It’s a strange in-between season at the moment, no longer really spring, but surely not summer yet, despite all the roses. Summer, however, is definitely on its way, despite the 36mm of rain on Wednesday and the thundery showers yesterday, and today’s vase contains the first evidence of both summer colour and summer abundance.
A stem of Alstroemeria ‘Indian Summer’ was the focal point, joined by a selection of calendula, the first pickings from the cutting beds. Alerted by Karen of Bramble Garden to a new variety of calendula offered by Chiltern Seeds, I splashed out and added ‘Touch of Red Buff’, ‘Neon’ and ‘Oopsy Daisy’ to my seed list for this year as well as the usual ‘Snow Princess’, ditching the popular ‘Indian Prince’. A stem of Amaranthus ‘Fox Tail’, still disappointingly short, was also added, along with foliage from positively glowing Nandina ‘Obsessed’. Almost as an afterthought, I cut two stems of Potentilla ‘Miss Wilmott’ on the way back to the house, realising as I did so that the plant would actually be at home in one of the bold borders. Having bought a pack of plug plants last year and grown them on, with a view to them adding a splash of pink to the obelisk border, they have been on borrowed time ever since the first buds showed colour, and were destined for the plant sales table at our open garden instead. Perhaps they were incorrectly labelled, as they are very definitely not what I was expecting!
Searching my vase cupboard for a receptacle with orange, red or yellow tones and finding nothing with a neck wide enough to accommodate all the stems, I plucked this charity shop cut-glass vase with its flared shape from the front of the cupboard and cut the stems to fit. It seems ages since I have had such a fulsome vase! If you look carefully you will see a teeny pair of sunglasses (a pin badge) nestled among the blooms, in preparation for summer’s arrival, although to be fair we have had many lovely days recently. The heavy and persistent rain on Wednesday, however, necessitated an emergency vase holding two short stems of Allium ‘Miami’ which had been snapped off by the downpour, leaving the remaining stems erect and headless in the border.
It is always lovely to see what is growing in the gardens of our blogging community, so if you would like to pick material from them to pop in a vase you could then share them with us on IAVOM by leaving the usual links. In the absence of pickable material, foraging in the locality is OK too.
Rambling in the Garden 
An unusual collection, which sums up whatever crazy season this is, Cathy…
It’s good to have things beginning to flower in the cutting beds, although I don’t thin there is anythng else even in bud yet…
yes, it’s June next week, and we don’t have much to show for it!
What sort of plants do you have blooming?
The Spring flowers are long gone, so all we have to look at now are the almost open flower buds on a small orange blossom.
So when will your ‘summer’ start?
When the weather decides, I suppose, Cathy…
It’s great to see your collection and efforts you make in gardening
Well, I just love it, so it’s not really an effort, not much of one anyway!
❤️❤️
What a great and mysterious vase! I thought at first you have fringed tulips still blooming, and hanging down there, like tulips sometimes do. But no! They’re Calendula, not fully open! (Right?!) It’s a perfect vase for such a lush arrangement, as is the clamshell holding the saved Allium.
Thanks Chris. Yes, the calendula were only just coming into flower but I was going to use them regardless! The shell vase was from a ‘pound shop’ (do you have something similar, like a dollar shop?) and a label on the bottom called it a pencil pot!!
We have dollar stores galore these days, selling everything but fresh dairy, meat and produce. Given prices in regular grocery stores have skyrocketed in the past few years over here folks want to save as much as possible when shopping. A pencil pot though…that’s a new one!
Love this dynamic collection. Alstroemeria ‘Indian Summer’ inspired a pageant of players. I feel a sense of in-betweenness in my garden as well but summer has the edge. https://pbmgarden.blog/2024/05/27/in-a-vase-on-monday-flowers-in-red-pot/
I like the idea of a pageant of players, Susie – I certainly wasn’t sure if the cast was going to be big enough but was pleased with the performance in the end
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Lovely colours in there Cathy, and the Potentilla fits perfectly, even if it was meant to be pink! I like those peachy colours and the Calendulas are a very pretty mix – definitely worth the extra pennies. Same feeling here… is it summer yet? Warm and thundery but still very damp. Here is my vase for today, looking very much like summer.😃https://wordsandherbs.wordpress.com/2024/05/27/in-a-vase-on-monday-pretty-petals-and-a-naughty-hare/
I find Chiltern Seeds very reliable and it is my go to place for specific barieties, although they can easily tempt me with new ones!
Your Potentilla is quite perfect . I agree with Cathy and think you have a different one there which is just pink, but the variation in shades and colours is quite exquisite. We’ve were inundated yesterday with heavy thundery rain, the heaviest I have ever experienced. Here is my post this week: https://noellemace.blogspot.com/2024/05/in-vase-on-monday.html
I didn’t appreciate the colour of the potentilla while I was expecting it to be pink, by now I can think of it in a different context I can see its attractions – but it will need to be moved (and that leaves me a gap to fill…)! Gosh, your rainfall yesterday must have been quite something – we certainly had some heavy rain but only in bursts of 5 minutes or so. I hope it didn’t damage anything in your garden
I have a similar spring/summer comment today as well. The end of May everywhere marks the change in vibe? I love those Calendulas and was puzzling over what they were when I opened your post. The Nandina looks wonderful with them and the colors, very effective. I may need some of those calendula this winter! thank you for hosting – Amelia https://theshrubqueen.com/2024/05/27/in-a-vase-on-monday-sayonara-spring/
Yes, I suppose I would think of May as being late spring and June as early summer, but it’s all just words, isn’t it? The Touch of Buff Red is a particularly striking calendula
Yes, wonderful calendula.
Very nice! The foliage colors and forms, combined with the Calendula and Alstroemeria (and the sunglasses) are fabulous. Thanks for hosting!
https://plantpostings.blogspot.com/2024/05/a-simple-vase-for-memorial-day.html
Thanks Beth, I was pleased with the overall effect
Ohhhhhh, I love the colors of that alstroemeria and calendula, and the shell vase is adorable too. Yes summer will be upon us soon. My garden still is catching up in spring with the summer heat we recently had. Cooling off for a bit more spring. https://gardenseyeview.com/2024/05/27/playing-in-my-native-garden-on-my-birthday/
Yes, it seemed strange to have almost hot colours again, Donna! Glad to hear you have had some heat to give you a boost after your long winter 👍
Well your colourful and warm vase certainly lends itself more to summer than spring Cathy but you may be a tad optimistic with that sweet little pair of sun specs 😂 All the colours in your first vase flow together so well and the alliums seem to have recovered well from their abrupt beheading. My vase is here :
https://greentapestry.blogspot.com/2024/05/iavom-here-comes-rain-again.html
Yes, it certainly feels like a summer vase – and such a joy to be able to includes the first pickings from the cutting beds. The alliums were barely opening when they were decapitated but fortuately they are doing fne in their vase – I had to scrabble around in the undergrowth of the border to find them in the first place though! 🤣
I laughed outright as soon as I saw that pair of tiny sunglasses perched in your arrangement, Cathy. It was a very clever – and appropriate – addition as Alstroemeria ‘Indian Summer’ is bright! (I have a clump in my own garden.) I’m a little envious of all your rain but then that probably goes without saying 😉 As it is, my garden is still expressing its exuberance over another solid rainy season from winter into early spring and I’m struggling to bring it under control. Here’s my IAVIM contribution: https://krispgarden.blogspot.com/2024/05/in-vase-on-monday-rescues-from-pit-of.html
I know I have used full size sunglases as a prop before, but had never thought of using these teeny ones! I am sure the alstroemeria does far better in your garden than mine, althoug at least it is pretty hardy here, unlike some alstroemeria
Almost summer indeed, it felt very summery this past week, but it looks like we’re back to May temps for the next week.
Love your orange/yellow/burgundy colour combo this week. ‘Miss Wilmott’ is quite fine!
My vases this week: http://elizawaters.com/2024/05/26/iavom-memorial-day/
We too are due to have an unsettled week, but hopefully some dry periods between the showers too. It was good to be able to use some hot colours this week – it must have been autumn since the last time!
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8 hours later across the pond, I will try to share again. To make you feel better we had frost a few nights ago in the mountains. I love the warmth of your colours! My garden does have offerings now. https://wordpress.com/post/zonethreegardenlife.blog/5101 In a Vase, May 27th
Try this if my last link did not work!
https://zonethreegardenlife.blog/2024/05/27/in-a-vase-may-27th/
Hurrah! That works! Thanks for persisting 👍😊
Oh fantastic! I live in the Rockies, Cranbrook BC. It is weird that the first link connects back to you but that is beyond my limited blogging expertise!! It works when I test it but I took this url directly from the post not from inside my admin role. Thank you for letting me know. I feel so thankful for connecting with like minded souls?
And it is good to have you on board with IAVOM – it is such a friendly and supportive meme
Thank you!
Fingers crossed for access your blog… 🤞 And a frost?!! Whereabouts are you (I don’t know a lot about these zones)?
Oh dear, oh dear…it’s linking to my sites again 😢 What I do to get a link is to publish the post, then view it and copy the url in the browser/address bar and paste it where I want to leave the link
The Nandina leaves with the alstroemeria are a nice combination of colors. Yes, we are in between Spring and Summer here in NJ, too. Summer is definitely winning. Buds are starting to pop into bloom. It’s an exciting few weeks watching everything come into flower.
I would say summer is winning here too but. in practice, to me May and June are neither spring nor summer and perhaps need a different seasonal name… 😉
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Goodness, it IS getting late in the season. I tend to forget because the weather has not been so summery yet. I think that your flowers look more summery than springy.
Seasons are far less well-defined here than they used to be
The little sunglasses made me laugh, are they a child’s or from Mr. Potato Head? I agree, the arrangement feels summery 🙂
The sunglasses are a pin badge so neither of those – they are about 1 inch across and I like miniature things which will be why I acquired them at some stage
A lovely arrangement with a great colour palette. Nothing from me this week; the gardens are full of colour but the cutting beds are going to be late bloomers.
Cutting beds will be later for me too, I think – must look back at my vases last year and see what I was putting in them then!