"I find, and do not doubt that most people will agree with me, that November and December are quite the bleakest months of the year for finding 'something to pick for indoors'. A flowerless room is a soul-less room, to my thinking, but even one solitary vase of a living flower may redeem it."
(Vita Sackville-West "In Your Garden")
That could be a Dutch promotional advert.
ReplyDeleteHahaha - "Tulpen aus Amsterdam!" lalala...
ReplyDeleteIt will soon be time for violets in an egg cup.
ReplyDeleteAnd snowdrops and daisies, Rachel - I am looking forward to spring to start collecting wildflowers again which are growing in abundance here in Bavaria. xx
DeleteIt will be some two or three months here before the garden gives up a crocus.
ReplyDeleteIn the well-kept gardens here I saw the very first tips of snowdrops, Joanne. On my balcony I have primulas - which - that is new - smell a bit like violets. Vita, by the way, recommends to plant scented Viburnum fragrance in the garden (I think it smells lovely outside - inside it is much too strong for me) and Helleborus niger. Those white Christmas roses I have on my balcony too - but do not bring them inside, as they are poisonous - and one never knows what little children suddenly intend to do...
DeleteYour tulip bloom is a tiny cup of cheer, Britta. Here the Xmas decorations came down today [sob] and the room looks as colourless as Vita's flowerless room. I have no cutting garden to loot so must away to the shoppes to gain redemption.
ReplyDeleteDear Pip, my answer to Tom was misleading - in the tiny vase which I once found on a flea market and which is of hand-painted old Meissen porcelain - so sweet the flowers and little bird on it! - there sits the macro-photographed blossom of a primrose, over-bred, if you ask me.
DeleteI feel with your grief about the Christmas decoration - can you imagine that we had to put ours down on the 29th December, day of my birthday, because the next morning we darted to Bavaria? We had bought it on December 21st - one day after our arrival in Berlin.
Do you have a balcony?
Oo, Meissen, lovely! And a primrose? That is a teeny little vase then. No, we have no balcony and our landscaped garden for the condominio has flowers, hydrangeas being the delight at this time of year, but the unspoken rule is they are for everyone's enjoyment, not for raiding.
DeleteYes, Pip: the vase is only 4 cm (!!) high.
DeleteLandscape garden is of course a wonderful alternative - and gives me the occasion to ask: Does it have a Ha-Ha? (I only saw one once in my life).
Hydrangeas are wonderful - in the Netherlands they thrive - no wonder, much rain -- and the name of Hydrangea is "water-slurper (-esse, I must write to be pc)"
I bought my sister an old copy of her book The Garden Room ……. such a lovely read that I had to get myself a copy !!! XXXX
ReplyDeleteDear Jackie, wonderful! I am not quite sure whether I have that book - in a cheap edition, not antique (in Berlin) - and will look it up.
DeleteI too think her garden books and columns lovely to read - love them more than her novels or very long poems .-) XXXX
. . . . . sometimes it just takes one!
ReplyDeleteSo pretty - a promise of things to come.
Mary x
Dear Mary, yes: I do love little signs, it mustn't be a bouquet!
DeleteBritta x