I am away from home this week, so unable to post a vase from home. In the absence of any floral inspiration from today’s drive along the M6, I thought I would take a look back at my May vases from last year – how nice it is to be building up such a catalog of material! I will be linking up with Cathy at Rambling In The Garden as usual.
From 5th May last year I can see that the garden was ahead of where it is today. I had the allium Purple Sensation, viburnum opulus sterile, elderflowers, honeysuckle, dicentra and geraniums in this arrangement. Today my alliums are just opening up and the viburnum opulus is starting to flower. There are no elderflowers or honeysuckle yet.
In the same week last year my only tree peony flowered – the buds are not yet showing color this year.
On 19th May I posted these beautiful dark pink ranunculus. There are no signs of flowers yet, so will keep my fingers crossed that these are yet to come.
On 19th May I posted my first peonies. There are plenty of buds this year, so fingers crossed that these will be out by the end of May. Just look at that honeysuckle – I always forget how much I love it.
On 26th May I had roses and clematis and look at all that produce!! Asparagus, broad beans and strawberries – my mouth is watering. We are picking asparagus now and the broad beans and strawberries are flowering, so it cannot be long.
Finally I had to show this one again – the first pick of Sarah Bernhardt peonies on 30th May – I cannot wait!
Before I wrap up for tonight I just wanted to share a couple of photos of a surprise visiter to our garden this weekend.
Our first thoughts when we saw this amazing bird was that it was something tropical that had escaped from a zoo or bird sanctuary. Whilst one of my daughters went off to ring the RSPCA for advice, the other did a search on google. Typing in colourful red and gold bird – looks like a pheasant, we quickly learned that it actually was a type of pheasant. This is the Golden Pheasant which we now know originates from China, but there are colonies in East Anglia (which is where we live).
This beautiful bird stayed in the garden overnight, but moved off at some point during the day yesterday.
I am now away for a week – on a trip with my mother to her home town in Lancashire. I have wi-fi in the hotel, so hope to catch up with my tulip post this week and the Greenhouse Review which will be published on Wednesday (I am trying to stick to the 2nd Wednesday in the month).
I apologize for the quick post tonight and hope it is not full of mistakes – we are out for dinner so I have no time to check it through!