Just dashed home from work. Wonderful to still have some light in the evening for mooching in the garden. Each week I join Cathy at ramblinginthegarden for IAVOM. Here’s a slide show of photos showing what I’m growing and putting in my flower arrangements his week.
The silver and gold-laced primulas are just at their peak. They last for a week in water and have a faint but delicate scent.
Tulips always cheer up any arrangement. These yellow and red blooms go really well with the fancy primulas.
Flower vases are still very much focusing on bulbs. I think I’ve had Carnegie white hyacinths in my flower vases every week since Christmas. These are the very last of them. I shall miss them to be honest. The scent in the potting shed is just wonderful.
Hellebores are still in flower here. This one has a pretty, frilled anemone centre and holds its head up, which is always a good trait in any hellebore. I bought this one from Hodsock Priory in February.
Hellebores have survived everything the weather has thrown at them. This one came from Ashwood Nurseries in Kingswinford when we had a a tour of owner John Massey’s private garden. Well worth a visit. Probably the best spring garden I’ve ever seen. All fees from the open days go to local charities.
Couldn’t resist these summer bulbs. Lilium Conca D’Or is a favourite for fabulous scent. And the dahlia is new to me. I’ve watched others on IAVOM growing and using this variety, so I’m looking forward to trying it out for the first time this year.
Potting shed reading this week is Secret Houses of the Cotswolds by architectural historian Jeremy Musson, published by Frances Lincoln, part of the Quarto Homes group. Photographer Hugo Rittson Thomas allows us to peek into 20 homes, varying from castles and manor houses to grand mansions. It’s like stepping into another world to be honest. And a glimpse of the gardens through open windows- so tantalising! I just wanted to jump in the car and visit them all. But of course they are not open to the public. So I shall have to be content with gazing longingly at the book.
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Bramble Garden 
Beautiful flowers. I have grown dahlias for the past three years and after those years I have decided I am done with the Cafe au Lait dahlia. Very diva like and pests love her. This year I am trying Breakout since it has a similar look but have heard not as fussy. 🙂 Interested in seeing how it does for you.
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Thankyou Angie. I’m thinking of growing it in the poly tunnel as I’ve heard it is difficult. All the best with your growing. Karen
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Your potting shed must be a marvelous place in which to read, relax, and dream of visiting grand homes. . I love your arrangements.
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Thank you Peter. I think you can make a little sanctuary anywhere really. Thanks for our kind comments. I’m in there today, trying to escape from the rain. All the best. Karen
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Beautiful pictures,the primulas are like velvet.
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Thank you Brian. Aren’t plants wonderful. Hope you are having a good week. Cold and misty here like October. Warming up by the weekend, I hope.
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Karen the photos are magnificent as the flowers. The silver and golden Primulas are divine, beautiful. The yellow and red tulips are beautiful. The white Carnegie Hyacinths with their perfume are gorgeous. The Hellebores are fantastic: the second that is pure white I love. You are now going to plant two new varieties of Summer bulbs: it is great, because you will surely enjoy us later. The book “Secret Houses of the Cotswolds” by the writer Frances Lincoln is framed in the Shed by beautiful yellow Daffodils, on the right Yellow tulips, and at the feet that precious vase that imitates the wood full of white flowers. It is very beautiful. Karen I have entered all the links and they are very good. How about weather you have? I hope it is very good. Here in Spain snow from Madrid up and rain and a lot of cold – at night below zero – in the rest. Here in Madrid it is raining hard without stopping since Saturday and very cold. The mountains of Madrid are very snowy, only 65 km from Madrid. I hope you have sun. Greetings and love for your Mother. Karen for you the best and love. Greetings from Margarita.
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Thank you Margarita. Your description of my potting shed is delightful and always makes me smile. Sadly, rain, mist and low temperatures again today. I really want to get my potatoes and sweetpeas planted, but the vegetable plot is still waterlogged. There’s floods all along the lane and the ditches are overflowing. Surely spring will arrive soon. Luckily, my plants in the greenhouse and poly tunnel are supplying a good supply of herbs, kale, spinach, salads- and cut flowers for the house. Thank goodness. Hoping for some sun for here and also for you in Madrid. I’ve added Madrid to my I-phone weather app so that I can check your weather when I look at our temperatures too. And then I can think, ah yes, Margarita has some sunshine! Fingers crossed. Greetings and love from karen xx
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Karen thanks for adding Madrid to your weather application. I feel that you have fog and rain and that your plot of planting potatoes is under water. Thankfully you have the politunel that supplies you with fresh vegetables and flowers. I hope the bad weather will go soon and the sun will shine and the temperatures will rise at least 15º Centigrades and without wind. It would be wonderful! A Spring of Truth for both! 🙂 I want to go to the country house at the end of the week where it is now snowing. It depends on the weather to travel. I’ll tell you. If I go I will find it all snowy and the house that is very old of the XIX century and full of freezing currents. It would be a matter of putting the fireplace and the wood-burning stove to the top and the electric radiators and the gas stove in the living room all at once. If we go. If we do, I tell you. Greetings from Margarita.
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I hope you manage to go to the country. We have just had a new woodburner installed in the lounge and we are so pleased with it. It fills the whole house with warmth, and we don’t need to put the radiators on. Plus we have enough logs from our small woodland planting to keep us going for a year, so we won’t have to buy anything. It’s a nice feeling to save money. I’m looking forward to putting jacket potatoes on the top to cook, and I bet I could make Welsh cakes on there too, it’s so hot. xx
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Yes, Karen, wood stoves are very hot. You can also make roasted chestnuts on top of the wood stove in Autumn. They come out great. I have to buy the firewood and store it in a room where there is also the lawn mowing machine, all my gardening tools, the water heater, the washing machine and an antique porcelain sink. A little of everything. I’m glad you’re happy with the wood stove and it’s very hot. Take care. Greetings with much love from Margarita.
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I’ll try those. They sound lovely 🙂 xx
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Beautiful photography and lighting. All of your flower selections are lovely, but the silver and gold-laced primulas steal the show for me. They are so dramatic!
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Thank you Terri. I just use an i-phone. Those primulas are really cheering us all up at the moment. Such horrible, wet weather here. Thanks for reading and for your kind comments. All the best. Karen
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Lots of good shots. I’ve not seen those primulas before
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Thank you Derrick. They are quite long lasting and well worth growing. All the best. Karen
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I still think those primulas are funny looking. I have never seen a real one.
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Thanks for reading Tony. All the best. Karen
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Loved it
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You have a lot of gorgeous flowers. The primula is amazing.
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Thank you for your kind comments. All the best. Karen
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Lots of bright sunny spring flowers to brighten your day in those vases….and I agree hellebores can stand up to snow and freezing, frigid cold.
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Thank you for reading and getting in touch Donna, the hellebores have been flat on the ground in the snow several times, and reliably rise up again and are totally unfazed by the horrible weather. So cheerful. Thanks again. Karen
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That primula certainly has a ‘look at me’ air about it!
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They do indeed. Thanks for reading Jane. All the best. Karen
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You have done so well with the plants in your potting shed, Karen – great planning and forethought, so well done! That anemone centred white hellebore is gorgeous – is it a named variety? The little hyacinth florets look just right in your log-effect vase too. Thanks for sharing everything today Karen, and have a good week
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Thank you Cathy. The hellebore just said “mixed white,” but it was in flower so I could see what I was buying. I couldn’t resist it to be honest. Thanks for your kind comments. It’s not been an easy spring, weather wise. So I’ve been so grateful to have a potting shed to mooch in. I’ve just got to now put some effort into planning my summer display. It seems such a long time since I sat down and planned my winter/ spring cut flower display. The bulbs and plants have far exceeded my expectations. I’m a bit behind for summer though. Can’t get in the swing of things yet. Love karen x
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Hopefully you will catch up soon – your winter display has been wonderful so you planned well! Are you and your Mum both feeling up to par again now?
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I have some of those primulas in a pot by the front door…they are stunning aren’t they? The gardens at Ashwood are some of the best I’ve visited and John Massey is such an enthusiast. So pleased you enjoyed your viist.
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Thank you Noelle. It was such a fabulous day out. We had lunch in John’s kitchen and he took us all around his own private greenhouse. Such a kind and generous man. It made quite an impression on me. Thanks for reading and getting in touch.
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Love the stunning primula! I hope I can find it here in California. Beautiful photos of beautiful flowers!
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Thank you. I hope you can find one. Thanks for reading and getting in touch. All the best. Karen
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