-michelia-bubbles/
Thanks Cath – yes, I have to be careful not to let that happen to mine, especially as some of my pre-Covid activities have not restarted and I am not seeing as many people to give posies to
Sweet peas, jam jars, what more can a girl want! Delightful and served up on a Sunday rather than a Monday, even better because by the sounds of it you have been super busy with your garden openings and deserve a rest! No vase from me again this week I am sorry to say, but I am enjoying everyone else’s! Have a good week Cathy. Amanda
I must have had a moment of foresight to photograph the jars before we opened on the Sunday, with a view to writing a quick post later and scheduling it for Monday. Hope you are beginning to feel more settled now
Have never grown or even smelled sweet pea. Now I wish I had.
Is it something that could grow where you are? They seem to evoke memories for so many people, although they are not sonething I encontered as a child – and yes, their fragrance is divine!
I suppose they could grow here, but I suspect they would not thrive in the hot and humid summers.
Such a busy girl! No wonder the sweet peas sold like hot cakes (you probably had those too, lol). They are gorgeous.
Haha, more like cold cakes as they had been accumulating in the freezer over the previous fortnight! 😁