Floral Friday

Spring has finally rolled around and to celebrate I am introducing a new weekly post Floral Friday. This weeks arrangement from my own garden features the fragrant banksia rose, cream and gold jonquil, clustered bells of Pieris, baby pink and yellow columbines, foxgloves, spotted green and white hellebores and bergenia. The vase is antique and was given to me as a graduation present by Thomas' parents. It has three beautiful glass handles and a sterling silver rim.

Spring!

Spring is finally here! These wee darlings have been popping up around the place in the last month. My strawberry flowers are a reminder that their fruit isn't far off and the spring bulbs of blue hyacinths are lovely on my windowsill. My bergenia is flowering after being bloomless last year (i found that slugs had taken to them) and the Kowhai is a stunner this year in comparison to last years sparse display. Bring on the peonies, banksia rose and clematis in late October/ early November!

Wordless Wednesday

Pretty Frittys

My parents came to visit in the weekend and brought me this wee surprise (below) from a garden centre in Cromwell. I had to look it up to find out where it would be best suited in my garden. Although I have to admit I always get a little nervous about putting gifts into my garden because I am worried I will move house and won't be able to take the plant with me. So at the moment the plant is in a pot on my porch. While I was contemplating whether to make this darling a permenent feature in my garden I found a little info on Frittaliria meleagris that I have paraphrased for your enjoyment and light reading.

 "On sunless days in winter, we shall know

By whom the silver gossamer is spun,

Who paints the diapered fritillaries,

On what wide wings from shivering pine to pine the eagle flies."

Oscar Wilde refers to the little Checkered Lily (Fritillaria meleagris), as the "diapered frittalaries". Diapered is a very old traditional term for either a checkered pattern or the pattern known as "harlequin" or a checkerboard of diamonds. 

Frittilaria hang their checkerboard heads in the last week of September and early October along with the emergence of grape hyacinth spikes. They have a load of other names including  Missionbells and Snakeshead Lily (the unopened flower bud look somewhat like a snakes head) although they were formerly known as Narcissus caperonius or Caperon's Narcissus because they were first brought to England in 1572 by a druggist named Noel Caperon who found them in France. For many years thereafter they were thought originally to have been native primarily of France, but were eventually discovered to be a rare species native also to England.

As one of the longest-cultivated fritillaries, it was a regular feature in Elizabethan gardens. The checkered lily was also a native of damp meadows throughout Northwestern Europe, but is today disappearing over much of its natural range from habitat loss & humanity's population intrusions. It became endangered in England, where children picked them before they could complete their reproductive cycle and set seed. It is now protected & making a slow comeback in the south of England. And it will never be extinct for as long as people love them in gardens.

Design Sponge have created a beautiful flower arrangement of the checkered lily using a flower frog (the comb-like device you can see in the picture below). Grace Bonney explains in her post that Oasis used in most flower arrangements is "bad news. It’s made from petroleum and will never break down in a landfill" and that flower frogs are a eco friendly alternative. I will certainly be on the look out for one of these for the upcoming summer months of floral fun.

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Wildflower Seeds Necklace

I held a spring fling on the weekend of the spring equinox and spring it wasn't. I had planned the party around the blooming of my magnolia tree but that was late and the forecast for the day after was snow and it was howling a gale. So we ate inside and watched the mighty All Blacks beat the French. One of my friends brought me a wonderful gift packaged inside a packet of foxglove seeds. The handmade necklace was a tiny little bottle filled with wildflower seeds and beautiful gold tag with my name and passion - gardening printed on it with tiny metal stamps. I love to accessorise and this necklace is a definite fav capturing my personality perfectly! 

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Living Wreath

Sow yourself a tray of pansies or violas, then, once they’re big enough, plant them up into a living wreath. It’s not quite as low maintenance as a living wreath that uses succulents (you need to deadhead this one), but it makes a gorgeous display for indoors or out. Click on over to Hostess with the Mostess for step-by-step instructions. I am going to sow red pansies for a festive red and green wreath in time for xmas!

My wreath for last years xmas consisted of nearly all my red and white roses as well as some peonies all arranged around a coat hanger bent into a circular shape. It dried out, and is still hanging above my fireplace acting as a dust catcher.

Identify this!

Because I am new to this gardening stuff, I always find myself wondering what plants around my garden and others are. Most of the time I have no way of identifying the plant until it flowers. This wee beauty below sits on the boundary of my section and is a little out of control but absolutely lovely with it's pretty pink flowers. I noticed last year that it had fruit as well and was wondering if they were edible. 

I described this unknown plant to a more experienced gardener at my work and he pointed me in the direction of this marvellous book.

The first few pages have an index arranged in flower colours and low and behold in the pink flower section under bushes I found Ribes sanguineum. The flowering current is a deciduous shrub which bears a dark purple oval berry that is edible however has little flavour. So although I won't be collecting berries later in spring the birds can help themselves. 

After a good look through  this book I found that a number of the plants in my garden are considered weeds. For example Buddleja, Centranthus ruber, Foxglove, Arum lily, and Forget me not. These are all lovely plants that can just get a little out of control under the right conditions so best keep an eye on them.  

Brilliant book for gardeners who are just starting out and want to identify those plants that just pop up and whether they are hot or not.