We’re starting to see the lollop of late summer. Things that have flowered are flopping around, going to seed at a rapid rate, and the battle of the bindweed is lost on several fronts. The wisteria is flinging tendrils all around the summer house and the honeysuckle is aiming high, twirling rapidly around anything it can latch onto.
So here’s a collection of chaos, with laurel branches and roses entwined in wisteria stems, garlanded with sweepea and honeysuckle.
Engtangled in a vase on Monday: honeysuckle, wisteria stems, laurel, roses, sweetpeas
As Cathy, the delightful host of ‘In a Vase on Monday’ suggests that participants include props with their collections, I added a couple of windfall apples and the old red scissors to the mix.
In its final place on the kitchen table the collection looks bright, and well matched with the Alfredo Rostgaard poster. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/7913.
It’s maybe unusual to have Cuban protest song posters in a Somerset kitchen, but my mother in law spent much of the 80s working in Latin america and gave us this picture when she was having a clear out.
I would have included bindweed in my entangled display, for a bitter laugh and more honest representation of the state of the garden, but I know from a previous test that it wilts horribly within 90 minutes.
I also learned this morning that it’s practically inedible.
” I tried a big leaf first. It tasted quite fresh and salady initially but with a nasty burst of bitterness that lingered in the mouth. I tried a tiny leaf hoping that the taste would be milder but the same bitterness came through. If you need a purge, bindweed soup could be just the answer. The roots are edible too.” http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/bindweed-421/
Sounds horrible. I wondered why you’d bother, and then thought that perhaps bindweed soup could be served to climate change deniers and gun lobbyists in the post apocalyptic reckoning. Maybe an option for the future, worth bearing in mind perhaps.
These beauties are mystery varieties, planted long before we moved here. The bright pink ones grow by the summerhouse, and the peachy ones are by the contorted hazel.
The peach rose by the hazel has responded well to the pruning and detangling that I started a few months ago. It’s still an awkward shape and it’s propped up with apple branches, but there’s been a whole new flush of growth and a burst of a dozen new blooms.
I also have a good collection of twirly hazel stems, which are great to brighten up dark corners and provide spaces for spiderwebs and dust to gather. ;-).
I’m off work this week, which means catching up on some weeding and some jobs around the house, and maybe a day-trip or two… I shall also be co-ordinating my loungewear with my ceramics as far as possible.
Whatever your plans, I hope you have a good week.
For more garden collections visit Cathy’s blog where gardeners share collections of homegrown flowers “In a vase on Monday.”
Entangled in a vase on Monday We're starting to see the lollop of late summer. Things that have flowered are flopping around, going to seed at a rapid rate, and the battle of the bindweed is lost on several fronts.
