The Oak Tree Garden - Ashcott

27/02/2025

A little drama in a vase.
With plum cherry, hellebores, p***y willow and the last of the snowdrops.

I visited my gardening clients today and pruned their roses, so my hands underwent a bit of drama as well.

Some new perennials and autumn sown annuals have been planted in the field this week and I've made space in the greenhouse for a planned seed sowing next week. Now the sun has finally come out, I can start to get excited about the new season.

Edy

15/02/2025

Post Valentine's arrangements with some early spring flowers. (Can mid-February be called early spring? I really hope so.) With Cornelian Cherry, snowdrops, the first primroses, tiny cyclamens, and only one hellebore that I dared to pick.
Despite bitterly cold and incredibly dull weather there is lots that nature can offer.

30/12/2024

Our Christmas tree went up only shortly before Christmas so I am keeping it for another week. I am looking forward to the New Year. Will I be making resolutions? No. But I will be making plans. And the plan is to have another year filled with flowers.

#2025

25/11/2024

It's that time of year for me, between autumn and winter, when the summer is long forgotten but perhaps not feeling particularly Christmassy yet.

19/11/2024

Wintry mantlepiece.

11/11/2024

Most of the flowers in the field are gone and the whole site gradually gets cleared before the winter. But I've managed to find enough flowers - plus a few chrysanthemum from my neighbour - to make this shower bouquet. This is my end of the season tribute to the seasonal colour, before shape and texture become more prominent.

🌱

07/10/2024

I got distracted by various purple flowers while trying to clear some beds in the field.

25/09/2024

September snippets. There was a flock of finches feasting on the seedheads at the flower field today. I do miss cutting bucketfuls of flowers this autumn but seeing the field being used by other creatures does give me joy.
Ranunculus is waiting to be pre-sprouted and hardy annuals have been sown. Onwards and upwards.

🌱

13/09/2024

The same vessel, the same ingredients, different styles.
I like arranging in urns because, even with the simplest of flowers, it becomes something very special.

06/09/2024

A little ray of sunshine on a rainy day.
Taken a few weeks ago when fluffy sunflowers were still around.

03/09/2024

A bowl of snippets from the field. Pastel colours that are intended to get me in the mood for planning and sowing for next spring, rather than giving way to that autumnal cosy feeling of calming down and unwinding.

30/08/2024

This arrangement was made a few weeks ago, when I got distracted whilst deadheading dahlias. Although there's lots to complain about the behaviour of dahlias this year, you can't really stay cross with them for long. They are such pretty things that you can forgive them instantly. Even the ones that are supposed to be discarded and heading for the compost heap.
Here, keeping them company, are the last few marigolds and a couple of zinnias.
The only shame being the phone camera couldn't cope with all the nuances of colour, which were more varied and interesting in reality.

25/08/2024

20/08/2024

Monochromatic mock up bridal bouquet.
With strawflowers and phlox as the only flowers, accompanied by various seedheads.
This bouquet reflects a gentle shift towards autumnal moods (and an impatient wait for the school holidays to finish).

16/08/2024

This is one of my cutting beds as an arrangement.
Where rudbeckia, coreopsis and the grass Wangenheimia grow next to each other. With a healthy population of the willowherb weeds along the path. This year weeding was one of the flower farmer tasks that I have not succeeded at. (Ok, I admit, the same happens every year.) But the seedheads of willowherb look rather interesting, don't you think?

12/08/2024

Strong pinks and soft pinks and whites.
This arrangement reminds me of a bowl of ice-cream sundae. Very appropriate, I think, for the hot weather we had today.
Seasonal flowers from the field.

✈️

04/08/2024

Summer yellows. Sunflowers, rudbeckias and daisies in a joyful tangle inside a rusty tin.
When using seasonal flowers, even with a limited choice, your arrangements will never be boring.

💛 🌻