Flowers Of 2024
Each Sunday, if I can afford it and have the time, I visit Columbia Rd Market to buy a bunch of flowers, seeking what is in season and avoiding repeats where possible. Here is the story of last year told in flowers. Looking back, I am reminded how much joy they brought me. Which are your favourites?
7th January, bulbs
14th January, paper whites
27th January, cherry blossom
28th January, hyacinths
5th February, snake’s head lilies
11th February, quince blosssom
25th February, tulips and anemones
17th March, tulips and hellebores
7th April, anemones and lilies of the valley
14th April, anemones and verbena
5th May, sweetpeas
12th May, Essex pinks
19th May, delphiniums
23rd June, peonies, astrantias and antirrhinums
7th July, spurge, camomile, antirrhinums and delphiniums
14th July, lilies, delphiniums, spurge and camomile
21st July, sunflowers
28th July, ranunculus
11th August, dahlias
18th August, camomile and michaelmas daisies
8th September, roses
22nd September, artichokes and chrysanthemums
6th October
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Not so much the snake’s head lilies, but the Trug they are in.
…and then the apples move in.
Wonderful stuff.
The anemone flowers are three dimensional, more interesting than the flat delphiniums and Essex Pinks
The dahlias are similarly attractive.
So beautiful and cheering, especially at this time of year. Many thanks.
The flowers are all beautiful and artfully arranged, but, I love the collection of pitchers (especially the one with the baboon on it).
Beautiful! I especially love your hyacinths, sweet peas, and delphiniums (and the pots they’re in). One of my Christmas presents was a pot of hyacinths from my little granddaughter, who had also painted lots of hearts all over the pot. I am also lucky to have a market in my current home town, and regularly buy from the flower stall.
All so lovely in their individual ways! I love the gradual journey from winter modesty to summery exuberance and all displayed in such wonderful containers
Lovely flowers and lovely containers. I love your choice of mugs and jugs and also the settings nothing for November and December?
This really is beautiful – you’re a proper lifestyle influencer, as well as everything else! You must share with us where you get hold of your antique ceramics, as there are so few places left in London, and I wonder how you stop your cat from eating the flowers.
Thank you, Gentle Author-what a beautiful selection of photos, and what a rich seasonal calendar!!
Thank you for this beautiful posting
Paper Whites…followed on close second by true of apples.
I worked as a Saturday girl in a local florists shop as a teenager so I am associating the smell with the pictured flowers. Hyacinths are therefore a strong contender as they perfume the entire room for days with their delightful scent. Lily of the Valley need to be lifted gentle to your nose to appreciate their beauty. Narcissus can have a similar effect to hyacinths but you must choose the smelly ones. We used to stock a variety called Cheerfulness which rather says it all.
I am rather looking forward to Spring now – thanks GA!
I know them as snakes head fritillaries, which I love as fritillaries are also a kind of butterfly, and I wonder whether that’s unique. When I first discovered this striking flower I simultaneously discovered that the area it was growing in was called Mesopotamia, as it lies between two rivers. Very Oxford.
Hard to choose, but in the end decided 18th August, camomile and michaelmas daisies. I also very much like the choice of vases.
I love this. Both your choice of flowering arrangements and setting them in such charming vases and containers. You have brightened my day, thank you.
If you’re asking me? I can’t decide on ‘just’ one bouquet. — They are ALL wonderful!
Love & Peace
ACHIM
Simply stunning. Jugs full of joy.
What a terrific idea to post monthly pictures of these gorgeous flowers. My favourite is August;
Colourful dahlias. Thank you for making my day brighter
I especially love the vases too ..May with the sweetpeas!!
Flowers bring such joy into a room on the dullest of days. The window in the first picture is beautiful with the bulbs in their lovely bowls.
Each offers a different attraction and value, like each of your stories, so it is so hard to say which is my fav. Thank you for a nice colorful beginning to a cold gloomy day here is the colonies.
You. YOU are my favorite. You are the founder of the feast. The one who peruses the market, selects the flowers, finds the right jug or vase, places the arrangement in a perfect spot, and then snaps the photo. (and then WE get to see this beautiful array – perfect on this icy cold day in the Hudson Valley)
I feel fortunate to have a dear husband who brings me flowers on a regular basis. One time he was in our small local supermarket, waiting to pay, and the customer in front of him asked about the flowers. “These are for my wife!” John said. She must have been touched, because she
insisted on paying for the flowers and complimented him on being such a romantic soul.
Paying it forward, indeed.
I love the beautiful, rich colour of those sweetpeas. So simple, but so incredibly striking.
Hard to choose a favourite since I love them all and they are arranged so beautifully in your wonderful collection of vases, Pitcher and trug. Thank you GA🙏
For me nothing beats the smouldering atmosphere & colour of the sweet peas.
Thank you very much for this interesting information. My grandmother loves to plant flowers at home.
Those giant sunflowers are definitely doing it for me!
I love them all. The flowers and lovely containers are made even more beautiful in your evocative interiors.
Paperwhites!
The vibrant purple sweetpeas, the tulips, the elegant quince blossom.
But then the unselfconscious rustic beauty of the camomile with Michalemas daisies …
Gorgeous, all of them.
Been said before, but that is a beautiful set of containers.
Noting the wild garlic slipped in with the foncy hellebores.
Melancholy Gentleman is an old name for Astrantia which I have always loved for it’s geometry, curiousness, restraint & graphic quality. I learned the flower & the name from an elderly Jewish American friend long gone, so I’m not sure on the origin.
She was a tremendous & naturalistic gardener which starchier folks did not appreciate. She had a country garden in London.
She used to say “You are as welcome as the flowers in the spring” & meant it, too. I miss her.
It’s a nice rememberance to have.