Monday 21 September 2015

In a Vase on Monday - WI flowers

Wednesday last week was a milestone in the WI.  Last Wednesday was our 100th Birthday, and the day of our monthly meeting.  I only just 'remembered' about half an hour before  leaving for our meeting, that we had agreed to 'dress up', and take a nice tea cup, saucer and plate!  What prompted me?  Hubby was watching the early evening news and I heard some local article in the distance.  I made the 'dressing up', gathered our everyday white Wedgewood China, and the little vase full of flowers for the Chairman's table.

Isn't that a lovely tradition?  Each month we have volunteers who make up a bouquet for the table, and also a posy for each person who has a birthday.  Sometimes one person volunteers to make both, or either the table flowers or the birthday posies.  I had agreed to step in to help out someone who was on the rota for the table flowers, but who could not make the meeting.  She was at Denman doing 'goldwork'.  I think Kay must have been on every Goldwork course since the year dot!  This was what I managed to pick quickly from the garden last Wednesday.


Of course there has to be two sides, so that the members have a nice view as well as the Chairman.


In this little Caithness Vase were leaves from Carex comans Bronze Form, which grows so well in the garden, and I usually have lots of little seedlings to give away, some lovely marjoram seed heads, some late flowering Lavender, the three asters as below, Coreopsis Sunfire, Rudbekia Goldstrum, Lysunachia clethroides also known as Gooseneck Loosestrife.  I had dead headed this a few weeks ago and it is paying me off with more blooms, and lastly a little spring of golden leaved Feverfew.

Our speaker cancelled at short notice and Victoria who has master minded and runs the Tree House Bookshop in Kenilworth, stepped in to give us an excellent talk on Vermeer, and the way he portrayed Women in the domestic sphere.  Dr Meir is a specialist in Art History of this period, but also a well loved and respected 'local'.  By the way a lovely yellow silk jacket/blouse the colour of the rudbekia turns up in several of Vermeer's paintings!

But this is In a Vase on Monday, so here is today's bouquet.


Picked again, as last week, in the pouring rain, I am happy with this medium sized arrangement.  The Vase is a rectangular one, which I picked up from an artist at the Cotswold Show in Cirencester back in the 1990's.  The shape was quite unusual then, but now it is everywhere.  There is a nice design etched on it, so even when empty is usually stays out somewhere.  Yes I can say this is still a WI arrangement.  The reason is that I ought to have brought one of the birthday posies home to give the following day to Pat who lives just round the corner from me.  She was out for the day to visit Lincoln, so I slipped the mag through her door, with a promise of a posy from the garden this week, when we got back from our weekend away.  As she called me back to say thank you and was particularly complementary about my flowers, I thought maybe this bouquet would do.


The pink feathers from the flamingos at Coton manor have a similar colour to the dahlias, which came to me as a rooted cutting earlier this year from the gardening club.  With some raindrops still on the petals of the daisies: Aster frikartii Monch, King George, and the smaller flowered one from my friend Penny.


 The pink sedum, I believe is Autumn Joy, and some stems of Rhamnus alaternus argenteovariegata complete the arrangement. Once I have finished this post, I shall take the arrangement round to Pat's.

Cathy is making sure that we think about the warm and sunny days this month with her arrangement, so as an antidote to this pink and mauve arrangement do go and enjoy hers, and see what other Vase on a Monday contributors are posting.


9 comments:

  1. Asters are a perfect backdrop for the garden and in vases now....I adore both of these vases...each showing how lovely and dreamy the purple asters are and how they just bring the colors of the other flowers to life....those dahlias are magnificent!

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  2. Yes, the WI anniversary was a big feature on The Archers recently! What a lovely idea to have posies for those with birthdays, and what a nice thought for you to give one to your neighbour who missed the meeting too. The pale dahlia is perfectly complemented by the sedum and the asters and makes for a well balanced vase - thanks for sharing, Noelle

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  3. that is indeed a lovely tradition! Two very pretty vases - I am loving seeing Asters all around at the moment.

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  4. A lovely arrangement. I like that fancy pink dahlia!

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  5. You have a plentiful supply of beautiful Asters I see, Noelle! I don't know if I'm more envious of the flowers or the raindrops they collected. Although we've had the wettest September southern California has seen in 75 years, it's still dry, dry, dry here. Your Dahlia inspires jealousy too as none of those I planted in my borders came back this year (probably as yet another product of our drought).

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    1. Its usually hit and miss here too for Dahlias. We have to dig them up, overwinter them, bring them back into growth, then defend them from slug and snails...but we still love them! No wonder we go out and buy tubers each year.

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  6. Wow, I wish we had such a great speaker when the booked one doesn't turn up! In fact, I usually just wish we had such a good speaker ;-) Sounds fascinating. (We do, however, have exactly the same flower traditions in my WI)

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    1. Victoria is not on the list of WI speakers, but I hope she will be asked to come again.

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  7. The little vases are really pretty, with the gold and lavender, I lost my nearly-blooming asters to deer, yours are so lovely to see. The big vase is gorgeous, with the big asters and dahlias. That is really a rosy pink Sedum, it looks great with the other colors and I like the variegated foliage too. Your club sounds like a lot of fun.

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