Columbia Road Market 49
This surreal conical-shaped flower emerging into the sunlight from the deep shadow of a late Summer’s afternoon is Hydrangea, Peniculata Limelight that I bought at Columbia Rd for just four pounds. My garden is too tiny for most hydrangeas but this small variety suits it well, and is especially welcome at this season when the yard is bereft of other flowers. The saving grace has been this rambling rose, Aimée Vibert, a pale noisette cultivated in 1828, that I planted two years ago and which, although it has already climbed to the window of my first floor drawing-room, has only just flowered for the very first time this week – offering just three sprays of fragrant double blooms up to the glass as if seeking approval. I love the form of these sprays, giving forth a cascade of roses all at once and I am especially delighted that it should come into bloom now at the end of August when most other roses are over. Henceforward I shall be able to anticipate the flowering of Aimée Vibert each year, as the last rose of Summer in Spitalfields.
I am also a fan of hydrangeas, and am hoping to find some dried ones this fall to fill a tall vase over the winter. The pink hydrangeas often dry to a very interesting shade.
And how wonderful to have those pretty roses waving to you through the window!
Does the Columbia Road Market operate all through the winter months? I know that your winter weather has always seemed a bit milder than our New York version.
Best wishes.
Gentle author
The delicacy of your prose complements the exquisite Aimee Vibert.
I love roses and can’t stand hydrangeas – sorry!
The Aimée Vibert looks absolutely stunning and made me wonder if it still blooms for you in August.
However, even if you felt you wished to reply, there is no need – I don’t go back to check and don’t receive notifications from other posts I’ve commented on either.
I don’t believe I have the time left in me to get up to date and then start over again, the chances of me catching you up are pretty slim, I think. Also, you like to revisit some of your subjects and I like to think that this may crop up again some time in your past and my future readings!
In the meantime, I continue in my quest…