26 May Tuesday…with garden and ikebana

The garden is transforming at the moment and so many flowers are coming back like old friends…

This week the purple daisies came out in force…
…the chives burst into purple and the heuchera flowers became tinged with pink…the hosta is defying the snails and slugs… and the oxalis have popped their pink there’s also a sweet purple aquilegia shyly flowering in the shadows of the giant echium… and the red hot pokers are nearly there…The Japanese anemones have basically become the thug of the garden though……but I am still proudly loving the succulents which I air rooted last year.
This is a foxglove which I moved as a seedling so it would flower against the wall and next to the hollyhock, although it’s way ahead of it this year… …and this London Pride I adore…it was one of my favourite flowers as a child and I remember exactly where I was in the garden when I discovered that it had amazing pink and yellow spots inside, and then as a teenager I designed some business cards ( I used to embroider and sell espadrilles to local shops! ) and they had a drawing of the flower on them in black ink ( so it was easy to photocopy them ) as I that’s what I imagined my business would be called! Quaking grass was always a childhood favourite too… …and this is the echium which got bitten by the frost but which refuses to be beaten…and I’m in full support even though it looks a bit strange! …these nigella ( or love-in-a-mist ) are the first of my flower seeds to emerge, and I’m hoping that the other wont be too far behind although they’re only seedlings at the moment…I don’t know why these have started out early… the clematis in the front has survived strong wind and caterpillars… and the peonies are becoming amazing…but it was the first of the crazy fox and cubs, which always want to take over the whole garden, which inspired today’s ikebana…I loved it’s straightness amongst the lovely flow of larger plants… …although before I went in I was distracted by Frances Doherty’s beautiful sculpture which I really don’t want to leave my garden after the Open House…I picked very little as I wanted to make something with plenty of space as I think that’s what my head needed after such a full on month…
I wanted to use a trough rather than a vase as I wanted to highlight upright forms… I picked 3 daisies, 1 pilosella, one chive with a tiny bud, 1 heuchera flowering stem and a piece of perennial pea; I thought it’s curve would create a nice asymmetry… there was a moment when I liked this just as it was… but I really craved the height, so also added a piece of twisted willow which I had in another vase arrangement inside… …and then the pea stem just looked too bulky so it went! …and then it all started becoming something completely different and I wanted to utilise some coloured calla lilies which I’d bought for the open house…( and became a bit fascinated by what it’s stem had done in the vase! )I had some snap dragons from over 4 weeks ago who’s top ends had curved into a lovely shape, which I added for rhythm and a pop of colour…and there I felt I should leave it!