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Finally, there are plenty of flowers to cut for today’s vase!
Not only are the daffodils opening in clouds of gold, but the first tiny blue and white flowers have appeared on the Vinca Minor.
The fruit trees’ buds have begun to unfold, and the first tiny garnet colored knobs of color are exploding from the solid brown stems of our red bud.
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Once spring begins unfolding its flowers, it just grows more colorful each day!
The flowers and foliage chosen today form associations in the garden. Vinca carpets the ground beneath the daffodils. Autumn Brilliance ferns grow in concert with clumps of daffodils in many spots around the garden.
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Daffodils also grow in clumps near many of the roses. A keen eye might notice the stems of rose foliage tucked into this arrangement. Although I’m waiting until after the weekend coming to prune, a few nips here and there on a tea rose will not do any lasting harm- even if the snow forecast for next Saturday materializes.
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Daffodils also grow in the back garden, where our fruit trees stand ready to bloom. Included today are branches from pear, apple, and a large redbud.
What pleasure to wander around making a choice among the many offerings, while breathing in the stirrings of spring. If you have not yet cut a vase of spring flowers for yourself, I hope you will have that opportunity soon.
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The cobalt blue vase was hand blown by Williamsburg glass artist John Shelton. We purchased this from him at a show last December.
Maybe you will even feel moved to join Cathy’s Monday Vase meme with photos of a vase filled with what may be growing in your own garden this week. When you visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden each Monday, you will find links to beautiful floral arrangements from all over the planet in her comments.
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My hopes for this vase are that we will be able to keep it indoors long enough for the fruit blossoms and redbud to fully open. It is the season of pollen, and just like the beautiful hazelnut branches full of catkins, these may be banished out of doors if the sneezing begins!
Out of doors, or perhaps to a friend’s home…. But for today, we are enjoying this rare treat of the first vase of spring flowers brightening up our home.
Other Monday Vase posts you might enjoy:
Cathy at Words and Herbs
John at A Walk in the Garden
Susie at pbmGarden
Ricki at Sprig to Twig
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Woodland Gnome 2015
Forest Garden 
I think the flowers that herald spring are among the most satisfying. I’m glad your spring is off to a colorful start!
OH, it is 😉 Thank you for visiting, Kris 😉
Nothing beats narcissus in a vase. I love how you have added the same plants that grow together creating a kind of mini garden in the vase, beautiful!
Thank you, Christina 😉 Thank you for visiting today 😉
Yellow flowers in a blue vase always look stunning and I love your mixture of fresh spring foliage and daffodils and vinca. My vinca started flowering yesterday too! It will need a few more days to form a blue carpet though as it is mostly in shade. Great minds think alike, I am also hoping some of the buds in my vase will open before the daffodils in it go over. 🙂
Did you find that most of the flowers were opening an inch from the ground? I won’t admit to you how long I searched through the vinca for flowers on stems long enough to cut- and those were mostly shorter than 4″. Only 1 vine, in a very warm area near the house, had a flower more than just an inch or so from the soil. Never noticed that before! I’m glad to see the flowers, as you must be as well. Now, I see how much the Vinca needs me to remove the light covering of leaves still blowing down from the nearby Oaks. Then it will shine! I agree with you about yellow flowers in a cobalt vase- and yet, can you imagine flowers which wouldn’t be set off by that gorgeous blue glass? My husband has given me two vases by John Shelton, and I tend to ignore many of the other perfectly good vases around here to reach for those 😉 If your daffies go over before the buds open in your vase, I hope there are plenty more in the garden to cut and bring in for replacements 😉 I like how woody branches give an arrangement longevity as well as structure 😉 Thank you for visiting, Cathy 😉 Happy Tuesday!
My vinca always flowers very close to the ground too but I do have a variegated one in my rockery that is probably a cultivated form and that flowers later with longer stalks and taller growth altogether. Nowhere near enough daffodils though, and Inhesitated to cut those for my vase this week. I am surprised every year how the woodland plants in the spring seem to summon all their strength to get through the debris on the woodland floor and flower without any help from me. The liverwort, vinca, dog violets and wood anemones don’t seem to mind untidiness, thank goodness!
There is an important lesson in there somewhere for us…. I chuckle when I find a pierced oak leaf hanging helplessly in mid air… impaled on daffodil foliage 😉 The spring flowers look so fragile, when they actually are so tough! We had a larger, variegated Vinca in our VA Beach garden… very nice with lovely flowers. I had almost forgotten that, Cathy… thank you for the reminder to keep an eye out for a pot of it this spring 😉
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very beautiful, love spring and all the flowers!!!
Thank you, Michael 😉
Such beautiful flowers! I recognize ‘Ice Follies’ and ‘Jetfire’ – two lovelies I have in my own garden, still sleeping under the snow. I think it’s pretty neat that my gardening season is extended through your posts! 😉
Thank you Eliza- as I will enjoy an elongated spring when you can finally post photos of your own spring garden 😉 There may be some Tet-a-Tet in there as well….
Your lovely blue vase and flowers capture spring itself. Just noticed a bit of color on a redbud here–always a welcome sight. susie
We saw redbuds in bloom in the Chesterfield County area yesterday of Virginia. I can’t imagine why they are blooming there, further west, but not here. I love how intense the color is and how the flowers just magically pop out of the bark 😉 Thank you for the kind words on the vase. We find it totally hypnotic and just enjoy gazing at it. Spring brings its own madness after the long drab winter. Thank you for visiting, Susie 😉
The touches of blue, with their trailing habit, make this arrangement special.
Thank you, Ricki 😉
Being able to walk round nipping and tucking must have been a wonderful experience for you – and how lovely to share some of your freshness in this vase 🙂 Is that a fluorite sphere I see (couldn’t quite make the colour out)? Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, Cathy. The egg on the saucer is Malachite. I love stone eggs this time of year 😉 What made this even better was the friend who showed up while I was cutting. Ah, spring 😉
Oh, is it malachite? I did wonder but of course light reflects in crystals and the colour wasn’t clear. The visit from your friend must have been a real boost
Yes it was 😉 Always nice to have friends stop by, especially friends sharing treats they’ve recently made 😉
Edible treats…? 🙂
Delicious confections made with coconut, almonds, rosewater and pistachios…. They melt in your mouth. She was returning a dish, and lovingly returned it with goodness in it 😉
Yum yum….
How wonderful to have the first blooms displaying in that stunning blue vase.
Thank you, Donna 😉
How lovely! You are ahead of us. Our daffodils haven’t opened yet. They look almost ready.
It couldn’t be by much more than a week… that is where we were last Monday 😉 I hope yours open this week in the sunshine. We just came back from the river… 45 and windy. Brrr.
Way to Go! Flowers and a Vase and Monday. Who could ask for me. Lovely.
Yes, after waiting so long it is pure joy to have flowers in the garden again! Best wishes, WG
Isn’t it lovely to see spring unfurling in our gardens! Your blue vase is perfect for those lovely daffodils.
Yes, and thank you 😉 Thank you for visiting Forest Garden 😉