Flowers in Japanese style - ikebana display in Oxford
On Sunday, I visited an exhibition by the Oxford Ikebana Study Group (I don't belong to this but do like flowers!) and thought that people might be interested to see some examples of the varied displays on offer. There was a haiku theme - each display had a card with a printed haiku which had been used to suggest the shape, colour and texture of
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Anyway, I'm pleased that you had some celebratory cake and that the day was a happy one. Hooray!
The moss issue is curious - it's an indicator of something wrong really e.g. lawn grass growing weakly so maybe need to seed with a better (or shade-loving) variety, poor drainage from compaction so maybe need to add sand and aerate or fork through. The first step is to clear the moss and take a close look in order to assess the problem and decide on a cure. Moss is very shy of competition so it doesn't exactly kill the grass but it is a sign that the grass itself is losing the battle - eventually there will be no grass. I don't think I've explained that very well!
I enjoy messing with nice photos (sometimes I make then worse though!). I try to keep a couple of unseen(ish) areas of the garden for growing some flowers for cutting - but I've not tried anything as elaborate as these ikebana arrangements. "weed bouquets" sound nice - wild flowers are often lovely.
Here's a quick shot of one corner of my garden about two weeks ago:
The big orange blob at the back is the wonderful Japanese peony "kinkaku" - has a lovely scent too:
I should take a photo this weekend too as the rhododendron is making a red explosion at the moment. Let's see if I manage it or not!
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Oh, your garden is gorgeous. So much colour already! The path looks so inviting. What a lovely private retreat right in your own back yard. A photo of the rhododendrons would be appreciated, if you get around to it.
I think you explained the moss issue just fine. Good luck correcting the problem! You seem quite knowledgeable about such things.
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The garden is looking nice - if you can catch it inbetween the rain! Sadly the last thundery downpours yesterday have knocked some of the rhododendron flowers off but I think there's a photo on the toy camera from Monday which might be OK. I'll hope to get to it at the weekend.
We have a public holiday here on Monday (it used to be a celebration of the old church holiday Pentecost which was called Whitsun but the government renamed it the Late Spring Bank Holiday which is a bit meaningless and uncelebratory - might as well call it Extra Monday Off!) so I'm looking forward to being able to spend a bit more time enjoying the garden. I'm not sure if I'm particularly knowledgeable but I do like things that grow and it's lovely to watch plants really thrive.
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Speaking of hedgehogs, do you ever get them hunting slugs in your garden? We don't have them at all over here in Canada. They would be cute to see.
A thundery downpour sounds cool. Haven't really had one yet over here, so I'm still waiting. I like storms, but it is sad to see the flowers ruined.
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I've taken that longer shot from the drive where I park the car. That's about half the width of the garden at the bottom end but there are less flowers on the bit that you can't see - just grass, bushes, the compost heap, and trees which are nice but not so colourful. There is another colourful bed with lots of flowers - poppies, valerian, fennel, lemon balm, alchemilla, hollyhocks, phlox, tulips - but it never gets into the photos because my car is always in the way and blocking the view!
And then there's the front garden near the road which doesn't get so much attention - largely big shrubs and trees (it's East facing so a bit cold and unfriendly). Anyway, it all generates plenty of work!
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