Arrangements from the garden

Posted on September 16, 2023 by Mominthegarden

Hi there! September is flying by, and I thought it would be nice this week to feature some of my flower arrangements from the past month. While I work with a lot of the same flowers, the arrangements can have rather different looks (that’s what makes the challenge fun!).

But I’ve also added some other flowers from the garden in today’s post, because they were just too beautiful to skip.

I’ll be joining the ‘Six on Saturday’ meme hosted by Garden Ruminations, which is always fun!

Enjoy!

In Peace,
Dana

collage of different flower arrangements using dahlias, sunflowers and roses from the garden

1, 2, 3, & 4 – Four flower arrangements. Top left I had an emphasis on sunflowers and roses, bottom right was a monochrome coloring of copper/burnt red dahlias, and the other two were combinations of pink dahlias and floppy yellow sunflowers. For two of the arrangements I used my favorite golden square flower holder. I have some chicken-wire that fits in perfectly, and I use two floral frogs to help keep the flowers in place. The top left arrangement is in a large square pottery serving bowl. The size was perfect for adding lots of flowers (with chicken-wire holding them in place). The large blue jug was the easiest to use, and I love the weight of it to ensure the flowers aren’t going to tumble over. I have really enjoyed using the dahlias! Another favorite are the small yellow sunflowers that have long floppy stems. They add a bit of whimsy!

collage of roses, dahlias, and sunflowers in a flower arrangement

I’m sneaking these pictures in to highlight some of the dahlias, roses and sunflowers!

5 – Sweet Pea. We’re nearing the end of the season now. I’ve marked all of my pink flowers, and I’m letting them go to seed. I was disappointed with how few pinks I had this year, so I’m going to try and only collect the seeds of the pink flowers and grow all pink next year! 🙂

sunflowers from the garden - chocolate, orange, rust and yellow and all yellow.

6 – Sunflowers. I wouldn’t say they are still going strong, but there are still flowers blooming! I was happy with the variety of flowers I planted this year. There was something for everyone! Did you even know there were so many different types of sunflowers? I’m glad I have lots of space for them.

It’ll be interesting to see what the weather does next. I’m hoping for some mild weather to get more gardening jobs done! How about you? 🙂

Thank you for visiting!

Roses, Dahlias and Sunflowers in a September garden

Posted on September 2, 2023 by Mominthegarden

Hi there! Welcome to my blog. I’m happy to say that the weather has been favorable! We welcome September in with high hopes of a beautiful autumn. The flowers in the garden might be what I’d describe as summer flowers, but they continue to look beautiful as we start the fall season. Of course, weeding takes place all year round and has been keeping me busy! It is one job that I never seem to get completely finished. 🙃

I made another flower arrangement this week (of course!). This time I added coral and pink roses to the dahlias. I was quite happy with it.

I’m adding in a non-gardening photo this week, too. I’m away in Waterford with our local cycling club (Cuchulainn Cycling Club) and I had such a brilliant ride yesterday that I had to share. It was along the Copper Coast and it was quite challenging for me. But boy was the hard work worth it for those views! Ireland is truly a beautiful country.

I’m joining Garden Ruminations for our Six on Saturday meme. It’s fun to see what’s growing around the world!

Enjoy the tour.

In Peace,
Dana

collection of sunflowers (Claret being the biggest)

1 – Collection of sunflowers. They are still looking good! It’s definitely worth planting different varieties, and lots of them, to keep the supply going. While I love the traditional yellow and brown, the dark colors of the Claret are a nice contrast.

2 – Collection of David Austin roses: from top right: Boscobel, Emily Bronte and Eustacia Vye. I had to wait a while for this second flush of roses, but it’s now lovely to see roses again. The blackspot does not seem to be quite as bad as it usually is at this stage, which is great to see.

View of the cutting garden with dahlias, gladiolus, and sunflowers

3 – The cutting garden. This has dahlias, gladioli, and sunflowers. I love having the flowers all together here. It’s a fun collection of shapes, textures and colors and it makes me smile every time I see it. 🙂

A pink and coral flower arrangement with dahlias, roses, gladiolus and verbena.

4 & 5 – A coral and pink arrangement. I challenged myself to use the Boscobel and Olivia Rose Austin roses with the dahlias. The dahlias include: Totally Tangerine, Fancy Pants, Great Silence, Daisy Duke and Jowey Frambo. Gladiolus: Pink Parrot. Verbena Bonariansis. I used chickenwire to help the flowers stay in place. It’s a bit awkward, but much better than having nothing (and floral foam isn’t good for the environment). I was happy how the colors worked together! I think the Fancy Pants dahlias are my favorite for their unique shape.

6 – Pictures from my bike ride along the Copper Coast in Waterford. Woohoo! I was so darn pleased with myself at the end of this cycle. It was challenging for me, but between the views, the weather, and the group I was with, it was such an awesome experience. I was definitely feeling the dopamine after this! (We did a 64 km route, which isn’t considered a long route, but it was perfect for me.) I can’t say it enough: Ireland is a beautiful country and so worth exploring! You can learn more about the beautiful Copper Coast here.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed the tour. Have you planned your next trip to Ireland yet? 🙂

A golden hue in the garden

Posted on August 19, 2023 by Mominthegarden

Hi there! Well the good news is that summer isn’t over yet. 🙂 And honestly, there were even some decent spells of weather this past week. Just not last night, or this morning! What a storm that passed through our area! Our pear tree did not fare well, unfortunately. We’ll see if it is save-able. But most of the rest of the garden seemed to do O.K. (gladioli aside).

There are still lots of sunflowers blooming. And now they are joined by rudbeckia Goldstrum and persicaria Blackfield. There are still some dahlia that haven’t bloomed yet. I’m waiting … patiently. I cut a few Sweet Pea bouquets this week that were quite large – they are blooming like crazy! And I made another arrangement, this one with a ‘copper toned’ color theme. I added something more unusual to it too, just for fun!

I’ll be joining Garden Ruminations for the Six on Saturday meme. It’s fun to see what’s blooming in gardens around the world!

I hope you’ll enjoy the tour.

In Peace,
Dana

Persicaria blackfield and rudbeckia goldstrum in among birch trees

1 & 2 – Persicaria Blackfield and Rudbeckia Goldstrum. These beauties are in among my five birch trees. This little garden bed has hellebores in bloom in the winter, bearded iris in early summer and now these two colorful plants for late summer and early fall. I’m happy with how it changes through the seasons with minimal work from me!

Collage of flowers: Lilies, sunflowers and a single gladiolus

3, 4 & 5 – Clockwise from top right: Lotus Dream lilies, sunflowers, gladiolus (unknown variety). It was a rough start for the lilies since the lily beetle got ahead of me (I eventually got rid of all of those pesky beetles!) but the lilies are still flowering and not looking too badly. More importantly, they are smelling beautifully! I continue to cut the sunflowers and they continue to bloom. There are always bees around, and now butterflies, too. The Gladiolus is a beautiful vibrant red! I had to cut this today as it was knocked in the storm. It currently has flowers open going all the way to the top (this picture was from a number of days ago). It is truly fabulous.

arrangement of flowers with sunflowers, dahlias and artichokes

6 – Floral arrangement. I used a glass ice bucket for his week’s arrangement, with marbles to help stabilize the flowers. I started with a bunch of sunflowers, some chocolate colored, some rust colored and some golden. Then I stuffed the arrangement with as many copper colored dahlias as I could fit! The floppy, tall, yellow sunflowers were added next. It was at this point that I decided I wanted to bring in a different color. I took a quick walk around the garden when I noticed the globe artichokes and that was it – decision made. Purple would be the final color! And when you cut them just as the flower turns purple, they will actually hold that color even as the artichoke dries out (for those of you who like to work with dried flowers).

Thank you so much for visiting! I appreciate your taking the time to stop by. Any favorite flower? 🙂

There’s a change in the air but the plants don’t care!

Posted on August 12, 2023 by Mominthegarden

Hi there! Ever notice that there is a change in the air in August? Maybe it’s a change in temperature, or maybe it’s just natural excitement as talk begins about the kids going back to school or college. I’m in no hurry to rush summer along, but I can feel that things are changing. My flowers seem to be happy, though! The dahlias are blooming, the hydrangea are filling out, the butterflies are visiting and the sunflowers continue to bloom.

I’ll be joining Jim at Garden Ruminations for our Six on Saturday meme. It’s a lovely way to see other gardens from around the world!

I hope you’ll enjoy the tour.

In Peace,
Dana

1 & 2 – Hydrangea ‘Vanille Fraise’ Paniculata ‘Renhy’ and Agapanthus Blue Umbrella. The Vanille Fraise hydrangea’s flowers have never been as big as this year. And they are so full! The Agapanthus has been moved around the garden a couple of times, never blooming before this year. I’m not 100% sure it is completely happy where it is, though, as I think it would prefer a bit more sun. I’ll be on the lookout for a new location!

Two pictures of butterflies (Red Admiral and Peacock), Pink Olivia Rose Austin roses, and California poppy (orange) with yellow potentilla.

3, 4 & 5 – From top right: Pink Olivia Rose Austin roses, Red Admiral butterfly on Buddleia Buzz ‘Dark Pink’ Butterfly Bush, California poppy (orange) with yellow Potentilla shrub, Peacock butterfly on Buddleia Buzz butterfly bush.

The first thing I noticed about the roses, after seeing the pretty flowers and buds, were the leaves, which are a beautiful green. This is quite noticeable in my yard at this time of year as it is not uncommon for the rose shrubs to be covered in black spot! What a treat to see this shrub looking so well.

I had the pleasure of weeding near the butterfly bush this week. It is now quite fragrant, and attracts so many butterflies to its sweet flowers. One day it was only covered in Peacock butterflies, but the next time there were three varieties (the third being small Tortoiseshell). What a treat!

flower arrangement of sunflowers and dahlias and Japanese anemone

6 – Flower arrangement with sunflowers, dahlias and Japanese anemone. Dahlias: ‘Hartenaas’, ‘Great Silence’, ‘Creme de Cassis’, ‘Wizard of Oz’. This week I’ve made a pink themed flower arrangement. I like the challenge of finding enough flowers in the garden to make an arrangement!

Thanks so much for visiting. I’m hoping I’ll have more dahlias blooming next week to try another arrangement! 🙂

August is blooming (and swimming)!

Posted on August 5, 2023 by Mominthegarden

Hi there! All of my pictures today were taken in the two minutes of sunshine that we were blessed to have! 🙂 I hate to make the weather such a terrible topic, so I’ll just mention that the rain has persisted. Oh sure, we’ve had some breaks here and there. I even managed to go on a fairly dry bike ride the other day. But boy has it rained in between! You know who loves that, right? HYDRANGEAS! They are looking mighty fine. The roses are the main flowers unhappy with the wet situation.

The sunflowers continue to bloom and show off their beautiful faces. The dahlias are starting to pick up the pace of their blooming (not all have bloomed, yet, though). Three of the blooming varieties (American Dawn, Totally Tangerine and Copperboy) were planted specifically for creating sunflower arrangements. I used them for the first time today and was delighted with the result!

Otherwise, I’ve been trying to get in and tidy up the garden, a little at a time. I’ll get there – eventually! Do join me as I partake in the Six on Saturday meme, hosted by Jim at Garden Ruminations.

I hope you enjoy the tour!

In Peace,
Dana

1 – Dwarf little lime hydrangea. These guys are so happy with the wet weather we’ve been having! They do not get big, which is exactly why I chose them. They start out white-green, then go more lime and they now have shades of pink. They did not look this nice last year, when we had very little rain and they were being watered by me.

Clockwise from top right: Buddleia BUZZ 'Dark Pink' Butterfly Bush, Delphinium Shelby and Monarda Fireball (bee balm)

2, 3 & 4 – (from top right) Buddleia BUZZ ‘Dark Pink’ Butterfly Bush, Delphinium ‘Shelby’ and Monarda Fireball (bee balm). I gave the dwarf butterfly bush a super hard pruning this year. I was doubtful for a while whether it would bloom. But blooming it certainly is! It is a lovely fuchsia color, offset nicely against the yellow potentilla flowers. I know I’ve mentioned the ‘Shelby’ delphinium before, but it is still blooming beautifully, so I had to give it another shout out. Finally, the Monarda ‘fireball’ is a new favorite. It smells lovely (I have a thing for scented plants!) and attracts bees – hence, it’s nickname ‘bee balm’. The color is supposed to be red, but it is more of pinkish hue of red.

A flower arrangement of sunflowers and coppery/orange dahlias in a pottery container

5 & 6 – A flower arrangement of sunflowers and dahlias. How fun is that? And what a great use of a pottery biscuit jar (we’ve never put cookies in it). The other flower I hadn’t mentioned is the Verbena Bonariansis (groups of tiny purple flowers with long stems). Dahlias: Totally Tangerine, Copperboy and American Dawn. The coloring on the American Dawn is a lot more coppery than the coral I was expecting – but I do love it! I like to grow sunflowers that have smaller flower heads, which are more manageable in arrangements. There is a nice mixture of sizes here, and colors. And both sunflowers and dahlias have a nice long vase life!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Did you have any favorite flowers?

A turbulent July is nearly gone

Posted on July 29, 2023 by Mominthegarden

Hi there! And I must say that we are quite happy to say goodbye to the soggy month of July. Thankfully, it did pass quickly. I’m full of hope that August will be nicer!

Speaking of bad weather, the rain also rather messed up my lavender schedule. There were many delays in harvesting it, due to the rain. Thankfully, I was able to harvest most of it. The good news is that it dried out really quickly and I’ve already made a couple of lavender wreaths. 🙂

The other news for July is that my dahlias are finally starting to bloom! They have grown big enough for me to stake the area and provide supports for them. I did this after some strong winds completely broke off one of my plants at the base, leaving it useless for this season (and with loads of teeny tiny buds on it!). I had everything set-up to do, but didn’t think they were big enough yet… Lesson learned.

I’ll be joining Garden Ruminations for our Six on Saturday meme. I hope you’ll enjoy the tour!

In Peace,
Dana

1 – Lavender wreath. I’m going to say that all of my wreaths are bespoke, because no two are alike! They tend to come out a bit quirky, swishing here or there. One thing I definitely do, is completely cover the wreath in lavender. I like to use a huge amount! This one took a few hours to make. I used floral pins to keep the lavender in place on the straw wreath.

2 – Delphinium ‘Shelby’. This is such a lovely two-toned blue with purple. They are short stems, thankfully. This has helped them with our windy weather.

Collage of dahlias clockwise from top right: 'Creme de Cassis', 'Wizard of Oz', 'Hartenaas', and 'Totally Tangerine'

3, 4, 5 & 6 – Dahlias! Clockwise from top right: Creme de Cassis, Wizard of Oz, Hartenaas and Totally Tangerine. It’s still early days for them, but I’m so excited because they are all just so lovely! Some of the plants are relatively short, too, so I’m hopeful they won’t be damaged in poor weather. I can’t wait to work these guys into some flower arrangements! Stay tuned!

Thanks so much for stopping by. Do you have any favorite dahlias that you think I should add to my collection? 🙂

When your lavender is ready but you are not

Posted on July 15, 2023 by Mominthegarden

Hi there! That’s right, July is the time to harvest lavender. I also know this from how many visitors I’ve had to my ‘Step by step instructions to make lavender wands‘ blog post! After our trip last week to Nashville, Tennessee, for my daughter’s Irish dancing, I arrived home to lavender perfectly ready for harvesting. But I was too tired! And then the seemingly non-stop rain began. It became a case of second guessing when the rain would stop, when the lavender would dry out enough after the rain stopped, and then when to actually cut it. I’m happy to report that I was finally able to harvest quite a bit of lavender. There’s still more, but the rain has returned again and has been relentless.

I’m so thankful to have had the chance to go to Nashville with my daughter, and we had a wonderful time (and same with our trip last month to New England). But boy do I feel that I’ve missed so much in my garden this year. I’m glad we had a couple of days where we were able to get a lot done to tidy it up. And all of my plants have been happy about the rain! Hopefully, we’ll get some more time to enjoy our summer and time in the garden. I think everyone’s fingers are crossed that the good weather will return!

I’ll be joining Garden Ruminations for the Six on Saturday meme. I hope you enjoy the tour!

In Peace,
Dana

harvested lavender and a lavender wreath

1 – Lavender! The picture on the left is what I harvested to make the wreath my daughter is holding. Funny enough, the row of lavender in her picture is a different variety, and is actually a few shades darker. I did not harvest that because I really like the look of it in the garden, and honestly, it peaked while we were away. Maybe next year I’ll take a section or two.

2 – Sweet pea. A staple in my garden. This scented posy was actually picked last week when the sun was visiting briefly. The picture I took of this week’s posy was so dark, I opted not to use it!

3 & 4 Lichfield Angel David Austin Roses and pink Oriental lilies. Most of my roses are now taking a bit of a rest. But the Lichfield Angel roses still had quite a few flowers on them. They are a very pretty creamy off-white color, and as they age their tips turn pink. I decided to cut them and bring them inside, because the branches were quite weighed down. The great thing about these roses is that their stems have no thorns! The pink Oriental lilies are heavenly scented (my personal opinion)! On Instagram I talked about the red winged scarlet lily beetle that I thought was going to destroy my lilies completely. I was constantly squishing either the beetles or their yucky slug-like larva. I’m glad that the lilies survived, though, even if their greens don’t look very nice. The lesson is to be on the look out for lily beetles from the very start of the season!

5 & 6 Delphinium and Coleus. The delphinium is Blue Ocean. It is two toned and very pretty. I’ve learned that their stems are very fragile! I have to be extra careful when I cut them for arrangements. The coleus situation is somewhat disappointing. I planted them from seed in March. But they would have needed special attention while I was away during our heat wave, and they definitely suffered. They have finally made a comeback, but it’ll be the end of the summer before they are at their prime! I’ve made a mental note to start their seeds in January next year. 🙂

And that’s it for this week’s Six on Saturday. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Summer Solstice behind us now

Posted on June 24, 2023 by Mominthegarden

Hi there! The summer is well underway now, and I am still trying to catch up with all of the growth (read: weeds!) in my garden from when we were away. Ireland has had an amazing stretch of warm weather the past six weeks. My roses have absolutely loved it, and they are the highlight of my post today.

I’m joining Garden Ruminations for the Six on Saturday meme just to get back into the swing of things here. 🙂

In Peace,
Dana

Boscobel, James Austin and Olivia Rose Austin roses

1, 2, & 3: David Austin Roses: Boscobel (salmon color), Princess Anne & James Austin (bottom middle and bottom right, a bright, deep pink), and Olivia Rose Austin (medium pink). They’re gorgeous and they are fragrant. I love ’em!

Lichfield Angel roses, alstroemeria, and delphinium

4, 5 & 6: Lichfield Angel David Austin roses (cream), pink alstroemeria, and blue delphinium. I made an arrangement with these lovelies earlier this week. The Lichfield Angel roses tend to be a bit floppy, so I used some wire to keep at least one of their heads up. Some floppiness is ok, but it’s really nice to see their smiling faces, too!

Quite a quick one this week. I hope you’ve enjoyed it nonetheless!

Here’s to enjoying our gardens in peace and harmony with our surroundings. ❤️

Planting out the seedlings

Posted on May 13, 2023 by Mominthegarden

Hello! Well there certainly was some excitement this week when the rain finally stopped and the sun shone brightly for two days in a row! I celebrated by planting out most of my seedlings, including sweet pea, pumpkins and sunflowers. Now the fun part starts: keeping the slugs away!

I want to back up a tiny bit and talk about the seedlings. I’ve learned the hard way that the stems of pumpkin plants are fragile. One snap and that’s the end of the plant. My typical ‘flip the pot over’ into my hand ended in disaster last year. So I’m happy to report that there were no snapping of stems this year. The main reason is that I no longer flip them. 🙃 That’s just not the best way to get them out of their containers. It also helped to grow them on a couple of weeks longer, so they were definitely stronger.

The sweet pea were also started a tiny bit earlier this year. They grew long and leggy quite quickly, so I kept pinching them back which seemed to strengthen them and encouraged them to grow more stems.

The sunflowers were an interesting bunch. I have several different varieties, but they have not all grown equally well. I have my hunch as to which ones will perform the best – those that from very early on had multiple leaves and a strong stem – but I will give them all an equal shot!

The biggest issue I now face is that of slugs. They can destroy all of my work in a very short period of time. I’ve already removed several from the beds and from some of the plants. They come out in the late evening and early morning, and they camouflage perfectly in the soil. And don’t be fooled by size, even the teeniest of slugs can do serious damage! Hopefully, I can get the plants all settled and growing before the slugs do major damage.

I’m joining Garden Ruminations for the Six on Saturday meme (because it is fun to do so!).

Enjoy the tour of my garden!

In Peace,
Dana

image of pumpkin plant, sunflowers and sweetpea

1, 2 & 3 – Pumpkins, Sunflowers & Sweet pea. I’ve placed eggshells around the plants to deter the slugs. Honestly, I don’t think it works, but I feel better having at least tried it. One side of the arch will be covered in sweet pea, while the other side will have pumpkins growing on it. That’s the plan, anyway!

4 – Slug. Yup, I took a picture of a slug. This guy was quite long and easy to spot. I also tend to look harder around the leaves that have damage done to them. I’ve found that ‘hunting’ them down, both morning and night, is the best way to deal with them – and always with gloves.

Full view of the raised beds with the new seedlings in.

full view of garden with narcissus and raspberries

5 – View of the raised beds from both sides (after planting). In the bottom picture you can also see the raspberry plants. The border includes lavender on one side, Rosemary on another, little lime hydrangea on the far size, and beech hedging with containers of hosta on the last. Seeing blue skies is such a treat!

6 – Cherry tree at sunset. I couldn’t resist taking this picture. I was working on the other side of the garden and the lighting was just so perfect here that I was enticed to come over. I’d like many more days like these, please!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Do you have any (organic) means to get your slugs? 🙂

Tulip season!

Posted on April 29, 2023 by Mominthegarden

Hi there! While we should be well and truly into spring at this stage, the weather has only been teasing us with spring-like weather. Despite this, the garden continues to come to life, with all of the tulips now up and blooming. As I mentioned in an earlier post, not all of my tulips have returned from last year. But, the ones that did are fabulous.

I’m joining Garden Ruminations for the Six on Saturday meme, where folks from all over the world give a peek into their gardens.

Enjoy the tour!

In Peace,
Dana

View of the apple, cherry and birch trees with a cloudy sky

1 – April sky. I thought this picture summarizes perfectly what the weather has been like! It is sunny, but there is also a black cloud, which brought rain. You can see the white/pink blossoms of the apple tree on the left, with the cherry tree in the center, and the five birch trees on the right.

2 – Pretty Princess tulips. These tulips are a lovely, bright and cheerful pink, with a dark contrast color in the middle of the petals. These particular flowers were planted this past fall, but they join other Pretty Princess tulips that have been in this bed for a few years.

Queen of the night tulips (dark) with some Pretty Princess below

3 – Queen of the Night tulips. I love this deep, dark burgundy color, in contrast to the brightness of the pink Pretty Princess tulips. These tulips are a few years old.

4 – Vincent van Gogh tulips. We planted these dark, fringed tulips this past fall, to tie-in with the Queen of the Night tulips, since they are across from each other. These have a beautiful burgundy – red tinge. Unfortunately, they are being surrounded (smothered) by poppies.

5 – Tulip ballerina. Aren’t these lovely? I had a lot more of these years ago, but every year less return. I’ve shifted my colors more to wine/pink/white, though, so I’m not sure if I’ll find a little nook to keep these colors.

6 – Fringed Tulip Honeymoon. These are just two years old, and the pack has thinned out. It’s a constant battle in this bed, though, with poppies and weeds, so I’m not too surprised they don’t return here.

I’m sneaking in one more picture. Here is ‘Kitty’ sitting pretty in front of the Cool Crystal tulips, which are still looking fantastic. Kitty likes to keep me company in the garden. 🙂

I hope you’ve enjoyed the tour! Any favorites?

Mom in the Garden

Enjoying life. In Ireland. With my family.

Category Archives: Six on Saturday

Arrangements from the garden

Roses, Dahlias and Sunflowers in a September garden

A golden hue in the garden

There’s a change in the air but the plants don’t care!

August is blooming (and swimming)!

A turbulent July is nearly gone

When your lavender is ready but you are not

Summer Solstice behind us now

Planting out the seedlings

Tulip season!