Flowers to cut

R. 'Gertrude Jekyll'

I try to have at least one vaseful of home-grown flowers in the house (except at Christmas, which somehow doesn't feel a flowery time; there's always plenty of holly and ivy indoors at that time, though).  After weeks of daffodils and then tulips, followed by aquilegias, suddenly there's a big choice of blooms available to cut.  The roses are out, for a start; and 'Gertrude Jekyll' has done better this year than I can remember.  I think I may have been pruning it too late in previous years; the roses often get left until March, but I've since read that the David Austin nursery, where 'GJ' originated, prune their plants just after New Year, so I left it alone (having missed that timeslot) this year, and it seems all the better for it.

Then there's a big patch of Sweet William in the veg plot.  They're a biennial, but these plants were sown two (or was it three?) years ago, not pricked out until much too late that year and finally ended up lined out in one of the veg beds for want of anywhere better.  They didn't flower last year, but this year they've blossomed beautifully (having shared their bed with leeks last winter and now some cabbages).  I wonder if I'd be pushing my luck if I left them there for another year?

Sweet William

Another overwinterer is the patch of antirrhinums from last summer, at least some of which have survived and are producing lovely velvety dark red flower spikes - not cut for indoors yet, but they soon will be!  I've sown some more, of a different variety, this year, though I'm not sure they will look quite as classy as these red ones.

Looking lovely, but probably not for cutting, are the sweet rocket (Hesperis matronalis); a glorious billow of white and pale lavender in the garden, and gorgeous in a vase for a few days but thereafter inclined to drop their petals all over the place.  I think I'll leave them outdoors and admire the show there.  

Sweet rocket

Another plant that I don't cut, for mostly practical reasons, is the variegated iris in the pond.  It seriously needs dividing and replanting as it's taking over most of the pond surface; not that there is much surface to the pond at the moment as the very dry spring has almost completely dried it out.  The last few days have been very warm and sunny, and, although today is the start of a showery and cooler spell, I doubt if there will be enough rainfall to fill it up again this summer.  In the past I would have got out the hose and refilled it, but I've accepted that wild ponds dry out naturally and refill in autumn/winter, and I no longer bother much about it.  It could be an opportunity to get in there are divide the iris, though, without getting my feet wet!

Variegated iris in the pond

I've also started cutting the sweet peas, growing (as last year) in two pots near the back door, with a couple more on the bean poles in the veg plot (where there are, as yet, no beans to bother them).  Of the two pots, one is of 'Fragrant Skies' and one of 'White Leamington', at least in theory, although the latter pot seems to have an interloper ....  They are beautifully scented, and I'm not complaining.

Supposedly 'White Leamington'!

The peony 'Sarah Bernhardt' has also started flowering, I see; I will cut some of that in a day or two.

And there are trayfuls of seedlings ready to be planted out and provide cut flowers later in the summer!