Monday 2 August 2021

In A Vase On Monday - The Thistle and The Rose

Hello Everyone,

I hope you have all had a very enjoyable weekend. Mine was spent trying, but failing, to bring some sort of order to our much neglected garden. Deadheading and cutting back the too, too exuberant growth that's sprung up in all the borders gave me the ideal opportunity to check out what there was to cut for today's vase. 
As you can see there was a lot and I was spoiled choice. Particularly among the roses but it was the peach roses growing just below the dining room window that really caught my eye. 
When first picked, on Saturday, they were still to open fully. Today they have opened and the colours are stunning. Unfortunately, I can't tell you the name of the rose, they were already well established long before we moved into this house. 
Also making it to the vase are buddleia, a self-seeded gift from the old shrub which grows at the bottom end of the front garden, hypericum 'Magical Red Flame' grown more for the bright red berries than its small yellow flowers and my husband's 'thistle', eryngium 'Big Blue'. 
I could have picked more but both the thistle and the roses were so prickly, too prickly, they forced me to carry them indoors as fast as possible. And that reminded me of the old poem entitled The Thistle and The Rose by William Dunbar written to mark the wedding, in August 1503, of King James IV of Scotland to Princess Margaret Tudor of England - James being represented by the thistle, the flower of Scotland, and Margaret by the rose of England. 

I'm not always fit enough to work in the garden but I do when I can in the hope of taming the too boisterous growth of shrubs, plants and, of course, the weeds that have tried to completely take over every border. My son tells me not to worry - the overgrown garden is a perfect haven for wildlife!  

To see yet more lovely floral offerings in a vase pop over to Cathy's blog, Rambling in the Garden

Have a lovely day. 


4 comments:

Sandra H said...

So beautiful l like to have flowers in the house and even nicer if from your own garden x

Kris Peterson said...

Your weekend gardening chores yielded some beautiful flowers, Elizabeth. That rose is a wonderful color and meshes nicely with the thistle.

cuilliesocks said...

Such a gorgeous selection of flowers Elizabeth, all in a beautiful vase too. Love the connection back to the Tudors and the King of Scotland. Don't do too much in the garden, I was weeding yesterday and only managed a half hour before the back was complaining, Kate x

Cathy said...

Oh what a lovely vase and I like the reference to the poem and I thought of the England/Scotland union when I first read your title. A perfect rose is a thing of beauty, even without a name and I am envious of your eryngium - we have just come back from my Mum's and she has a lovely one in her coastal garden on the island of Luing, but I have so far failed to get it to establish here. As your son says, just do the best you can in your garden and at a leisurely pace, but most of all enjoy it for its own sake x