I am back home again after a week escaping to the cool of the mountains to stay with friends in Rovereto and Asiago. The garden is now in drought survival mode, the only flowers are those in the cut flower beds where there is irrigation! I know that it has been hot in the UK but you need to add 5 to 8″C to that temperature to have any idea of the heat here. We did have a thunderstorm with a good amount of rain on Saturday afternoon so the situation is not as bad as last year, just think of the poor gardeners in Spain where it has been 45″C this weekend.
There were flowers to pick when I came home so I am able to join Cathy at Rambling in the garden for this special meme.
I have arranged only one vase so far, the rest of the flowers will be arranged when I have a spare few moments later today, I will share the other vases later in the week, hopefully.
In a vase on Monday
Not an original colour combination but one that works and I enjoy in the sitting room on the mantel shelf.
Dark maroon and orange dahlias, Lime green and orange Zinnias, Euphorbia Golden Foam and Amaranthus Viridis, plus a few stems of Nicotiana Lime Green and orange and red Crocosmia in a square based vase.
Chartreuse, orange and deep maroon for a zingy vase
Before I left for my holiday in the UK at the beginning of July I cut back all the plants drastically. The are now all flowering but I think I may have reduced the vigour of some of them, hopefully with some food this week they will regain their growth pattern and all flourish into the autmn.
The two hand tied bouquets, below, were for the birthday of a very dear friend on 26th July.
Gift vases from 26th July
With my thanks to Cathy, do visit her to see what others around the world have found for their vases today.
Creating my own garden of the Hesperides 
Very pretty color combo. Hope the weather improves for you soon. Summer drought and extreme heat is not uncommon for us, but we are having a very wet summer this year in South Carolina.
We had a wet spring and are having some sporadic thunderstorms but it is still too hot for me.
Bentornata! Riesci sempre a fare il tuo mazzo di fiori!!!
Beautiful. Nice to come home to such variety. That dark maroon dahlia is amazing. YOur hand-tied bouquets are professional looking–just wonderful. Hope you and R. have enjoyed your summer holiday travels.
We have, thank you. It was so refreshing in the mountains, cool enough at night for a duvet!!!
I hope you had a wonderful holiday. I love the colour scheme of your vase and what pretty posies for your friend. Zinnias have been enjoying all this sun and what a joy they are. I love the amaranthus too.
Your weather and lack of rain this year have been the opposite to us. We had a very wet spring and there are still regular thunderstorms, our temperatures are not record breaking this year – thank goodness! The mountains around Asiago still had lovely native flowers, I’ll try to post about them soon.
I’m glad you had flowers left. After record breaking rain last year, we are now lacking rain.
there’s always too much or too little isn’t there?
Yes there is.
I love the color combination, original or not. It has finally started to rain a bit here. Amazed at the heat in Europe! Do you get the Saharan dust?
Our temperatures are lower than last year; we seem to be missing the African heat (it is 33 – 35°C though). Yes, we do get the Saharan sand usually when it rains and it rains yellow mud!!
Yellow mud! that’s mad. We get some here, but not like that.
Mud might be a bit of an exaggeration but when it rains after they sand arrives, it’s like mud.
Thank goodness you got some rain. I hope the oppressive heat abates a soon. Your vase is beautiful as are the gift bouquets.
It doesn’t usually cool down very much before September, although early mornings and evenings are usually cooler then.
Christina, I hope you had a great time in the mountains. I hope it stops being hot and it rains. I see that you are informed of the heat wave in Spain: it begins to remit tomorrow, but here in the country house we have not come down from 36º – 37ºCentrigrades something unheard of! Your vase is magnificent, I love all flowers. The brown Dahlias I like a lot like the Zinnias. The Amaranthus viridis is really beautiful. The square vase is beautiful. The two bouquets tied by hand for your friend for his birthday I love them. Have a great week. Take care. Greetings from Margarita.
Christina forgot to tell you that I have Swallows living inside the house. If you want to see the blog that I have made the address is https://margaritaexam141.wordpress.com/2018/08/05/golondrinas-viviendo-entro-de-casa/ It is written in Spanish but you know that if you want to translate it into English , at the beginning to the right there is a box that puts TRANSLATE and below a box with an arrow to choose English that in English is written I ngl é s. I have set it apart from I to s so that the translator program did not translate it. And so you can read it in your language. That you do not pass heat and it rains soon. Greetings from Margarita.
I´m Sorry. La dirección está mal escrita.
https://margaritaexam141.wordpress.com/2018/08/05/golondrinas-viviendo-dentro-de-casa/
Muchas gracias por tu paciencia y perdona de nuevo. Saludos de Margarita.
Thanks Margarita. It is a lovely post
I love orange and maroon together, a splash of lime works well, too. The weather all over has been crazy this summer – so hot and for many, too dry. I’m thankful that the latter is not a problem for us. Stay cool!
Cool is not an option really, last night it was hot all night, that’s the worst. Mid summer for me is a bit like your winter, it is something to get through.
All 3 arrangements are splendid, Christina. That deep maroon dahlia is incredible – I take it that you’ve no record of the cultivar name? My own dahlias, planted late this year, are just coming on now and my fingers are crossed that this week’s heatwave doesn’t shrivel them in bud. I’ve been watering more than I’ve done in years, just trying to head off any more losses of the type we sustained in early July. I envy your thunderstorm (but then, with our luck, lightning would set off a wildfire).
I worry when we have direct hits of lighting, the well, electric gate and tv and PCs are all vulnerable! I do have some names for the Dahlias, I’ll check and get back to you.
Those dark dahlias are delicious. I love the late summer colour schemes. Here it is cooler, with a little rain – the garden becomes jungly !
Mine’s past the jungly stage. There lots of spent foliage that needs cutting back.
I imagine that the break in the mountains must have been a most welcome respite Christina. My cousins in Rome disappear into the mountains every August. It must be unbearably hot in the city at this time of year. Oh that colour combination may not be original as you say but it certainly works. That dark dahlia is most appealing but would be most sombre without all the zingy tones provided by the greens and orange. Beautiful birthday bouquets 🙂
The. Mountains were quite warm during the day but so cool as soon as the sun went down. We even had a duvet on the bed! Do you come to visit your cousins, it would be fun to meet up with you if you’re on Rome.
What a lovely vase. Great colour scheme and with the amaranthus trailing down it even manages to convey coolness and flow. Escaping to the mountains sounds like a marvellous tactic. Your irrigation seems to have worked very well. Glad you’ve had some rain though. We are over three months without any to speak of. Storms have missed us when the rest of the UK has had some water.
Another thunderstorm again today. But the rain didn’t last long.
your maroon dahlia looks great with the orange (zinnia? still learning), Hope all the flowers and garden recover. it’s been ridiculously hot in Manchester this summer – I’ve been watering every night and been glad to have a shady small garden. I’ve got lavender, sweetpeas (not enjoying the heat) and dianthus in my vase today. Love Bec xx
Yes, there orange Zinnias and orange Dahlias. Hope it cools down for you soon.
I have no idea how you get anything done in those temperatures and yet your chartreuse with orange looks fresh and lovely. I fear the rain may come on my open day. If only we could control the weather how straightforward gardening would be!
Never a truer word spoken. Dahlias and Zinnias love the heat.
That’s a lovely combination…and those zinnias are superb. My sister from Spain came to stay for a couple of weeks to escape the heat…she ought to have stayed longer I think. Hope you enjoy the flowers you have, and how lovely to give bouquets as presents at this time of the year too.
Love the colours with the fresh green Euphorbia and Amaranthus. It’s been in the 30s here too, up to 36°C several days. My garden is coping better than I am though!
I find that every 1 degree over 34C makes a difference to how I feel.
Excellent vase, and other than the flowers in it, one would never know how hot this trans-northern hemisphere heat wave has been! Spain’s 45c has never happened here, so I won’t even complain about our forecast 31c highs this weekend…
Last year’s summer was much worse for us here in central Italy. Summer was late starting and spring was very wet plus there have been thunderstorms to refresh the garden a little. 45 – 48 in Spain and Greece is just too awful to even think about.
Love the purple Dahlias and orange Zinnias.