Sometimes simplicity is best!
This was my favourite for the month. I loved its freshness, and was enjoying the late burst of pure white rosebuds, nestled amongst the lime green flower heads of our good old friend “Annabelle”, yet again. And it was also, my first foray into Cathy’s meme “In a Vase on Monday”.
Mind you, it was a close run thing! Roaring into second place, was my warm, rosy wine vase I created for my “Last of the Summer Wine” post, out of the dying embers of the garden.
It was quite a concoction of wine coloured flowers, buds and grasses, seed heads and red berries, freshened up with some simple white Anemone “Honorine Jobert” and Rosa rugosa flowers. The wine tones were provided by the flowers of our unknown Sedum, Persicaria amplexicaulis “Firetail”, the buds of Skimmia rubella, and the wonderful, velvety flower spikes of Miscanthus “Ferner Osten”. Other grasses were also used in the making of this vase. Seed heads were provided courtesy of Crocosmia “Lucifer”. The red berries used were from our Rowan tree (again, unknown variety) along with the hips of two roses – the fat juicy ones of Rosa rugosa and the smaller, goblet shaped ones of Rosa rubiginosa – complete with their leaves to provide bright green and blue green foliage respectively. Quite an autumnal display!
I must share with you my landmark of earlier in the month. Six vases in one day!
You probably recognise several of them carried over from August, but there’s a couple of fresh ones, in there.
First, my jug of flowering herbs,
with mint, lavender, hyssop, fennel, borage and purple sage.
Second, more rosy tones,
with Persicaria used again, this time complete with leaves, complemented with the favourite wine combo of Cotinus “Grace”, and Miscanthus “Ferner Osten”. You can also see the red blades of the grass Imperata rubra, blending beautifully.
Other offerings this month;
A cool blue composition 
More sweet peas,
this time with rosemary. 
A single white rose. 
Buttercups and Daisies. 
And finishing where we started,
the same vase, minus the long gone roses, fading away like a sepia photo!
The Long Garden Path 
Gorgeous! Loving all those combinations. I bought a hydrangea about 5 years ago labelled as ‘Annabelle’. Turns out it isn’t and I haven’t been able to identify what I do have. It’s still pretty and has fab flower heads for autumn and winter decoration but it is annoying.
How very disappointing! It’s such a wonderful plant, with so much going for it – I’m a complete fan and now converted to the beauty of Hydrangeas.
Your talent is remarkable.
Thank you so much, Cynthia! You’re so kind! I do hope all is going well with you.
You have been busy with your arrangements this summer. They are all lovely. It makes you look at your flowers in a different way when you are weighing them up for cutting doen’ t it? I love the rosy tones with the grasses and continus and the hydrangea is perfect in that vase.
Thanks, Chloris. I know what you mean. I was walking round the garden trying to decide on my next vase, which I need to do (can’t stop now!) and found myself considering things other than flowers, that are now in shorter supply. The rosy tones still seem to be dominating at the moment.
The rosey pink tones with the green do look lovely, don’t they? Were the persicaria leaves from Firetail? I am sure mine haven’t coloured. I am very impressed with the sheer number of your vases over the month – far more than my one a week, although I am starting to add the odd little one for the bathrooms although mostly with left overs.