In a Vase on Monday- virtual flowers for Joan

/ karen

Chrysanthemums are in full flower in the poly tunnel. They’ll provide cut flowers from now until January. I grow hardy varieties in 10″ pots. They stand out on the gravel paths, next to the greenhouse all summer. Chrysanths can cope with the cold, but wet weather spoils the flowers, so I lift the pots into the unheated poly tunnel the first week of November.

I don’t know the name of this bright yellow chrysanthemum. It came from my father-in-law Keith. He had been growing it since the 1950s, having been given a cutting from Aunty Dorris. When Keith was no longer able to garden, I took over the tradition on growing the yellow flowers for his wife, Joan. Until this year, I’ve managed to supply Joan with a bunch each week through November and December. They are her favourites. This year, covid has interrupted our plans – and I’ve had to e mail photos of the flowers instead.

I’m growing these pretty little white chrysanthemums too. These are called Stallion. They are multi -headed and last at least a fortnight, sometimes three weeks, in a vase. Flowers have a bright yellow button centre, and take on pink tinges as they age. Very useful as a filler in a bouquet.

We’ve had a message from the care home saying one family member can visit before Christmas. They will have to take a rapid covid test, sit in their car for half an hour to wait for the results, and then spend 30 minutes visiting our relatives in their own rooms. We can’t visit any communal spaces. And we still can’t take flowers, for some reason. But we can take tins of biscuits and jars of jam- anything that can be disinfected before being giving to the residents. I’m writing about it here because the blog has become a record of our times, living through this covid pandemic, and the effect it’s had on people living in care homes.

Hopefully, soon we will be able to have the vaccine and this nightmare will come to an end. I’m hopeful it won’t be long now.

Thank you for reading. I’m celebrating reaching the milestone 100,000 readers on the blog. When I started writing, I had no idea so many would read my potting shed musings. Thanks for being one of them. Have a calm and happy week.

In a Vase on Monday : Cathy https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/category/gardens/in-a-vase-on-monday/

20 thoughts on “In a Vase on Monday- virtual flowers for Joan”

  3. It is lovely to see your Chrysanthemums Karen, especially in this grey and dark time of year. I hope you will be able to visit Joan again soon. Take ccare and carry on gardening. The best therapy. 😃 xxx

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  4. Karen, what an endearing and wonderful story the divine yellow chrysanthemums have, Joan’s favorites: Aunt Dorrís gave your dear Keith a cut of them, and Keith then gave you another cut when he could no longer maintain his garden. You send this magnificent, wonderful, divine and made with all your love to Joan by photo, but in a short time you will hand it to him: the United Kingdom began to vaccinate today or tomorrow against Covid, you are the first country to doIn a few months, normality will return even if it is not 100%, but we can all see each other again and be together. Karen, have a little more patience and strength and a lot of courage, and think about the future that has already started with the vaccination. Positive thinking and a lot of hope Karen, I’m by your side. I love your Stallion Chrysanthemums. Karen in a gift from heaven, it is fantastic that a relative can go to the Nursing Home to see your dear in-laws in their room for 30 minutes after testing for Covid !!!! Hopefully it will be your turn to go to you !!!! Although you cannot bring flowers, you can take your delicious jams, homemade cookies and homemade sweets in jars that can be disinfected. It would be a dream to be sitting next to Joan and show her pictures of flowers on her mobile. Karen my sincere CONGRATULATIONS for your 100,000 visitors to your wonderful blog !!!! Keep increasing !! Health, strength, encouragement, positive thinking, hope and much love for your whole family, Mr B and for you. Lots of hugs and lots of love. Take good care of each other. Very affectionate greetings from Margarita xxx 😘💟🤗✨✨✨🎄

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  5. 100,000 – that’s fantastic Karen! Well done you 😊 I am pleased you have finally had details of Christmas visiting – but with only one visitor will you be able to agree who goes? There will be so much for the chosen visitor to say and the half hour will go too quickly, I am sure. The big yellow chrysanthemum is especially striking and how lovely to keep it in the family for all those years

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      • It was amazing to see how connected and engaged my relative was with laptop pix I regularly showed her. Dementia or not, she could tell the nurses, sometimes, all the about the cloud formations in the pictures for possibly up to eight hours, so I was told. 🙂
        xx

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  7. It’s beautiful and so cheery. It’s so sad that you can’t take flowers in. I particularly like that little white Chrysanthemum, do you know where it might be purchased? You can’t beat them at this time of year.

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