Six bunches of garden flowers ready for one of our local shops.  These bunches are a bit bigger than my regular village stores posies, so there’s room for a wider range of blooms.

 

Sweet Williams with cat mint, purple toadflax and alchemilla – June 30th

I didn’t have spare flowers in the cutting patch until June this year.  The overwintered wallflowers, which are the spring mainstay, suffered badly in Storm Arwen last November. Blown back and forth all night, many simply snapped off at ground level.  The sweet Williams came through winter better, though the more subtle colours were less productive.  I tried to tone down the brightest pink with purple catmint and lime green alchemilla.  I’m not sure it worked but the village stores customers bought them anyway.

 

Yellow dahlias with calendula, lavender and Lomelosia – August 1st

The colours of these August posies are rather more gentle.  The pale yellow calendula blend well with the rich yellow dahlias but only last a few days in the vase.  The lavender and Lomelosia stellata in this mix were longer lasting.  In fact the Lomelosia seed heads seem pretty much everlasting.  I’d never even heard of this scabious relative before receiving the free packet of seeds with a gardening magazine. The flowers, like a pale blue scabious, are pretty but short-lived.  Two or three days after the buds open the petals fall, revealing a complicated ball of five pointed seed clusters, cupped in papery bracts.  More fresh flowers open each day, keeping up a steady supply of seed heads on long, strong stems.  This one’s going to become a regular in the cutting patch.

(Click twice on the photo for a closer view)