Hodge podge

GUERNSEY LILY, RIVER LILY

A bountiful autumnal bowl of garden flowers and foliage - a garden 'hodge podge' (categorised in the English dictionary as a 'confused mixture of different things').

OCTOBER


INGREDIENTS

Rosa canina (wild dog rose)

Chrysanthemum morifolium ‘Aunt Millicent’ (Korean chrysanthemum)

Chrysanthemum ‘Avignon Pink’ & ‘Allouise Pink’

Dahlia ‘Cafe au Lait’ & ‘Wine Eyed Jill’

Rudbeckia subtomentosa 'Henry Eilers' (coneflower)

Gladiolus murielae (Abyssianian gladiolus)

Hesperantha coccinea ‘Pink Princess’ (flag Lily)

Nerine undulata ‘Mega Crispa’ (fringed guernsey lily)

Rosa ‘Sweet Jessica’ & ‘Brown Velvet’

Anemone coronaria ‘de Caen Sylphide’

VASE

Ceramic pedestal bowl in a cream glaze ( Aesme Studio design)

Kenzan

Chicken wire


NOTES

This is the time of year when we enjoy the autumn flowering bulbs and corms planted in the spring - nerines, flag lilies, anemones and gladioli.

We deliberately do not stake our chrysanthemum plants (grown indoors in a tunnel) so that their stems arch and curve as they grow. This makes them enormously useful for soft, romantic centrepiece designs. Often overlooked as a supermarket flower there are many wonderful varieties in nuanced colours. They last well into November for us and even longer in the vase - plus they smell divine.