Hazel catkins and bay leaves, with houseplants of the week, three tardy hyacinth bulbs – still beautiful though. They promised to flower at Christmas!
All four containers are charity shop finds.
Such a challenge to photograph things well in the gloom, some days it never really gets light at all. I’ve had to ‘brighten’ these pictures quite a bit.
I love the way catkins start as tight little bundles and gradually shake themselves out into fluffy chenille. They will stay looking good for weeks so that one can enjoy spring green leaves bursting forth before very long.
The Bay tree was here when I came to the garden, it has elegantly long thin leaves, smells divine and is currently smothered in buds
Joining in with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for her weekly International Vase party.
I joined the party in May and it is fun looking back at all the vases. I can’t seem to make a photo montage here so I have made my own Vase on Monday Pinterest page. It’s great to see them all together.
For a heady visual feast go to Google images for In a Vase on Monday and see so many of the other fabulous vases
GGorrrrrRRRRggggeeeeooouuSSSsssssssssss!
and also joining in with An English Girl Rambles
and
Cee’s Odd Ball Photo challenge
I played with this in iPhoto and used the ‘Fade’ filter – I’m pleased with the soft pinkish glow.
I think it might have been my Granny growing hyacinths in these special glass jars that turned me on to the magic of gardening as a child – the white roots in water with the light shining through never lose their magic…
…and in black and white:
Can you remember what first sparked your interest in gardening?
Ravelry
Wild Daffodil 
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There is a family story about me squatting in the garden when I could barely speak admiring the ‘ellow waygums some kind of yellow flower. I’ve often wondered what they might have been.
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How cute! I’ve been wondering too. So lovely to have you aboard Wild Daffodil, Welcome! 😄
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The shots of the roots are fascinating.
janet
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Thanks for popping by Janet. Glad you enjoyed the photos.
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These are absolutely gorgeous! I would be very happy to have them at the window to cheer the home on a chilly day. Great photos! I am back from vacation now and have enjoyed visiting your blog. Thanks for so much for linking with Today’s Flowers, and I would like to wish you and your Loved Ones A Very Happy New Year 🙂
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Thank you so much Denise. I ‘m glad to have been introduced to your blog. A very Happy New Year to you and your family too, here’s to a year full of beautiful blooms!
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It does feel a little like spring is on its way doesn’t it – although there is plenty of time for winter to arrive yet! Your spring vases are so uplifting and I love the photos of the hyacinth roots.
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Thank you Julie, as you say plenty of time for winter to arrive. The latest I have known snow here in Dorset, was on 5th. May (1998).
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Lovely vase and hyacinth glasses. I forgot to buy some hyacinth bulbs last year so it’s another one without them, sigh. The catkins are fun – I remember collecting a few twigs to take them home to my mum when I was a child but haven’t seen them growing anywhere near where I now live. Love your photo tweaking 🙂
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That’s a lovely memory. In the early years of my marriage my husband would pick them for me from the hedgerows, they bring back happy memories. So glad you enjoyed my photos – I can lose myself for hours playing around on the computer, nice to share them here.
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Lovely. The hyacinth roots look so healthy in the vases. Must be fun to watch them mature. I like your filtered images today too–it’s fun to play with those features.
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Glad you enjoyed the photos – I do love playing around with them.
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Very creative, I like to see the roots of the Hyacinths coming along – is the Bay used in cooking?
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Yes, I do use the bay for cooking, but it is so pungent I have to be careful not to use too much!
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Love those roots!
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Their my favourite bit!
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Beautiful hyacinth roots! Thanks so much for sharing the love up-close with I Heart Macro… Happy New Year!
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My pleasure Laura, I was glad to find you via Donna (I think!).
Happy New Year!
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Makes one feel really spring-like to see them. I was kind of fascinated by a school biology project on germinating broad beans, but I am now planting (too many) lilacs in memory of the ones I remember at my granny’s house. Thanks so much for the fascinating and beautiful shots.
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Aaaah lilacs, what a lovely memory. We grew those broad beans on blotting paper curled inside a jam-jar, I will do that with my grandchildren this year, thanks for the prompt.
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It’s a lovely early January display. Half the fun of forced bulbs is in the waiting, isn’t it? I enjoyed your Pinterest page too – you’ve managed quite a diverse collection of vases since you joined up. Best wishes for a happy new year!
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Thank you Kris, you are right about the bulbs, and really it is the roots I like best. The flowers are sometimes a bit disappointing, but they then go into the garden and are better there. Happy New Year!
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It looks like you are going to have some wonderful blooms 😀 I love seeing the root systems in the water. 😀
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I do hope so Cee, they are a bit hit and miss grown like this. The root systems are the main attraction for me!
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Oh I had to smile at your hyacinth vases – I have many vintage ones that I have religiously tried growing hyacinths in for years, with virtually no success, telling myself for the last few years I wouldn’t bother again – finally managed it this year so mine are just in pots and the glasses sit and catch the light on windowsills by themselves! Yours are still looking promising so do keep us up to date with their progess. Aren’t catkins, of all sorts, lovely? So tactile. Thank you for sharing today.
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I really do love catkins, and I agree – all sorts are wonderful. According to Bear Grylls you can make tea with Alder catkins, I wonder if that goes for all sorts? I’ve had hyacinth disasters too and missed a few years for the same reason – I grew these really for the grandchildren to see them – I’ll keep you posted.
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My son gave me a tutorial in using seed snap, it’s a free app that you can use to manipulate/improve photos and although I haven’t tried it myself yet the results he got (starting with what I thought were some of my best photos (!) were pretty impressive. I love the promise of Spring in your vases today and I particularly like your sunny daffodily yellow vase. Happy new year WD.
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Thank you HS. Happy New Year to you too! That app sounds very interesting, I’ll have to look into it. That vase was a great buy and cheers up a gloomy day, glad you like it.
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Lovely Daffy, I like the black and white photo of the hyacinth roots, lookd very dramatic! 🙂
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Thank you Eddie. I had fun playing around with the photos – I do love black and white – I love to know which you like best.
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I like the fact that you take several photos to see how things look, or play with effects to change the feel of it. 🙂
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I’m really glad you like to see my experiments with the photos – I do enjoy doing it – however hours can drift by …… !
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Well it is no doubt a fun way to spend a few hours 🙂
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😉
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how lovely to see catkins already – they remind me of my schooldays as there would always be a jar of them on the nature table ….
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Oh yes! the Nature table, that brings back memories. The catkins are so early here this year.
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Wonderful vases. I love seeing those hyacinths…some of mine were already popping up outside with our warm December. And the shots of the roots is so creative and clever….winter finally came here so no spring.
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It is all topsy- turvy here – the hyacinth leaves are peeping up in the garden too. I love the scent of the flowers, so I wish the ones in the house would hurry up! Gosh poor plants in your garden as well, they really will be confused with four seasons coming within one month!
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Delightful Winter/ Spring arrangement with muted background. Bit early for catkins isn’t it? I must look tomorrow when I am on the Common.
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It is a bit early for catkins, but then it’s early for daffodils (which are starting to go over!) and late for geraniums, still flowering by my front door – it’s all gone topsy-turvy around here!
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Super vases again. No catkins here yet. The garden is a swamp! My Granny grew red geraniums in pots. Guess what I grow every year without fail!
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Aaah, Granny’s red geraniums! Isn’t that lovely, it keeps them alive in our hearts in such a beautiful way. ❤
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Love the way you have used the light behind your arrangements. The bay is lovely, and the little flower buds beautiful
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Thank you Noelle, so glad you like the photos. There is something about light through water that appeals. As a child I used to fill small glass bottles with water and food colouring and line them up along my bedroom window-sill.
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Love how you played with your images today and it is lovely to see the hope of spring in your vases.
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Thank you Christina, so glad you enjoyed the post.
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