On Monday Cathy of Rambling in the garden challenges us to find flowers in our own gardens to put in a vase. This has now become such a regular part of my life that I even neglect to pick flowers for a special lunch party but do still join Cathy!!!
Today the Larkspur in the cuttings beds were all flowering and as that bed has yet to have its netting for support I knew that these would need to be cut. I Madonna lily I picked last week, lasted well in the vase and perfumed the room for a whole week, so I decided that I would pick another for today. The red lily beetles were certainly depleted by the cold winter as the lilies have never had so many flowers on their stems. The title of my post “Madonna, che bello!” is an expression I hear often describing something particularly beautiful and seemed apt for today.
Larkspur, Campanular persiciflia ‘Alba’, Madonna lily, Sysyrinchium striatum
The vase in natural light outside
I cut some stems very short, to add colour and interest in the vase itself and not just bare stems
In a vase on Monday
The vase is my large rectangular one so to give you an idea of size the arrangement is about 1 metre x 1 metre.
The lilies are already scenting the room.
Thanks to Cathy, do visit to see her vase today and links to many others around the globe.
Creating my own garden of the Hesperides 
Glorious abundance … with scent, perfect.
It is nice to have lots to pick,
A wonderful reward for all your hard work .
The larkspur seed themselves and the lily has been in the garden for ages so this week there wasn’t so much hard work involved!!
Esclamazione ampliamente giustificata!!!
Grazie
The title is very appropriate Christina. Such a beautiful display! Will larkspur bloom all summer for you? I tried it once before from seed, unsuccessfully.
I think it will depend on how much I cut them. Other years they have flowered only in spring.
A lovely colour combination, cleverly arranged. I like the pure white and creamy yellow with the sumptuous blue of the larkspur. My lilies have been munched by slugs 😦
That’s sad. The slugs we have here are huge but usually they are in the compost rather than the garden and so are useful and not a pest.
Useful slugs – now there’s a thought 🙂
I think we underestimate them. But then who would love them when they eat our newly emerging perennials.
Molto bella! Still loving your larkspur and wish I could smell the lilies. Hope my Italian is correct.
Thank you. Yes, your Italian is perfect.
Perfetto!
What a gorgeous vase….I love the larkspur and those lilies. Here the lily beetles overwinter and seem to just come right back with nothing deterring them sadly. I plan to move them to one area and then have better luck monitoring the beetles to get rid of them.
Hand picking them is the only way. Try different varieties of lily.
All I can say is WOW!
Thanks for the thumbs up John. How are you getting on on your new home?
This is lovely, Christina. Great idea to extend the flowers down into the vase.
I’m wondering if I should try raising Madonna lilies. We have the red beetles, too, though our super cold winters don’t seem to faze them. I have to check the tiger lilies daily to remove them and their horrific offspring.
Oh! I didn’t know the terrible red beetles were in the US too.
They think they came in on a shipment (or many) of lily bulbs from Holland. Like most invasive insects, they come in on cargo ships. It’s our own fault, I guess.
Yes; international trade has a lot to answer for.
In the past the Madonna lilies have been more of a target for the beetles than other lilies. Regal lilies usually having the least infestation b
Your larkspurs are so pretty and what an added bonus that they reseed.
Yes especially as they are quite difficult to get to germinate from bought seed!!
Maybe that’s my problem.
I love the meadow-y look of this arrangement, Christina. Seeing the flowers through the glass below the water line enhances the look nicely. I picked more larkspur myself this week and, after this year’s success with that last-minute scattering of a few seeds, I think I’ll be including larkspur in every spring cutting garden from here on.
You were lucky to get such good germination; I probably wouldn’t continue to grow them if they didn’t self-seed so well.
What a joy bto have such an abundant vase, and thank you for giving us an idea of the size – which means that your vase itself is much bigger than I thought t was. I really like these chunky square or rectangular vases. My old larkspur seed din’t germinate, by the way, but I bought a few seedlings from a car boot sale at the beginning of the month which are now in the cutting beds (mixed, but better than none at all)
I have two vases that are this shape Cathy; this one is large – almost too large as it needs a huge number of flowers to fill it. It is also heavy even without water; it was a gift from our Italian friends when we moved here so is very precious.
And a lovely thing to have, even wirhout contents, I guess
I suppose! But a lovely reminder of good friends
What a fabulous vase Christina with the priceless added bonus of scent. I felt something land on my head yesterday evening when I stepped outside. I fished it the offending item out of my hair and then squished as it was one of those wretched red lily beetles 😦
The red lily beetles are horrible, but at least quite visible. My husband is usually quite good at squishing them.
E magnifico! This vase certainly has style and presence, Christina.
It is making quite a statement in the room
Definitely an apt title for an arrangement so lovely!
It is so hard to think up apt titles – certainly not my strong point.
I love the vertical height of this vase. Just draws your eyes. And your flower selection is beautiful!
Thank you for taking time to comment, you are most welcome to My Hesperides Garden
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Beautiful colours in a perfect vase. Red lily beetle hasn’t appeared yet here either. Lets hope the winter cold put it off.
I need to keep checking the other lilies but so far much better than other years.
Wow, that size arrangement must be a wonderful sight indoors! The white lily really is lovely Christina. And I like the way you have made flowers visible underwater too, 🙂
They’re not actually under water, although that might work too, they’re just inside the vase which is very thick, hence the distortion that makes them seem underwater.
Christina is an impressive arrangement for its beauty and its dimensions. I love the flowers you have chosen, especially the Madonna Lily that is wonderful as well as its perfume. The Larkspur is beautiful as is the Espuela de Caballero. The Campanular persicifolia “Alba” is very beautiful. It is a magnificent bouquet and the vase is beautiful: a perfect set. I love. I am very glad that the red beetles have not appeared this year: they will have frozen this winter 🙂 Good week. Take care. Greetings from Margarita.
You have a good week too.
Wow Christina that is a mega vase full and absolutely gorgeous. I love larkspur
Me too!