I’m usually far too distracted and disorganized to keep up with any of the blogging memes but every now and then voila! It happened today, and I’m joining in with Cathy from Rambling in the Garden and putting together a vase full of freshly plucked blooms from the garden.
The fat blooms of chrysanthemum “mellow moon”, yellow buttons of “Isla Gold” Tansy, and a few sprays of patrina scabiosifolia.
I feel a little outnumbered here as a male participant, but I’ll give it a go anyway. As you can see accessorization is not my strongpoint, the flowers were picked and plunked into one of those fat little vases (probably saved from some Valentine’s day past) and dumped naked onto the table. The generic yellow teapot was pulled out of the cupboard to keep it company…. might as well since it’s been sitting around uselessly since the day we were married 🙂
Why these mums are blooming in August I don’t know, but I’m glad they are. Pale creamy yellow is one of my favorite colors.
I’m surprised by how much I like this chrysanthemum in the garden, and they look even better in the vase. Although I was informed by the boy that the round yellow things are stinky I like the way the tansy and patrina bring out the yellow in the mum. Who knew garden mums could be so nice? I guess I just got used to those big disposable blobs of unanimous color that show up in autumn that I forgot about the older daisy types and the fancy bigger blooms. I can see a problem developing with these 🙂
By dinner time the arrangement was joined by the season’s first ripe tomato. A golden “Kellogg’s Breakfast” was sliced and plated with salt, oil, and bluecheese crumbles on top. Unsophisticated yet Mmmm. I’m not a big tomato lover but this mild meaty beefsteak is tolerable.
Tomato Kellogg’s Breakfast. I wonder how golden pizza sauce would go over?
I didn’t quite make the cutoff for Monday, but hopefully late entries are accepted 😉 and if you get the chance take a look at some of the other contributions that roll in each Monday at Rambling in the Garden. It’s great to see what’s blooming in gardens across the world, and I’m repeatedly amazed by the talent and creativity out there.
Have a great week!
sorta like suburbia 
Those Mums with the yellow tansy are very cheerful and look lovely in your round vase! Glad you are joining in Frank, and enjoy your tomatoes – I’m now beginning to wish I had grown some myself after all. 😉
The mums make me smile!
There’s always next year for the tomatoes, and there’s much to be said for supporting your local farmer’s market -which I’m sure you do!
That’s a great vase, I see you have hidden talents! Love the Mums, especially that lovely colour. That tomato looks just like one I have from a mix, although that name wasn’t given on the pack, for me it is one of the best flavoured tomatoes that I’ve tasted, and it have made yellow sauce this year, it looks beautiful.
Then it’s settled, I need to try the yellow sauce! I’ll have fun, but I suspect the rest of the household will turn up their noses to any non-red sauce 🙂
Don’t worry, there’s no hard and fast cut off date! The joy of these vases is that we are all learning that it only takes a few flowers (or even single blooms), simply placed, and we are bringing pleasure to ourselves as well as visitors to our homes and our blogs and you have made a great foray into the Monday vase adventure! Your vase is a lovely little creation, and I am sure we all really appreciate you jumping in at the deep end and producing props as well (your teapot is like many of the props I have used in that they hve not served any useful function beforehand, so I had to smile at that!). Your best prop is, of course, your wonderful looking Kellogg’s Breakfast, whether barely tolerable to you or not!
The tomato was tasty 🙂
Thanks for the welcome, simple arrangements simply placed I can do, but the real fun for me is seeing what everyone else is up to… and I’m so bad about keeping to a schedule. Thanks for hosting 🙂
So glad you enjoy the meme, whether you take part or not – I am thrilled at how it has captured our imaginations 🙂
Great vase – love the chrysanthemums! Breakfast looks delicious too!
Thanks Annette, and thanks for stopping by.
Well, I have to admit I never had you down as a flower arranger. It is beautifully done. You are clearly a man of many talents. The round, yellow, stinky things are gorgeous. I’ d like some of those.
Round, yellow, stinky has never looked better, right?
Thanks for the nice comments, but lets see if I can manage to get a second bunch of flowers together before anyone starts with the name calling!
All the best, Frank
It is a lovely arrangement, although I agree with the boy–I don’t like the smell of tansy–or mums! That one is lovely and around here, where the frosts come early and hard, blooming early is a plus. Maybe you can send me a piece of that next spring?
And a piece you will have 🙂 I think there might be a few others you might want to give a go too, they’re all from Mums of Minnesota and may have half a chance of overwintering for you.
I dabbled a bit this spring and already have them overplanted, there should be plenty to share.
I now a suitable name for this vase which took me by surprise, Frank: Let the sunshine in! Gorgeous…and have a good week too 🙂
I like the name, and the color makes me a happy girl 😉
Haha, bet you’ll never forgive me for that! 😉
It’s one of my favorite comments ever!
Frank, your chrysanthemums make a great focus for this arrangement. And you chose perfect accompaniments. I like the tansy (although I probably mentioned before, it’s pretty aggressive in my garden). Glad you joined in…
Thanks Susie. I’ve heard that about the tansy, maybe because it’s a yellow leaved cultivar it’s a little less vigorous? I’ll watch out for the seed heads though.
I usually don’t like big fluffy mums but those look great in the vase. And the tansy adds a nice counterpoint.
Thanks! The mums are growing on me.
What a pretty combo of white and yellow. I like your table too with your tomato dish. I love fresh tomatoes with oil and crumbled cheese. I use feta.
thanks for the comment, I should give feta a try sometime 🙂
Nicely done, love the chrysanthemum!
Thanks, and thanks for visiting.
That is a beautiful Chrysanthemum, even if it is only August and I am no where near ready for the sight or smell of mums yet! (Though today’s weather was right for them!) Do you nip the buds through to the middle of July to help the plant get bushier and delay flowering? I see you are in NE PA as well–do you typically have good luck with mums making it through the winter? Mine are spotty–can’t count on them, but I’m happy when they do.
The arrangement is lovely, and I like the teapot. What if you were to use the teapot as a vase at some point? (Since you said you don’t use it!)
I’m also not at all ready for fall…. but for some reason a few of my mums insist on putting out blooms already. They’re new cuttings planted out in the spring so I’m hoping next year they’re back on to a normal schedule.
I didn’t quite keep up with the pinching, at first I tried to keep the buds off but then threw in the towel when more and more appeared. These are from mums of Minnesota so I’m hoping they have no problem with the winter, like you I’ve had good and bad winters as far as them making it through.
Thanks for stopping by, it’s nice to hear from someone local now and then! Btw I enjoyed your Herrenhausen posts… and I’m working my way through the rest of your blog!
Well, thanks! Herrenhausen was great! I had 72 views the other day–you must have been responsible for many of them!
guilty as charged 😉 and I still need to investigate further!
And I’ve just been reading your posts about Chanticleer, where I very much want to visit someday soon. I think Chanticleer one day and Longwood the next would be a lovely get-away! Are you in zone 5 or 6? I see things in your gardens that I think wouldn’t work out for me. By the map, I’m in 5b, but in reality, 5a is more accurate.
Chanticleer is a great garden to visit. It’s small, but there’s something amazing shoehorned into every single corner… plus they’ve kept enough open space as an antidote to claustrophobia. It’s about a two hour drive for me, so do-able as a day trip… when I feel up to driving.
I think we’re now 6a, since last winter I think we just dropped to about -4 and that’s the coldest I’ve seen here. I lost a few little things, but a magnolia and camellia were the only ones I’ll miss…. really a no-brainer though, who would have expected more from a southern magnolia and camellia?