Poppy Garden - a painting by Karen Mathison Schmidt

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Ever since I bought a  lovely floral/garden print by Rachel Vollerthun I've been on the look out for more garden prints I can put up at home. Bringing the pleasure of flowers indoors. Cottage garden or flower paintings can be a little twee I feel but this one is not. It reminds me of the Californian poppies in my front garden in the height of summer.

This one is called Poppy Garden by Karen Mathison Schmidt, an artist in Louisiana.
Garden and prints can be bought from e-bay. Link below.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/KMSchmidt-16x12-LTD-Ed-PRINT-fauve-impressionist-POPPY-GARDEN-red-yellow-POPPIES/162513968094?hash=item25d6965bde:g:iHAAAOSwxu5ZFj5G












To learn more about me and Caroline's Cottage Gardens please visit my website. https://sites.google.com/site/carolinescottagegardens/

Pots of geraniums for your windowsill - very cheap or free and very easy to grow.

Painting by Susan Savad of Three Pots of Geranium on a Windowsill. Prints available see below.

Hi.

In a previous blog about bringing the garden into my home I showed a picture of an abstract painting of a garden by Rachel Vollerthun which I've just bought and love. Inspired by this I've been searching on the internet for other flower or garden paintings I might also love. I did find this one today.

I found this lovely painting on Fine Art America where they have many sized prints available for as little as £21. Link below.

Fine art america - link to painting of geraniums

One of the reasons I love it is that I've always had geraniums (aka Pelargoniums) on my windowsills in rows of terracotta pots.

They suit my frugal nature  - they an be bought for next to nothing, they are very difficult to kill and survive neglect. They flower most of the year. You will need to take off blooms that are dying by gently pulling off the plant.

You can also make loads more for free. In late summer (or most times of year to be honest) use a sharp knife to cut off the top 8 inches of a new stem. Gently pull off all the leaves apart from two or three small ones at the top. Then bury the stem in a pot of John Innes no 2 compost to about half its depth. No need to use rooting hormone.

I usually use a larger terracotta pot (very cheap) about 8 to 10 inches in diameter and put 3 or 4 such cuttings spaced out in the one pot. I then put in a well lit place but out of direct sunlight which is above 10 degrees C. Water one a week, there is no need to overwater as they store water in their stems.  Within a month or so they will start growing as they will have rooted. 

As they start growing every time a stem gets to about 10 inches tall - cut off the top 2 inches of each stem. This encourages branches to be made and a more well rounded plant with more flowers.

As well as filling your windowsill they make great gifts. They are also a great way to begin to learn gardening - skills learned will be watering, taking cuttings, pinching off tips to encourage branching.

There are loads and loads of varieties to buy. I like allwoods.com where I've bought some before for as little as £3.50 each. They sell traditional geraniums with all colours, ones with variegated leaves and beautifully scented geraniums. Below is a link to their website.

Allwoods Geraniums/Pelargoniums website

To learn more about me and Caroline's Cottage Gardens please visit my website. https://sites.google.com/site/carolinescottagegardens/

Bringing the pleasure of gardens into your home

Hi there

I've been looking for a cottage garden painting for ages to put up in my house - but they are a little too idyllic for my taste.  I've just found the one above and love it - I'm ordering a print of it for my wall at home and the colours give me such a lift!

Yesterday we had an amazing morning looking at the paintings of a local artist Rachel Vollerthun. She uses colour very much as we use colour when we choose plants, mixing and blending and trying things out.

I particularly loved the paintings she had involving flowers and the wonderful colours she uses. The one above seems captures the beauty of a garden but with out some of the potential tweeness of some old cottage garden paintings. I just love it. She has some prints for sale of the above painting and many other originals and prints for you to enjoy and perhaps even buy on her website.

http://www.vollerthun.com/


I came home, got out some inktense pens and tried to recreate some of her ideas. I have a long way to go but so enjoyed it.

Here are some more of her paintings I loved. If you like them too please do share them with your friends via facebook, etc.

When there is not a lot of colour in the garden what a lot of pleasure I get from such pictures. I hope you do too.

Love
Caroline

Key words Colour Garden "Colour schemes", paint, beautiful, "cottage garden" Design "garden design" "working with colour" art Cambridgeshire Gardener "oil painting"

free plants found in first gardening session of the year!

Free plants - Ivy Leaved Toadflax and Golden Marjoram

Good morning

Yesterday morning the weather was brilliant so I headed out for my first gardening session of 2018.

In the sunny border in my front garden which is surrounded by a brick wall and slightly raised I spent time clearing away dead leaves, twigs and cut back the dead growth from plants like Aquilegia and Feverfew. I cut back my Nepeta (cat mint) which is now looking a bit straggly and was cheered to find new growth waiting for spring, I'd only planted it last summer so it was reassuring to see its doing fine.

As I tidied up I found a few seedlings of an Cymbalaria Muralis (Ivy Leaved Toadflax)  an old cottage garden flower.  Last year I had put a mass of them on a tub and they looked lovely. So I put the seedlings by the edge of the wall at the front of the border, grouped together. They should look nice spilling over the low wall in the summer.

I also cut back  a golden marjoram which I have had for many years and is a large clump which had become straggly, again underneath was a mass of young leaves. I love it as it gives a lovely splash of colour to the border all year round. Once it was cut back  around the edge I found a couple of little baby golden marjoram plants that have grown out from the main plant. I dug them up and put them either side of the path to the front door so they spill over the path a little. They should look nice with the welsh poppies, daffodils and yellow aquilegia I have in that area.

Happy freebie hunting

Caroline
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