IOVM: The lightest lavender

I am not a big fan of Hosta flowers. I like them the moment they first appear but end up deadheading the plants long before they're finished flowering.  

August flowering Hosta ' Royal Standard' has huge white flowers that are fragrant so those always get to mature on the plant. 

The Hostas pictured above are growing at the end of the driveway out by the street. Across from them in the traffic island bed are 'Summer Beauty' Alliums. 

This is a popular Allium variety locally and almost every gardener I know is growing it. That's Geranium 'Roxanne' growing in its midst. 

The concrete of the street makes a surprisingly nice backdrop for the Allium flowerheads.

I have enough Alliums that i am free to cut as many as I want for indoors. Last week my vase was mostly Alliums with a few smaller flowered Hosta stems. 

This week is the opposite. Once the Alliums started to fade, I replaced them with large Hosta flowers that are mostly in the bud stage. They lose a lot of that drama as they open to my eye. 

To see what flowers other gardeners have put in a vase this week, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who hosts this Monday meme. 

Comments

[Amelia Grant]

I agree with you about the hosta flowers. However, they look just great in the vase and I covet your Alliums, never gardened anywhere they would grow. Happy Monday.

[Cathy]

Gosh, how easy it is to forget about hosta flowers for a vase, I certainly do - and I certainly forget that some of them are fragrant. I love the stripy petals of the ones you used and they go well with the alliums too

[Nell]

The fragrant, white flowers of Hosta plantaginea are one of the milestones of summer here. The 'August lily' name is well earned: it seems to open on the 1st, and stay in bloom most of the month. Only one day clump will delight us this year, caged against relentless deer chomping; but the sacrificed hostas seemed a small price to pay for (mysterious, but welcome) loss of interest in the daylilies by midseason.

[Nell]

One *fat* clump, that is. I wish the auto-correct would restrict its action to letter combinations that aren't actual words...

[Kris P]

Oh, to have enough Alliums to cut without giving it a second thought! I was disappointed, although not surprised, that even after our promising winter rain, the Alliums that debuted last year in my garden mostly failed to reappear this year. As to hosta flowers, I can't weigh in on those at all as hostas (which I love!) don't last a nano-second here.

[Loree / danger garden]

I too cut the blooms off my hosta before they're even open. I hate them in the garden but actually kind of like them in the house.

[Beth@PlantPostings]

I agree with everything you've said here. The Hosta flowers start to look messy and bedraggled pretty fast, but if you can catch them in bud stage or just opening, they actually have a decent vase life. And, as you know, I'm very fond of 'Summer Beauty' Alliums. They aren't as happy in my garden as they are in yours, but some of them are still holding on.

[Lisa at Greenbow]

I like hosta blooms but they do go into a ratty looking stage quite fast. I love those alliums. My garden is not so hospitable to alliums. Maybe it think those small ones are weeds and pull them out. I like your vases. Happy IAVOM.