Guernsey Cream Clematis

The first bloom of spring! Aside from my flowering bulbs, this is this "Guernsey Cream" clematis is the first bloom from an established plant at our new construction house and bare bones yard. I planted this in spring 2017. I love watching British TV shows set in the 1940's like, "Foyle's War," "Land Girls," and "My Mother and Other Strangers." And yes, I loved the book "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society." So when I found a clematis called Guernsey Cream, I knew I had to have it.

This year, the first bloom was on Sunday, April 7.

#gardenlover  #finddelight #seattleblogger #plantlove #floweringvine #clematis 

Flower Arranging: A New Kind of Layering

When I try something new and it is a success, you are the first to know. My blog is a chronicle of my life and the things that I think will bring you delight.

Do you have a clematis vine? My purple clematis (it looks like it could be the Bonanza Clematis??) blooms faithfully every summer and on good days, you can see a few purple blooms wafting on the vine when standing in our family room. I love when a plan comes together. 

Anyhoo, I wanted to use the clematis in an arrangement in the kitchen and in a moment of clarity, I tucked a small rose into the center of the flat clematis bloom. I tucked the stem in between 2 petals and floated it in a beautiful open floral bowl. I added a few clematis leaves and put out placemats in the same color family. I love this arrangement!

Have you ever tried layering blooms?

West Seattle Saturday: What A View

Our jumping off point for our big Saturday in West Seattle was lunch at Bakery Nouveau for some of their famed croissants. It was our first trip to their bakery and the line out the door told us we were at the right place. The staff worked quickly to accommodate their customers and it wasn't long before Dan was eating a turkey Havarti croissant sandwich and I was sinking into a traditional baguette with ham and Swiss. Yes, please. I also snagged a plain croissant for breakfast the next day. This beacon of French deliciousness will call us back again and again.

I had in my mind that I wanted to stop at the West Seattle Community Garage Sale. I love finding treasures at garage or rummage sales (remember my quest for vintage Pyrex?) and I felt that this would be a great way to get to know the area. I am new to Seattle and I want to get a sense of the different neighborhoods. Why not tour it when they are all on their driveways welcoming the crowds? It was a gorgeous day and after a few stops with no luck, I changed my game plan and concentrated on the scenery. When we rounded one corner, this was the view! Imagine mowing your lawn with a view of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains in the background. Location location location.

We left the neighborhoods and parked near Alki Beach to enjoy the view. I stopped in Starbucks (2742 Alki Ave SW) for a latte and turned around after ordering to see this (above) - a bank of windows overlooking Puget Sound. I wouldn't have believed that you could have coffee in such prime real estate.

We walked across the street, walked until we found an empty bench. We sat and drank our coffees while we marveled at the view - the Olympic Mountains to our left, the city of Seattle and her Space Needle to the right, with kayaks and ferry traffic in between.  

Once we were back in our car and leaving, taking the slow drive along Alki Ave., I saw this building and insisted I be let out of the car. Dan found a place to pull over and I was able to photograph this beautiful example of two vines working in harmony: wisteria and clematis. Have you ever seen a more beautiful example of what can be done with vines and color? It is growing on an apartment building right on Alki Ave. This masterpiece only lasts about a month, I'd estimate, but what a month it is. Bravo.

A closer look at the striped clematis blooms and the coordinating wisteria clusters nearby.

Portland: A Private Garden Walk

Did you know that Portland, Oregon is known as the "City of Roses?"  When I found out we would be able to sneak away to Portland one weekend and visit Dan's cousin, my first thought was "food trucks" and "farmer's markets."

Then I was at a social gathering going on and on about:

• Spring coming
• caring for orchids
• pruning roses

You know, basic bar night chatter. One of the girls said that I sounded like her parents and all their garden talk. She said that they have a huge garden with a collection of clematis, roses, fruit trees and vegetables on the Tualatin River.

She said that if we had time, we were welcome to visit them when we went to Portland. How fun!  It turns out that their collection of clematis includes more than 300 plants!

I started looking into Portland and found out that it is known as the City of Roses.  I just missed the annual Portland Rose Festival by one week - I would have loved to see the annual rose show! When we drove around the neighborhoods of the city, I noticed large healthy hybrid tea roses blooming hearts out.  What a great city.

We arrived at their address and wow! It is a gardener's paradise. When we visited, so much was in bloom!  

First I'll show you some of the clematis...

My favorite story was that they have both the Princes Charles and Princess Diana clematis (I think this is Princess Diana clematis, below) but they keep them far apart in the garden. Good thinking.

I wish I was able to note which clematis was which as I was taking pictures, to help you with the names, but alas, we'll just have to enjoy them and play 'match game" on Google if we want to find one for our own garden. This lilac blue clematis with the smaller center petals stacked on top was my favorite.

It was fun to see so many different types of clematis wafting in the breeze; thriving in this beautiful landscape.  I heard that several garden magazines beat me to it and have already featured this very garden! You can see why.

The clematis blooms had quite a range of different petal sizes and were in shades from white and pink to lavender and deep blue. Some had wide petals and fluffy stamens and others blooms were small and wispy. What a collection!

In addition to vines, there were some pale raspberry foxglove (below),

and oriental poppies in unusual shades,

and fringed double poppies,

 And the large but paper thin, lacecap hydrangeas. 

I am grateful that these new friends of ours, shared their time and knowledge with us. I could have stayed a week and been perfectly happy weeding and having my way with garden gloves and a clipper. Imagine when the fruit trees are producing!

And imagine being able to eat fresh figs whenever you want!

Oh the arrangements I could make.  And on that note, I'll leave you with one last photograph.  The bouquet of fresh Sweet Pea that they presented to us as a gift.  Gardeners are kindred spirits and I made sure to have a set of my photos printed and mailed (along with a photo disc) to their house as a thank you.

We left their house, stopped at Fabric Depot for a few essentials and then drove north back to Seattle. These delicate Sweet Peas brightened up our hotel room and looked beautiful on the kitchen table for the rest of the week. 

(Sigh) I love this time of year, no wonder I was talking about Spring so much.

Training Clematis Vine

This is my salad-plate size clematis blooming, compliments of another year.  Right now (April 24) the plant is barely a foot high.  I am encouraged because it is very bushy and had lots of tendrils anxious to climb, but it is really small.  Over the past few years it has had a tendency to mound on the ground and spill into the lawn.  I want it to climb, like in this photo below.

Yesterday I cut away all of the dead plant material off of the twine and removed the tangle of leaves.  I restrung the twine that the vine will grab onto (in a criss cross pattern) and hopefully, by the end of May, my clematis will be blooming on the wall.  I gently wrapped a few of the tendrils around a piece of string to lead it up to the twine grid.  I will go out daily to keep the tendrils climbing in the right direction.  

When the stars and moon align, you can see the purple blooms that have climbed the twine from inside my family room.  It is so pretty to see the healthy green vine, boasting a lavender bloom, waving in the breeze.  


And then today it started to snowing.  Spring...a girl can only dream.

***UPDATE: June 16, 2013 - LOOK! It is magnificent! I've trained it to follow the criss-cross twine and the periwinkle blooms are able to be seen from the family room. Success!  The large leaf plants at the base of each side are hollyhocks.  I planted 2 pink hollyhock plants there and I'm hoping to get bright 6 foot tall spikes of color.

Decorating with Flowers

My favorite time of year!  I can finally pick something and bring it in the house to decorate.  This is the baker's rack in my foyer, loaded with my collection of antique Chelsea china.  I've been collecting for a few years now and this year I hope to finally find the illusive teapot.  Can't have a tea party without a teapot!

For this week's vignette, I've taken two of my small flat disc vases from CB2 (a modern division of Crate and Barrel) and put one bloom from my clematis vine in each vase.  I love how this looks - both dreamy and vibrant.

Floating Flowers

The simplest flower arrangements need hardly any "arranging" at all.  I filled a Revere bowl with water and floated 2 Clematis blooms in it - Voila! 

The secret is in a simple (and genius) tool called a Floral Float.  It is a green cork ring that helps to keep blossoms from sinking in a water-based floral arrangement.  Get yourself a packet (it includes 4) and have fun floating peonies, roses and more in any vessel you choose.

I really like how the flower, surrounded by silver, grey and white, stands out.  The violet blue petals add the perfect touch of blue to my Swedish-style family room.  Remember my display of Spode's Blue Room dishes on the plate rack?  This flower arrangement is on a table on the other side of the room and ties it all together.  So pretty!

Dinner Plate

When I say that my clematis has been producing blooms as large as a dinner plate, I'm not kidding!

I have my collection of Chelsea china on a baker's rack and as I walked by the other day, I realized the detail on the plates is the same color as my clematis.

The perfect way to prove my point - the blooms are huge! I heard lately that clematis like to have their "feet in the shade" so consider that when you are planting your vine. Put another plant at its base (for shade) and it will be happy.