Oops! It’s nearly the end of December, and I’ve just realised that in the battle of home improvements v Christmas preps, I forgot to post the November edition of the Cuttings Calender.
Now, I don’t want any of you wondering if I’ve fallen by the wayside, so better late than never.
It’s starting to get harder now, with fewer blooms around, so November started with the last of the floral stragglers and ended with evergreens and berries.
I love the winner for its colour scheme of silver (foliage), black (berries) and purple (berries and flowers). The only flowers still blooming were good old Astrantia “Buckland”, which I twinned with the silvery foliage of Pittosporum “Silver Queen” and Astrantia ludoviciana. Sorry, there was also still a few blooms of Verbena bonariensis, standing proud, so they started the purple. Down in the woodland I was enamoured by the matching Callicarpa berries and Muscari flowers, so I wanted that effect in the vase too. What better contrast to all of this than black berries, supplied by Ophiopogon “Nigrescens”. So cool!
There were other contributions, despite the slowing down of offerings.
Centre stage in this vase has to be the winter flowering Coronilla “Citrina” flowering alongside summer flowering Alchemilla mollis. Crazy! Astrantia is still going strong, golden ivy leaves blend in with the flowers, and the ever flowering Campanula (not sure which one but it loves our garden!) provides a cool blue contrast.
Don’t the vases seem to flow from one to the other? Here we have the Coronilla and the Campanula again, this time with more silver variegated Pittosporum, but this time with a splash of warming pink, from the Cyclamen.
Now we’re getting more seasonal! Some good evergreen leaves – Sarcococca and Ivy – a beautiful sprig of Jasmine foliage turning gold and pink, with the last of the red berries and some red Cornus stems. I added some black “full stops” with some ivy berries and a stem of seed heads from Anemone japonica.
A difficult choice this month!
So sorry this is so late. December’s will be due any day now!
And I hope this does not appear too rushed. I’ve just been lucky enough to be nominated for a Liebster award for blogging, so I’m off now to ask and answer questions, and to compose my acceptance speech! 😉
The Long Garden Path 
Lovely bouquet, Ali! I adore Astrantia but they struggle a little because of our hot, often dry summers but I shall put another lot into the new borders in the orchard and hope they’ll be happier there. Congrats on the award – I look forward to your answers 🙂
Yes, Astrantia does need moisture, although “Buckland” still does well for us, despite our sandy soil, Thanks for your congratulations! Working on my questions and answers now. Hope I don’t disappoint!
Isn’t Buckland brilliant? Don’t know A ludoviciana but I think the campanula is C portenschlagiana, also amazing for its longetivity. Love the callicarpa … one day I will have berries like that too! Couldn’t see the muscari, but all the foliage makes a great contribution and I love all your vases 🙂
that’s meant to say longevity…. 😉
The Muscari flowers are there, but they look identical to the Callicarpa berries! Astrantia, especially “Buckland”, is fast becoming one of my favourites for cutting. Oops, I definitely excuse your “longetivity”, as I should have said Artemisia ludoviciana! I’ve only just realised what I wrote. Sorry! That’s what comes of rushing.
Are the muscari purple – oh, Liriope muscari perhaps? Must go back and have another look..
Yes, sorry! I meant Liriope. I have a tendency to call them Muscari, which I know is not quite the same thing. As I said – rushing!
I enjoyed the pictures of your beautiful arrangements, thanks for posting. Happy New Year 🙂
Glad you liked them! I set myself the target this (no, last!) year, of having flowers or cut material from the garden, indoors continually. So it led on to my Cutting Calender, where I showed my vases and chose my favourite for the month. Just December’s left!
LoVe!!!
I’ve been telling myself for years I should ‘stop and smell the roses’ aka bring flowers inside to enjoy. Every now and again I will remember to just that but not often enough. I can’t wait to dig into your blog to see more pics of your cuttings. So glad I found your blog!!! Hope you don’t mind if I use you as my inspiration to ‘stop and smell the roses’ for 2015
Not at all! That’s so nice! 🙂