My get well display

My friend Amanda has just had an operation so thought i would make her a get well display.

It contains aspidistra leaf, and fern. Flowers include chrysanthemums, roses, a beautiful stem orchid, orange gerberas. Various other foliage and i plaited a leaf.

Flower course - Saturday 10th October 2009

Attended a full day class held at the Sir Christopher Hatton school in Wellingborough. The class was held by Christine Russell. We made a posy, modern display and basket display. Also you will see another display i made in a beautiful dartington crystal flower bowl which was given to me by my grandmother.

The flowers in the posy are pink bloom carnations, and beautiful dark pink stem carnations with various foliage and bear grass creating a cage. The modern display has three cream mini gerbera, oriental lily and two pink roses, the foliage includes leather leaf and eucalypus all placed in a pink bowl set them off. Also includes silver sprayed curly twig and a decorative butterfly.

The basket display includes lithianthus, roses and carnations with foliage including conifer and eucalyptus.

The bowl display has pink gerbera, bloom carnations, oriental lily and various foliage from the garden and finished with bear grass.

Flower class 051009

My first display from my flower class arrangement. The arrangement is a line display and consists of bamboo, eucalyptus, various foliage including blackberry leaves and laurel, and the flowers are white cala lily with a lime green tinge. All put in a beautiful mirrored green container which sets off the colours perfectly.

Autumn bouquet

My monthly bouquet arrived today. It is a beautiful autumn bouquet containing the most beautiful big chrysanthemums, alstromeria and gypsophilia. I am going to try and grow some chrysanthemums like this up the allotment i am so impressed by them. See what you think. I also learnt something new that gypsophilia is also called "baby's breath"...how sweet is that.

Cuttings

I brought a lovely Dahlia today which was half price in a sale, a beautiful tall red dahlia which will be fab for cut flowers. I have managed to take 6 cuttings off of it, so fingers crossed. I took 3 cuttings recently off my Amanda Dahlia which is a beautiful pink flower which unfortunately did not flower in its first year and they have all taken. I just took off the main stem and took off the bottom leaves...hey presto. Have also taken some rose cuttings just bedded some stem into the ground, apparently its hit and miss but see what happens next year.

Have also tried two hydranga cuttings. I did try some lavendar cuttings and out of the five two have survived.

Hopefully will put all of these on the allotment for next year and cut flowers.

I WON!

Well what a surprise, I came first and second...totally shocked by the winning display as i thought it wasn't that good....just goes to show. I am so excited as I have self taught myself mainly reading from books. My friend Gill has given me a few tips and I went to my first flower club class this Wednesday at the Kettering and District Flower Club and watched a flower arranging demo. My grandmother, my dad's mum loved flower arranging and her garden and this first winning entry is dedicated to her memory. I always remember taking tea with her and when she sat in her armchair she had a mahogany stand behind her which she always had an arrangement on. It was lovely, I took my friend Sue up to the show to see the entries and that's when I first learnt i had won....we had a nice drink and cake to celebrate. Then my friends Claire and Jenny popped in to see the flowers which was lovely. I am taking mum and dad up there tomorrow for the presentation, its such a shame Michael has to work all weekend and cannot be there, but never mind. Anyway here are the entries with their winning cards on. So, so excited.

My first flower arranging competition

Here are my entries into the Wellingborough & Distric Horticultural Society Flower & Produce Show which is being held this year Sat 5th and Sun 6th September at Bosworths Garden Centre, Burton Latimer. I started at 6.30 yesterday evening and gave up about 8.00 as we had no lighting....not useful when you are trying to place flowers in dark oasis. Anyway back at 7.45 this morning with a bad back to finish off. Going back later for the results. Am entering two designs "A day at the Seaside" and "Look in the attic - a display with a blowtorch" into the Novice Category. Am against a man on the committee who has done a pretty good foliage design. Anyway here are some piccys.....wish me luck!

Coton Manor and Gardens

Michael and me went to Coton Manor and Gardens today near Guilsborough. The ten acre gardens were originally laid out in 1925 by the grandparents of its present owner. Here are a few beautiful photos to share with you. Worth a visit, http://www.cotonmanor.co.uk/

Exciting news regarding the clematis

Very excited, one of the Clematis Armandii which is climbing over our archway in our back garden has three flowers on there, two are in bud and unfortunately one has gone over. As soon as i can get a decent piccy will post....watch this space!

A couple of my favourite flowers

Although not the best arranged in the world, here are a couple of photos to show you are a couple of my favourite flowers. The pink ball is a paeony, I have two plants in the garden now, one of them flowered this year, these were brought today from my favourite flower shop on the Harborough Road in Northampton today...Homelands, they are so worth a visit they have many flowers that you don't find in the local supermarket and are very fresh. The others in my jug have all been grown in our garden and cut fresh today, they are pink gypsophylia, pink echinecea, and white anemone. We have a lovely dusky pink in the front garden too, very delicate flowers.

New Essential England bouquet

I received my monthly bouquet from Essential England today, it smells as always beautiful and looks as gorgeous as usual. The bouquet has white lilies, peach and pink roses, gypsophylia, rosemary and a couple of other flowers i need to try and find out what they are. Anyway here are the beautiful pictures. Going to get a new vase tomorrow though that takes shorter stems. As you can see from the photos Watson likes to smell them.

Cyrtiris Empress

My favourite flowering plant i have growing at the moment aside from the pink echinea's is this Cyrtiris Empress. It should flower between June and September, but has only just started to flower. It reminds me of my favourite houseplant the orchid. I purchased this from the plantfinders fair back in June at Cottesbrooke Hall a worthwhile event to go to as it sells plants not necessarily found in garden centres.

Growing cut flowers in the garden - Kelmarsh Hall

I went today for a talk on how to grow cut flowers and foliage in your garden. It was held at Kelmarsh Hall, by a lovely lady called Esther who is the head gardener there, and assisted by Tracy the assistant gardener. Over the next few months I will be getting the allotment prepared so that i can as well as vegetables grow some wonderful foliage and flowers to use in cut flower displays and bouquets in my home and for friends. I will let you know how successful things are, and what varieties are best so you can give them a try.

I have ordered a recommended seed catalogue by Moles which apparently are one of the few seed suppliers that still do a good selection for growing as cut flowers. One flower i will definitely be growing next year for my displays will be the antirrinhum (commonly known as the bunny rabbit), also some more echinea and cornflowers.

Here are some pictures taken today...showing some flower arrangements from a wedding held at Kelmarsh Hall yesterday, and the walled garden.

Engagement Bouquet

Our friends Amanda and Robert have got engaged and are having a party. For their present I have made them their very own special bouquet which includes gerberas, roses, carnations, cala lillies to name a few. This is my only my second bouquet and was quite hard work and unfortunately i crushed a few stems along the way and spilt the water whilst filling the plastic cellophane wrapper at the bottom of the bouquet, but all in all I am pleased....I hope they like them.

The "Amanda" Rose

I am so pleased with my "Amanda" Floribunda Rose. It is on its second bloom and the flowers and scent are amazing. First released in 1979 this florinda has globular buds opening to clear bright yellow flowers. Fully double, in large clusters with light green foliage. From Peter Beale Roses http://www.classicroses.co.uk/ this website has access to 1300 different variety of roses. Here is a picture of my first blooms from the plant, when the rain ceases I will show you the 2nd blooms.

My first bouquet

Here is my first ever attempt at a hand tied bouquet. I made it for my friend Deana's birthday....quite proud of my first one.

Homegrown

Noticed in the garden this morning, that aside from the tomatoes coming on well, have a couple of courgettes growing. So my total produce is now new potatoes, beetroot, courgettes, tomatoes and an unnamed plant....could be melon, courgette or butternut squash....will have to wait and see. Think the carrots i planted not come to anything :-(