In a Vase on Monday- the first day of spring 

/ karen

If you could see me today you would notice a huge smile. Not only is it the first day of spring- the days are getting noticeably lighter- but it is also my youngest daughter’s birthday.

So for this happy day, I have dashed around the garden picking spring flowers and blossom to fill the house with colour and scent. I always put cherry blossom in every room  for my daughter’s special day. There’s little pots of scented violets and wild primroses on all the windowsills. And for the front door I’ve made a willow kokedama bouquet.


The “ingredients” for the kokedama comprise a willow heart I made last winter, a cut down plastic juice bottle, some moss from the garden and some twine. I spotted this  idea at  Easton Walled Gardens last month. Snowdops wrapped in moss and twine made strikingly beautiful displays. I made a note of how they were put together.


Here’s my ingredients in the potting shed. I used a Robinsons juice bottle cut down to 10cm for a vase and some lime green Nutscene heritage twine. 


I made a nest around the vase with wet moss, and simply wrapped back and forth until the moss was secured. It was much easier than I expected, and only took a few minutes to make. The vase was easily tied to the front of the willow heart. 



The mossy vase was packed with winter- flowering Algerian Iris Unguicularis, hellebore Ashwood hybrids, pulmonaria, comfrey, fogetmenot, Prunus Kojo no Mai and vinca. 


For the dining table posies, delicate Victorian glasses  were filled with  Sissinghurst white pulmonaria, bellis daisies, comfrey, cowparsley, and pink corydalis. 

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And lots of glass jars of  pink and white blossom. 


You can never have too much blossom…..


Do you like making flower arrangements for special occasions at home?

 Many thanks to Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for hosting this meme. Each week Cathy encourages us to go out into our gardens and find material for In a Vase on Monday. Cathy is celebrating her 5th anniversary of blogging today. She was one of the first people I followed on here, and I’ve really appreciated her helpful support and advice from the start. Finding friends and sharing ideas and information is for me, the best reason for joining in. 

42 thoughts on “In a Vase on Monday- the first day of spring ”

  1. Pingback: In a Vase on Monday- cow parsley and forget-me-nots |

    • Thank you Kris. The corydalis grows in the wild woodland area of the garden. After flowering it disappears completely underground, until next February. Thanks for taking the time to read and for your kind comments. All the best. Karen

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    • Thank you so much for your kind comments. I have to admit, it wasn’t my idea, but something I spotted at Easton Walled Gardens, and just thought I could copy at home, with spring flowers instead of snowdrops. It only took 15 minutes to make, which was just as well as I was up to my eyes in baking for the birthday event. Somehow flower arranging always has to be in a hurry here, but I do think it finishes off the dining room table, and flowers on the front door makes a great welcome to all. Thanks again for reading and commenting. All the best. Karen

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  7. Such beautiful arrangements! I bet your daughter felt very loved and special with these on her birthday. Thank you for sharing how you put it together with the moss and string – the woodland result is lovely! I think your sweetpea posies will be just as gorgeous for market.

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    • Thank you for your kind comments. I’m running round the garden gathering flowers for my mother in law who is 88 today. It will be a flavour of my garden with one of everything in flower today. Thanks for taking the time to read and get in touch. All the best. Karen

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    • Thank you so much for taking the time to read and comment. And welcome to the blog! It’s lovely to meet you. I’ve just been out and about photographing all the blossom trees today. There are so many in flower this week. Lots of gage,almond, plum and cherry. There’s some photos on twitter @kgimson if you’d care to join me there as well. All the best. Karen

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    • Thank you Cathy. I do love this time of the year. After the winter, there’s an abundance of everything. I think there are more flowers here now than at the height of summer. All the best. Karen x

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    • Thank you! Do have a go. It’s so simple. Just make sure the moss is really soaked, then it will hold together and hug the jam jar or plastic cut off bottle. I wound the string over the top of the “nest” and the string helped to hold the flowers in place so they didn’t flop over in the wind. I’ve decided to make some more as proper nests for wrens in the garden. Might give them a head start anyway. Or if not, they will have somewhere snug to roost. At the moment they are roosting over my greenhouse door. I’m having to tap on the glass before I go in, and they all fly out in a row! It’s a shame to disturb them.

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    • Thank you for your kind comments. Well, the flowers say it’s spring, but on the second day of the vernal equinox we’ve had sleet, hail and high winds. Brr, and cold temperatures. There’s an old country saying, as the days lengthen, the cold strengthens. It seems to be true. Thanks again for reading and commenting.

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    • Thank you so much. She’s had a wonderful day and everyone who’s visited enjoyed the scent and the colour of all the flowers. I’m glad I brought so many indoors. There’s been snow and hail all morning and high winds bashing the flowers out there. I expect most will survive, but it’s such a shame. Thanks again for reading and commenting. x

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    • Thank you Kate. So kind of you to say so. The house smells wonderful this morning. So nice to wake up to all those flowers. Glad I bought the garden indoors. We’ve had hail and snow all morning. Delicate flowers much safer indoors! Love Karen x

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    • thank you Christina. It was a lovely day, and the house smells wonderful with all that blossom and all those spring flowers. I was especially pleased because the only cost was the string! Which is just as well as my daughter is attending university, and you can imagine how much that is costing! Glad to make savings at home- so she can have everything she needs. But the house still looks like a spring day. Which makes us all happy. Thanks again for your kind words and encouragement, which means a lot to me. K x

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  16. Oh Karen, don’t overdo things by stopping up too late to rectify your blogging problems – I though I was bad enough trying to get through all my Monday vase comments before bedtime despite being really tired… 😦 They seem fine to me now, (early) Tuesday morning anyway! Well, not just fine, but gorgeous as usual!! I thought at first that you were filling your house with flowers for your daughter’s birthday but guessed when I reread it that the birthday was a happy coincidence and that it was a first-day-of-spring thing – and such a great idea, such a homage to the season. You have also prompted the idea of using kokedama bouquets in the garden for the open days so I need to make a note of this in my Ideas Book. If you use eBay you can buy coloured string in a huge range of colours for next to nothing – even though mine came from China it came in less than a week, I think, and I now I can colour co-ordinate the string to any giveaway posies I make 😉 Thank you for your kind words too – I really value the blogging friendships I have made

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    • Thank you Cathy. I’ll have a look out for some twine on e bay. I must be the only person not to have ever bought anything on there …yet! I need some more for the sweet pea posies I make to sell on the village green. nutscene is beautiful, but rather expensive. Thanks also for your kind words. I hate to be defeated by anything, but I think I’m going to abandon WordPress and try Blogger. All sorts of odd things keep happening, and I can’t even,though I try really hard, manage to post an e mail follow box on the right of the page! I even got told off the other day for not having one. It’s a shame because I really value all the blogging friendships that have come my way. So many like-minded people on here. It’s great to exchange ideas and information. I shall have an early night tonight for sure :)) x

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