Favourite flowery combinations of the year: part 1

As gardening work slows down at the end of the year, I’m having a bit more time to catch up with jobs and one of those is sorting out all the photos that I take through the year. Its a nice job on a cold and wintry day to look back through my garden photos and all the floral arrangements. All that colour and beauty sustains me when my garden is starting to wind down for its winter slumbers. It inspires my plans for next year and also reminds me what did well in the garden, what maybe I could do differently and also what might not deserve a place in my cutting patch. There are lots to choose from so I’m going to split into two parts and first I’m going to show a few of my favourite arrangements from spring this year and talk through some of the ingredients.

This was my first arrangement of the year and is just spring in a vase, some beautiful Narcissus, this is Bridal Crown’ a gorgeous double scented flower, I’ve planted more bulbs of that for this year. Forsythia, that ubiquitous shrub, that people can be a bit snobby about but it adds a burst of colour early in the year and I wouldn’t be without it in my garden. The dainty pale yellow flowers of Primula elatior, a spring flowering perennial which is making a bigger and bigger clump each year in my garden, The moon-like flowers of Hellebores, pale white almost green flowers that last so long in the garden and finally the white Honesty-like flowers of Pachyphragma macrophylla, another early spring flowering perennial which is such a good doer in my garden. I really recommend it. Its evergreen, though I tend to cut off the tattier leaves in winter, and has glossy green foliage and white spikes of flowers early in the year when not much else is flowering. Its a shade lover and I’ve got it growing at the base of a conifer hedge which is very dry and it is brilliant. Its seeding a little bit so I’m hoping to get a good clump. It doesn’t last long in a vase unfortunately but added a bit of froth to this arrangement.

A rich deep red arrangement a bit later in the spring, with more Narcissus, this time my favourite ‘Thalia’ a medium sized pure white daffodil with lovely scent too, here with the first blossom from my cherry tree, some deep purple/red Hellebores and the gorgeous rich velvety flowers of Wallflower ‘Vulcan’, with more delicate scent. Wallflowers are one of the first of the biennials to flower in the spring and they come in such a range of colours that they can be used in lots of different combinations. I just love their scent, its delicate but warm almost honey like. I sowed in June this year for flowers next spring and they are planted out now in one raised bed, growing away nicely.

One of my favourite spring colour combinations in yellow and blue, what a classic. here we have two more varieties of wallflowers, Wallflower ‘Cloth of gold’ a rich egg yolk yellow and Wallflower ‘Ivory white’ which despite its name is really pale yellow fading to a buttery cream. Combining with that other biennial, the Forget-me-not, pale blue with a yellow eye. With Narcissus ‘Thalia’ and ‘Bridal Crown’ and the Spanish bluebell which is a bit of a weed in my garden, rather than get stressed about it spreading about I pick them, at least then they won’t set seed! In my favourite blue jug.

The Ranunculus are one of my favourite spring flowers and I grow as many as I can, here is the dark red variety called ‘Chocolate’, the almost rose-like flowers are just a joy, so long lasting in a vase and no prep to speak of. I grow them in a little polytunnel type contraption over a couple of raised beds. They can cope with winter cold I find but not winter wet so once planted I don’t water until the spring. Here with Narcissus ‘Thalia, Hellebores, Viburnum opulus and a white flowered Cytisus. 

Here we have a delightful peachy Ranunculus, called ‘Champagne’ with the first flowers of white Hesperis (sweet rocket) another biennial, white star-like flowers of Allium cowanii, the pincushion flowers of Knautia macedonica, Polemonium ‘Apricot Delight’ and one of the many self-seeded Aquilegias in my garden, this one a dark purple almost black.

You can see that the first arrangements in the spring are a mix of bulbs, early spring perennials and mostly biennials so just another reminder of the importance of biennials for the spring cutting garden. Then following those you get the first of the autumn sown annuals. In this arrangement the lovely Orlaya grandiflora has arrived and joins another bunch of sweet rocket, here we also have Hesperis purple. With more spring flowering perennials, Knautia macedonia, Polemonium ‘Apricot Beauty’, Persicaria bistorta ‘Superba’, Centaurea montana and a pale pink Aquilegia.

In mid-May the autumn sown annuals are flowering well and the stars are the Cornflowers, this arrangement incudes the sultry Cornflower ‘Black Ball’ dark purple almost black, its a great combination with Sweet William ‘Nigricans’. The zingy foliage of Alchemilla mollis is a great backdrop here and then to brighten it all up the bronze foliage of Physocarpus ‘Amber Jubilee’ and unusual bronze, gold flowers of Bupleurum ‘Bronze Beauty’. I think this was one of my favourite arrangement of the whole year.

More Cornflowers now, Cornflower ‘Blue Ball’ in a blue and purple arrangement, set off by more Alchemilla mollis, such a great filler flower. The big saucer-like flowers of Geranium magnificum and the perennial cornflower, Centaurea montana add the colour to the arrangements. When I pick my cornflowers I pick them low down and include lots of beautiful buds and the lovely strappy grey foliage.

Well I’ve really enjoyed my morning going through my photos, its reminded me that spring will be here before we know it and we will be back harvesting from our gardens again. Hope I’ve given you a boost of colour and some inspiration to start cutting flowers from your garden. I’ll do another post again soon with my summer arrangements.

Keep warm and cosy

Higgledy Anne

(I’m on Instagram anne_hinks if you fancy a follow)