Staying home and social distancing during this global pandemic is hardly an imposition on a beautiful Autumn day when I have a garden to step into. My Garden Office is of course just a folly but a pretty one at that! I hope it inspires you to find joy in the things around you.
I think autumn is one of my favourite months to join Cathy from Rambling In The Garden’s Monday blog post project In A Vase On Monday.
There’s always an eclectic mix of colour and shapes to choose from in my garden at this time and the end result is often bolder and more considered in the way I put things together.
This morning I’ve chosen to use my glass vase that has a swirl of crimson around the top thinking it would pick up the colour of the crabapples growing in our hedge.
The ones I could reach to pick are a much more golden hue, and with a trio of pink roses I also picked some mottled hydrangeas to tie it all together.
A stack of magazines was a practical solution as a makeshift plinth to raise the flowers for photographing but I thought the gorgeous rich image on the cover of Flowbulous magazine also created a beautiful backdrop!
I bought the magazine in Japan last year and it’s full of incredible photographs and flowers by Atsushi Taniguchi.
As I arranged my vase I began to realise I’d not picked nearly enough for such a wide necked vase and at that moment it started to pour with rain. My solution? the gum nuts sitting undercover on the verandah and some hydrangeas dried from last autumn in the palest of pink.
The gum nuts of course add a distinctive Australian touch to my vase so I decided to photograph it with Desmond the Tasmanian devil – a beautiful print from an original watercolour drawing by Melbourne artist Daniella Leo.
And that is what’s inspired this Monday’s blog post title!
Last year we went to the Hobart Dahlia show and I shared some photos in my post Darling Dahlias of the wonderful blooms on display.
Having written down some of our favourites I waited until October to see what ones were available to buy from the dahlia society to plant in our garden.
Three on my list arrived but enough time had passed for me not to be too sure exactly what had taken our fancy and the names weren’t particularly descriptive (well at least for a novice dahlia grower!)
I was a bit late in getting them in the ground and must confess rather lax at following the information sheet on tips and care so they were rather left to nature with little nurture.
Two of the three survived and flowered – the first Granite Be Ready reminded me of the pom pom adorned hat on a doll my grandmother brought back from her travels when I was a child (from just where I can’t recall and indeed if it was mine or my sister’s although I remember always being rather taken with that hat!).
A week later the pretty pink Maggie Hannaford revealed herself!
They look a little lonesome on their own in the garden so I’m planning to have a bigger patch planted later in the year and give them a little love & attention.
Of course watching all the dahlias that have been popping up in my instagram feed I’m now enamoured with the soft pink and cafe au lait ones!
Vintage Niche Market – Design & Wine.
Niche is held three times each year in Launceston, the heart of the Tamar Valley wine growing region in Tasmania.
Saturday March the 18th Niche is celebrating ‘Vintage’: the time of year when grapes are harvested and our wineries start serious production of the region’s famous cool climate pinot, riesling and sav blanc varities.
petal & pins is joining other Tasmanian designers + makers and a small selection of wineries representing the Tamar Valley Wine Route to celebrate and 20% of all sales goes to support childrens disability service St Giles.
If you’re in the region why not drop in and say hello!
Vintage Niche Market
Saturday 18th March 2017
8am to 3pm
Albert Hall, Launceston
And just like that summer is over…I feel like I missed it I’ve been so busy but I did get to go for a blissful swim in the ocean in Sydney before I flew to Los Angeles to attend a paper camp for small independent stationery designers.
Crossing the international dateline is a strange thing depending on which way you’re travelling, I lost a Tuesday on the way back and it was offically autumn when I arrived home.
I love after I’ve been away to wander in the garden and see what’s different from when I left – the apples now have their rosey tint, the dogwood leaves are turning russet and the hydrangea hues are fading.
Today I’m joining Cathy from Rambling in The Garden for In a Vase On Monday and while mine is showing the beginnings of autumn in my garden hers will be decidedly showing the delights of spring!
Cathy invites you to take a few minutes to pick something where you are (even if it involves a bit of foraging) and share by leaving a link to and from her weekly post.
I had the idea to capture the colours of autumn along the same route I took you on for a twilight stroll.
Mr Petal & Pins loved the idea when I told him my plan, but when I took my camera with me a few days later the moment was gone – the trees that I’d been admiring with their blaze of crimsons and reds only had a sparse amount of leaves still clinging to their branches so I settled for a photo of the ornamental grape that covers a fence and the rose bush that escapes a summer deadheading.
Sometimes when catching the colour you need to be quick…Mother Nature waits for no one.
Monday seems to have come around again very quickly – but then of course daylight saving has ended here and the days are getting shorter as we edge towards winter.
A busy morning meant I didn’t think about gathering things from my garden to join Cathy for In A Vase On Monday until this afternoon. I decided to use my ikebana vase, a gift from my sister, and 3 stems of dried seeds I picked on a walk earlier.
From my garden I chose a small branch of magnolia, some pieces of camellia with buds and some white flowers.
I’ve also reused one of the agapanthus seed heads from my Pink Sticks & Pinking Shears vase as I liked how it had started to dry to a yellowy colour that picks up the centre of the single iris and also reveals a hint of the black seeds.
My little brass buddha seemed the perfect prop to place on the flat base of the vase – turning my arrangement into a miniature garden when viewed at eye level.
You can see how I’ve used the ikebana vase previously in my post A String Of Pearls , also coincidentally an autumn arrangement!
Yesterday I spent a productive afternoon bottling apples from my tree, it was a team effort with my friend Amanda and has started to be an Autumn tradition. Last year we had two vintage vacola units on the go, but this year the apples are early and not quite as plentiful.
We had a small branch of apples left over after filling the bottles which I decided to put to decorative use today for In A Vase On Monday.
My vacola preserver – passed down from my parents – is a wonderful shade of green and having it out made me think of my vintage ‘acorn’ vase. So the apples and vase were my starting point, along with some peony ‘sticks’ which last week I stripped of leaves to show off the lovely pinkness of them.
This morning I gathered other foliage and flowers from the garden including hydrangeas, agapanthus seed heads, oak leaf hydrangea leaves, snowberries and a branch of chestnut leaves – I love how they look like they’ve been cut with pinking shears!
In the end I created two arrangements as the acorn vase didn’t seem to need the agapanthus or snowberries. I like how you can see the pink peony stems through the cut glass vase, and I couldn’t help but show off some of yesterdays effort!
In A Vase On Monday is hosted by Cathy – her garden is in the north east rural fringe of the West Midlands, UK – why not see what Spring delights she is starting to find and share something from your garden.
I thought the rosehips were appearing early in my garden and then I realised it’s officially Autumn next week!
The roses aren’t the only thing that need deadheading or a late summer trim, time to take advantage of the last few weeks of daylight saving and get out into the garden in the early evening.
What are early this year are the apples – usually I’m picking and bottling in April but they are already showing their pretty pink blush now.
With blackberries ripe too it’s time for making a few crumbles – now that signals Autumn at our house!
Petal & Pins 