Something beautiful: Graham Thomas roses

Oh dear, my poor neglected blog! I want to thank each one of you that persists in reading my sporadic posts, there seems so little time to write here whilst trying to run my jewellery business and all that a big family involves! So, I have decided to release myself from the notion that only long and involved posts are worth writing, and hope that you will enjoy my more frequent but shorter offerings - just beautiful things that I find that inspire me, and I hope you too? Maybe you can think of this little spot on the web as a tiny receptacle for simple, beautiful finds that might brighten your day, as well as offering behind the scenes glimpses into the world of Wild Acre designs? Nothing grand, nothing complicated, but hopefully some photographs and words to enjoy and to remind us all of the beauty and stillness in the world, especially when the pace of life seems a bit frantic?  A brief pause, or slow-down moment in the day? Does that sound ok?

Here is today's beauty - Graham Thomas roses outside my kitchen door catching the early morning sunshine. Yes, real sunshine at last, feels miraculous in this bewilderingly grey June, so I'm catching every ray of it while I can. A cup of coffee sitting on the low garden wall, looking at these yellow beauties was a great, if early, start to the day.

Have a lovely thursday, remember to pause and smell the roses!

Let's play catch up 2: the garden

What a gorgeous summery week we have had, the garden is in full June flounce and I'm loving the giddy first flush of summer herbaceous abundance. The delphiniums have come back better than ever, I do love them. Dark Knight and Summer Skies are two of my favourite varieties.

I am finally learning the importance of some good vertical lines in a border and now that the alliums are over, it is the grasses, giant nepeta, delphs and lupins that are doing it best at the moment. Love me some floral spires! Poppies and cornflowers are heading skyward too.

Wishing you a lovely June weekend, what a cracking time of year. xx

what i am loving about late summer

late summer blooms in punchy colours

golden afternoon sunlight

eating in the garden, reading in the hammock, 

cups of rose tea with bees buzzing and butterflies flitting 

playing with my youngest two before uniforms are pressed and shoes shined.

enjoying their freedom with them, relishing their crumpled shorts and lolly-dripped t-shirts. 

loving later breakfasts. time for pancakes and bircher meusli and langour.

 fruitpicking and crumble-baking and pie and jam-making. 

blackberry stained fingers and bare feet,

sprinklers, freckles,

even getting caught out by rain and 
leaving wet flipflops by the door.
good books and proper bedtime stories,
taking our time over these

happy last days of summer.

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sharing this on the Modern Country Style summer linky party
 the good life Wednesday linky do at a beach cottage
and At the Picket Fence's Inspiration Friday

the cut flower series: suppliers of seeds, bulbs and plants

After blethering on about so many wonderful flowers to try in a cutting patch last week, I thought it only fair to point you in the direction of some fantastic suppliers. Except it isn't really fair because I can only recommend UK suppliers, so if you are reading this from 'broad would you be lovely enough to share any great suppliers you have found in your home country in the comments section after this post, to spread the flowery joy further, so to speak? And fellow Brits, please add your own faves in the comments, I'm sure we'd all LOVE to discover some new places to browse! The list below represents my absolute favourites, and whilst there are hundreds of suppliers out there, these lot, well they are, as my lovely dad would say, top-hole wizard!!

Sarah Raven

My first port of call for inspiration and supplies is the Sarah Raven website. Seeds, bulbs, corms, plants - they are all there in season. I posted more about it here. She also sends out a cracking catalogue - this is glossy magazine stuff, beautifully photographed and extremely provoking of the wantywanties!  Sarah just seems to have a fairly unerring eye for form and colour and cut flowers are her first love, so even if it is just for ideas rather than purchases, her site is worth a gander. I just think she has brilliant taste and a cavernous knowledge of cut flowers,  which makes her an obvious supplier for me. (Apparantly her mother finds many of her choices vulgar - I heard her say that with her mum in earshot, and she nodded!) Anyway you will find almost all the plants I have listed in her shop. If they are too expensive, and that is my only gripe - it is on the spenny side - there are of course other suppliers selling most, though by no means all, her selection. She does spend part of the year sourcing new and interesting flower varieties in Europe, so some stuff is hard to find elsewhere and gives some of her flowers the buzz of being new and different. See what you think.

Crocus

A supplier extraordinaire of top notch plants - and favoured by designers for their truly mahoosive selection, their ability to supply for huge orders and the fantastic condition in which their plants seem to arrive. Very impressive in my experience, but again, not the cheapest by any means. Is top quality ever cheap?
As Farrow and Ball is to paint, as it were.

Seedaholic

I wrote a post about this super Irish company here. Fantastic for interesting seed varieties with the best instructions and information I have ever seen. Really helpful on the phone/internet too if you have any queries.

J Parkers

A huge Dutch-based bulb and plant supplier that always sends a catalogue through my door each season. If you are planting in big numbers the wholesale catalogue is breathtakingly cheap and the quality seems fine. No frills, few thrills but good value and covers the basics, especially good for tulips, alliums and narcissi.

Blomsbulbs

Another excellent Dutch company selling in the UK. A great selection, and a few unusual ones to pique interest. Definitely worth a look.

Dobies of Devon

A good, long established and award-winning supplier with a wide range of plants, reasonably priced too.

Your local horticultural nursery

Best of all, check out your local horticultural nurseries, there is sure to be one or two somewhere not too far from where you live.  This way you get to see what you are buying and ask as many questions as you like - that expert knowledge, the selling of plants that do well in your local area, and the pleasure of buying local all thrown in for free! Mine does 20% off all plants on a Thursday. Funny how often I am 'just passing' on a Thursday!

I'm hoping that has whetted your appetite for some floral retail therapy. September is the perfect time for planting bulbs, plants and many seeds. Oh, and it is September any minute, how handy!!

Next Friday, a few tips about a free and very satisfying way of increasing the flowers in your garden for free - collecting seed and other ways of propagating. xx

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Just copy and pasted some fantastic sounding suppliers that lovely readers have shared in their comments, the first 3 referring are UK companies, and the others are U.S. Suppliers - thanks Jan, Foxtail Lily, Pauline, Webb, Edi and Jane!

I buy most of my seeds from Chiltern Seeds. I find they have nearly everything I look for, including most of Sarah Raven's choices. The catalogue which comes through the post doesn't have pics (although that does make you feel like a professional plantsperson!) but most of the varieties have photos online. Would very much recommend them. 

I would not buy from Parkers -since all my Rip city Dahlias from them were not true-bright red! Purple Dahlias were orange.. etc, etc. The customer care was dreadful-no `Sorry, or money back-BEWARE!!

Another good seed firm is near us in Devon,
www.plant-world-seeds.com
They have a fantastic selection and are always very helpful

I spent a good bit of Tuesday looking at the big commercial seed companies in the U.S. (Park Seed, Burpee Seed and a new one (to me) Johnny's Seeds) and while no one had all of them, I was able to find just about everything you recommended. I am hoping that someone in the US who is already knowledgeable about quality will list where they shop. I understand there are lots of good small seed companies, but have no experience.

For bulbs I can recommend Brent and Becky's Bulbs, which is a smaller Virginia supplier but quite good. For perennial plants High Country Gardens is wonderful, and White Flower Farms has an excellent reputation. I don't think they sell seeds. 

Webb, I think Colorblends.com offers the best price and quality. I have ordered over 8000 bulbs from them and every single one thrived. I also like KVB wholesale for tulips and casa blanca lilies.

I find Flower Farm overpriced and loaded with grubs. My favorite perennial catalog is Bluestone Perennials and of course Klehm Song Sparrow. They offer wholesale as well. I forgot another gem is Willow creek gardens. 100 Cafe Au Lait dahlia tubers for less then $ 100.

http://www.plantdelights.com/

http://www.eat-it.com/

Summer/Fall Collection

It is a funny time of year in the garden, right at the end of the summer, with autumn just around the corner but not started yet. Sometimes the sun shines and England looks summery, and the next day there are misty intimations of the new season about to take over.

I wandered around the garden today, and was struck by how some areas are still in their summer colours, still having the fresh, clear lightness I love,

However, other areas of the garden are in full autumnal robes; burn't orangey colours, yellows, deep plums and strong reds,

I rather love some of the inbetween-season colour combos,

and some of the new buds of autumn have a particular thrill because, unlike in Spring, they are fewer and rather poignant because you know their glory is shorter lived. These sedum blooms, bursting into life, are so lovely,

The buds and flowers of the Japanese Anemones also have this misplaced Spring-like freshness, 

But, whilst there's lots of beauty to enjoy, the overall look of the garden is a bit Janus-like, looking forwards and backwards at once, and I find it slightly unsettling, irresolute. I like to know where I am generally in life, I am not so good at uncertainty. Time for a cup of tea.

Bags of glamour

Whoop, whoop! Dark and luscious dahlias have arrived in the garden - and they are just the right side of flamboyant - glamourous rather than Dame Edna! I have Bishop of Aukland (on the left above), Sam Hopkins (to the right), and Rip City which is a dark pinky purple cactus type.

They are fast-growing, flower like mad til the first frosts and look glorious in the garden and vase. They are velvet-petalled and have smart, deeply-coloured stems and foliage. If only they were fully hardy they would be my top plant.

These dark beauties look amazing with lime green (think nicotania, zinnias, dill etc).  Please check out Sarah Raven's website here for futher inspiration. I love how they look in bouquets,

and they look great in big, full on arrangements or posies like this one next to some tea-light holders in our sittingroom,

I do have one question for more experienced florists than me: do they reliably last in a vase more than 4-5 days and does searing the stems make them last longer? There seems a lot of conflicting infomation out there!